More Than One Master? Series

More than one master?

We read like this in Matthew 6:24, “No man is able to be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other, or he will keep to one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth.” (BBE)

In the above mentioned verse, Jesus talks about two masters – one is God and the other money and wealth and His teaching was resolute, no one can serve two masters. The reason for this is that it is humanly impossible for anyone to serve two masters at the same time. Therefore, what countless people do, including believers is they let God be their master only on Sundays and let money have mastery over them for the rest of the week. They also try to juggle and balance their allegiance to God and money and eventually make them two distinct entities that will never intersect. However, the Lord establishes to us through His word that this sort of dual loyalty is certainly impossible as we will end up loving one and hating the other.It is indeed true that if we are a friend of God, by default we become an enemy of the world and vice versa if we don’t become an enemy of the world, we are not a friend of God. If we find ourselves taking God for granted, neglecting the fellowship of believers and prioritizing other things it is a definite pointer that we are serving some other master and not God Himself.

We have been looking at various things that enslave people in the previous chapters and also how the Lord desires for each one of us to be set free from every bondage. The assurance we receive from the Lord as we studied earlier is that, “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 (NRSV)

Money a bad Master

One of the important areas that Jesus spoke a lot about was the enslavement to money and material possessions. Most people will not like to acknowledge that they are enthralled by money and material things. Money is essential for our basic needs and daily living, but we should be wary to not let money become our master. When money starts to dictate how we live and what we do, then money becomes our master. Many believers are lukewarm only because they are trying hard to please God and at the same time have also set their hearts on loving money.

The perils of loving Money

We read in 1 Timothy 6:10,“For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.” (GNB)

If we delve deep into the matter we will very often find that the root of many problems is money. Having money and being careful in spending money is okay, but if money is all that is on our mind and we are obsessed by it then it is definitely a problem. 1 Timothy 6:10 is very categorical that the love for money is the root problem for all sorts of evil and when money becomes our master we will surely go far away from the Lord. The outcome has also been clearly spelt out – many having been driven by this desire to get rich have pierced themselves with many sorrows. We may have heard and read numerous accounts of people who wanting to multiply their money overnight, have trusted in various schemes and were cheated of everything they invested.

Judas Iscariot – Mastered by Money, he betrays His Master

Let’s look at Luke 6:12 – 13, “At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God. When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles:”

The Lord Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before he chose his twelve disciples. All of them spent three and half years with Jesus. They were witnesses to all the miraculous signs and wonders Jesus performed. However Judas Iscariot who was one of the chosen twelve, let money became his master.

Look at what Judas Iscariot was doing in Matthew 26:14 – 15, “Then one of the twelve disciples---the one named Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and asked, "What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?" They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.” (GNB)

Though Judas Iscariot had been with Jesus, he did not recognize Him as his master but instead was enslaved by his love for money. He went and negotiated with the chief priests and elders and sets a price money of 30 pieces of silver to betray the one who had chosen him, loved him, taught him and cared for him for three and half years. The deal was clinched but the moment Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, he was so filled with regret, and shame and remorse that he actually ran back and literally threw the money back at the ones who gave it to him. Sadly it was too late. They refused to accept it and the money that so captivated and controlled Judas did not benefit him or anyone else. The end of Judas was tragic and pathetic.