Question:
The Bible says: “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 mammon¹.” (Matthew 6:24)
Yet Christians go to work Monday to Friday for money.
I don’t get it sir.
Answer:
I think you didn’t get the meaning of this verse because you took it literally and out of context with the previous verses.
And maybe you also misunderstood the word mammon¹, as many think it just means money
From Matthew 6:19-21 we can already understand that Jesus is not speaking of material wealth to store in heaven,
• but of spiritual wealth.
• A spiritual wealth that cannot be destroyed by moth or rust,
• a wealth that will not decay.
• A spiritual wealth that cannot be stolen from you.
Matthew 6:19-21
¹⁹Do not store up for yourselves [material] treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves [spiritual] treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; ²¹for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
▪︎ So when your heart is set on material wealth, there will not at the same time room for love towards God.
▪︎ When you put your confidence in your possessions, or in your wealth, you cannot at the same time put your confidence in God.
When we now look at verse 24 it becomes clear that Jesus did not mean to say that people were not to work for their living.
But what was included in His word, is that if you have love for money, or confidence in your possessions, that that is conflicting with your love towards God.
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
In the Bible we also read warnings:
In 1 Timothy 6:10
For the LOVE OF MONEY is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5
¹But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ²For men will be lovers of self, LOVERS OF MONEY, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
And in Hebrews 13:5
Make sure that your character is free from the LOVE OF MONEY, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
¹ The word mammon is of Aramaic origin meaning confidence, i.e. personified wealth, or treasure or riches (where it is personified and opposed to God)
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