Matthew 6:24

THE TWO MASTERS

‘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

This is one of those passages which are very hard to preach upon honestly, making the words mean what they do, and refraining from making them seem to mean what they do not.

I. The sanctification of labour.—Jesus Christ, Who made men to live together, and to live by their labour, and Who so ordered the world that men should have to lay up to-day what would be wanted to-morrow—sow in order to reap, gather in summer what would not be given in winter—He, Who appointed all this, spoke these words for the instruction of men who, He knew, would have to live by their business and by their looking forward; and He spake them not only for those who first heard them, but for all generations to the end of time. To the first-called, indeed, those sharp, stern words, ‘No man can serve two masters,’ ‘Take no thought for the morrow,’ ‘Take no thought for your life,’ had the most literal meaning which they could have. But Christ did not mean His Gospel to be always beginning, always a time of introducing His religion to the world. When the Apostles’ work was done, and the Gospel had taken possession of whole nations, men who had learned the great lesson about Christ and everlasting life were to return to their work and ordinary employment. The world was still to go on; and it can only go on by men being busy and provident, by their labouring each at his trade, and, as it is called, making money. Our Lord did not mean to abolish and condemn labour and business. What He meant to do was to fill it all with His Heavenly Spirit, to purify, sanctify, to direct it to its true end.

II. The essence of Christianity.—But He did not speak in vain when He said: ‘No man can serve two masters’; ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’; ‘Take no thought for the morrow.’ He did not speak them merely for those who were to have the hard and painful work of setting up the beginnings of the Church; He spake them for Christians of quiet and settled times as well; and perhaps they are more solemn in their living and eternal meaning to us, who are not meant to fulfil them literally. Worldliness was not likely to be the special temptation of those who had (literally) given up all they had, and were going to die for Christ, but to those who are called to live a busy life in the world, whose duty it is to guide its affairs, to provide for their families. His words throw a responsibility upon us to live after their true spirit, and supply a test, which is continually making proof of the earnestness of our conscience. They remind us that the Gospel is a religion which was founded on the sacrifice of all that the world holds dear. Sacrifice of self, of will, of pleasure, of hope.

III. Our home not here.—These words remind us, also, that our religion is one in which this world is absolutely as nothing in comparison with the world to come. Our home is not here. The will, the whole Will of God will be done, must be done there. No one there can serve two masters, and the time, during which it is possible to try and do it here, is as nothing compared to that eternity in which we shall have to take the consequences and lament our folly.

—Dean Church.

Illustration

‘Are you not, at this moment, trying to give a divided service, and therefore are you not living a double life? You try to combine spiritual things with secular. Each has its plan, its time, its consideration. Now, it is an earthly object; now, it is a heavenly. Christ here, the world there. Your aim and intention is to compass both—to please both, to enjoy both. You know how differently you feel, and speak, and act, according to the circumstances in which you are placed. You wish to serve and enjoy God—you wish to serve and enjoy this present life—as much as you possibly can. So it comes to pass, that a divided service is making a double life? Now, what is a double life in the sight of Almighty God? He does not acknowledge it; He declares it is an impossibility. The far end, the centre of thought, the chief delight, determines who the master is. The master can only be one. And, your conscience being judge, if “the world” is uppermost, “the world” is your master; and if you serve “the world” you cannot serve God!’