01.17. The Sermon on the Mount (25)

The Sermon on the Mount (25) No man can serve two masters

Matthew 6:24 In Matthew 6:19-24 the Lord Jesus warns His disciples against striving for earthly treasures but also against undivided affections. He sums it all up in the last verse: ’No man can serve two masters...’ This utterance and many other words of the Bible have become proverbial sayings. Every reasonable man in this world knows that one cannot at the same time put his interests and his energy into two opposite goals. The Disciple as a Servant of God The Lord Jesus here speaks of masters and of serving. We read in the parallel passage in Luke 16:13 ’No servant can serve two masters.’ With this illustration the Lord Jesus expresses that man is not his own master but he is a servant. By nature every man is a servant of sin (Romans 6:17) and unable to serve God. But now every believer on the Lord Jesus has become his purchased property and has therefore also become his and God’s ’slave’. And yet the disciple’s relation to his master is not that of a servant. No, as a matter of fact, it is as the Lord Jesus said to His disciples already before His death on the cross: ’Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you’ (John 15:15). After His redemption-work the Lord even called the disciples His brethren because henceforth all who receive Him in faith become children of God and sons of His Father. Are these not unique and high spiritual privileges? And for this reason a true disciple’s aim for his life is ’to serve the living and true God’ (1 Thessalonians 1:9). The Attitude of our Heart The words ’No one can serve two masters’ are a general principle which the Lord Jesus then explains. In the last part of the verse He addresses His disciples personally and says plainly: ’Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ As already mentioned in Matthew 6:21 the heart is spoken of much more than the outward appearance. This is why the Lord Jesus speaks of hating and loving and then of holding and despising. Thus we see that hatred and love point out the attitude of heart which is revealed in despising or holding. There is no middle path.

Elijah the prophet had to call out to the Israelites who professed Jehovah as God but at the same time wanted to serve Baal: ’How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him’ (1 Kings 18:21). In the New Testament the Apostle Paul underlines his warning not to be in an unequal yoke with the words: ’For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?’ (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). James writes: ’Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God’ (James 4:4).

We recognise that our verse speaks of the attitude of the heart because the Lord Jesus speaks of hatred and love. Love to Him as the characteristic of the new life will be seen in obedience and readiness to serve him. There will be no room for another ’master’ then. As the adversary makes enticing offers to the flesh he will be hated. Yet this hating is not a reaction of the old nature but of the new. The new nature is revealed by deeply despising all evil (see Romans 7:15; Jude 1:23). On the other hand a man living in darkness and far from God cannot love Him but only hate Him, just as he hates God’s light (John 3:20; John 15:24).

God or Mammon The last words of the paragraph are: ’Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ As disciples of the Lord Jesus we are called to follow him and to serve God. Together with this high calling it cannot be suffered to serve another master, ’mammon’. This is simply impossible. So there is no middle road in this connection! And yet the human heart is inclined to look for such a way repeatedly. But the Word of God warns us against it and our own experience will confirm it if we are honest. The exact origin of the word ’mammon’ is uncertain. Generally it is said to be an Aramaic word meaning fortune, property. Others see it derives from another Semitic tongue (Phoenician-punian or Syrian). In any case it does not stand for an idol’s name but stands for a word which the ancient Jews already understood as the essence of money and property. The writers of the New Testament left this word untranslated as they did with many other expressions. (At the time of the Lord Jesus Aramaic was the used and spoken language in Palestine. The New Testament however is written in Greek). So by means of the Bible ’mammon’ has become a derogatory expression for money. In the New Testament the word only appears here and in Luke 16:9; Luke 11:1-54; Luke 13:1-35. The Lord Jesus had already forcefully warned his disciples against laying up earthly treasures in the Matthew 6:19-21. With the words ’Ye cannot serve God and mammon’ he most clearly stresses that laying up money and property is a sign of an evil attitude of heart and therefore idolatry (see Colossians 3:5). But the disciple whose heart is filled with unbelieving worry about tomorrow is serving-although perhaps unknowingly-mammon. This the Lord Jesus will go into in the following verses.