Matthew 6:19-24

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.

These directions of our LORD are so very plain that they need no comment. I detain the Reader, however, just to ask, the question, not to decide upon that verse: if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Doth not JESUS allude to that kind of head-knowledge, void of heart-influence, which devils and some men possess; whereby they have a clear apprehension of the great truths of GOD, but no affection towards them. Such was that of Balaam. Numbers 24:3. His eyes (he saith himself) were opened, but no regeneration of heart. He knew the LORD, but felt no love towards him. The devils in the days of our LORD gave the same testimony. We know thee who thou art, the HOLY ONE of GOD! Luke 4:33. But Balaam, in the midst of this knowledge, hired himself out to curse the people of GOD. And devils remain devils with the full conviction of the GODHEAD of CHRIST, and his great salvation upon them. Reader! think what an awful state, to have an historical head-knowledge of the LORD JESUS only; void of a life-giving, soul-renewing grace, from the Spirit of Christ! And what increased sorrows will this very knowledge induce in another world?