Serving Two Masters

 

Scripture: Luke 16:13-15 (NIV)

¹³ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵ He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

 

Devotion:

            “Choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15) The question that Joshua asked the nation of Israel many years ago is still relevant to us today. In Jesus words in today’s scripture, he asks the people to choose who will be their master. God or money. As we look around culture today, we see that a vast majority of people in this country have chosen to serve money. We see people who are in the service of their desires for material possessions. We are told by our culture that we need to have the latest iPhone or other device that is supposed to make life easier and more fulfilling but instead these things become our masters and we are put to hard work in their service.

            The call to sacrifice any material comfort for the sake of the Gospel is seen as old fashioned and not worth doing. People in this day and age treat the church like a vending machine that dispenses religious goods and services. We think only about what we get (or don’t get) from church as a measure of the church’s value. We change churches if our present one isn’t meeting some need of ours. Church has tragically become all about us and not about worshiping the God who created us.

            We need to turn around because the direction we are heading in our lives will end up in a spiritual shipwreck. To quote Jesus from the above passage “what people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.” The Greek word for detestable is a very strong word for something that is abhorrent. The things which culture values are, in fact, evil and terrible in God’s eyes. Our fixation on material goods will never satisfy us because we are not created to be material beings only.

            We were created by God to be rulers of the material world. We have instead become its slaves. Meanwhile, our spiritual nature desires God and can only be satisfied by him. We can never be content by accumulating wealth and material possessions. Those shiny objects that we think we own in reality end up owning us. We feel trapped and unhappy, and we do not even know why. That is why we must be freed from our own greed. We must trust in Jesus, and he must become our most treasured possession. Jesus says his “yoke is easy and his burden light” (Matthew 11:30). Let us rely on God to free us from our dependence on possessions and take up the yoke of Jesus.

Prayer:

            Dear Jesus hear our plea. Free us from our attachment to the things of this world. Let us take up your yoke. Help us walk in your ways that we may be content and free from the desire for more money and things. Let us be freed from all earthly attachments so that we may serve you and you only. Amen.