No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or
else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon,
Matthew 6:24.
When the world comes into our religion, or when religion comes into the world; they are
both spoiled. I remember an illustration of two men who were going to spend the weekend on
a yacht. One planned to spend the time at a prayer meeting, the other one would spend his
weekend partying. Somehow, they both got on the wrong boat; they both had a miserable
weekend. The one that went for the prayer meeting didn't enjoy the party; the one that
went for the party didn't enjoy the prayer meeting. They were both spoiled.
When you get religion into the world, it is obnoxious to the world. When you put the
world into your religion, it is as obnoxious to the Lord. You have spoiled both of them.
This is what Jesus is telling us in our verse. We cannot serve God and mammon.
The word mammon does not come from the Greek, Hebrew or English. It is a Syrac word
that signifies gain; it is not limited to financial gain. So, whatever we count as gain in
this life is mammon.
Let's study this subject with the Apostle Paul. Read PHI 3:3-8 to see which items under
normal circumstances would be counted as gain that Paul counts as loss. Such a spirit of
self-sacrifice is serving God.
Whatsoever is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride
of life, is mammon. It is not only the love of money; it is anything upon which we claim
gain. If we are going to be a Pharisee, a church-going person, claiming that by this, and
this, and this which we have done in our life, by the works of the law, we can claim
justification, it's mammon. We cannot serve God for gain; we must serve Him out of love
for His glory.
The Apostle Paul says, "No, we cannot serve God for gain." He is saying he
was a Pharisee and all of these things he had done for gain, they were done to merit, to
gain something for himself, but after he came to the light he said, "But what things
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." After we have received a knowledge
of Christ, we do nothing to gain by our own merit, but we do everything out of love. We do
alms as a way of serving the Lord, not for gain.
