Jesus' Third Instruction for Overcoming the Daily Evil: Choose the Right Master

(Matthew 6:24 DKJV) “No one can serve as a slave to two masters; for either he will hate one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve as a slave to both God and mammon.”

Jesus boldly declared a very powerful principle in this statement: you cannot serve two masters. He implied that we have to choose to serve either God or mammon.

The Bible shows us that God is a real, personal, distinct, moral, spiritual being who thinks, feels, chooses, and speaks. Therefore, the idea of serving him as a slave is easy to understand; he can think, make decisions about what he wants us to do, and communicate them to us. What does this say about mammon? If Jesus said that it is possible for us to choose him as a master, then he too must be able to think, make decisions, and communicate them. Yes, Jesus is talking to us about a personal, living, thinking—but absolutely wicked—spiritual being. He is a complete counterfeit master or lord. Jesus calls him the “ruler of this world,” Paul calls him the “god of this world,” and John says he is the “evil one”—the controller of the whole world system:

(John 14:30 LITV) I shall no longer speak many things with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

(2 Corinthians 4:4 MKJV) In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ (who is the image of God) should not dawn on them.

(1 John 5:19 ISV) We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one.

Mammon is a personal enemy, an evil, daily, wrestling opponent:

(Ephesians 6:12 EMTV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

Jesus said that serving both God and mammon simultaneously is impossible. Then he gave a “do not” command: “don’t be distracted by thoughts about your life …” By saying, “don’t,” Jesus is giving us a directive, calling for our obedience. If we do not obey Jesus saying “don’t,” then by default, we are obeying someone else—mammon, who must be saying, “Do be distracted by thoughts about your life.” Therefore, we have a level of responsibility in this. In other words, God left it up to us to decide if we will serve him or mammon?

Remember, Jesus doesn’t merely say it is difficult to have a foot in both camps; he said it is completely unworkable. Therefore, we would be wise to make a deliberate conscious decision about whom we will serve. If we don’t make it consciously, we could foolishly allow ourselves to make it subconsciously; or worse still, to have someone else make it for us. So, whom do you choose for your master—God or mammon?

To clarify and apply what Jesus means when he challenges us with this decision, let’s first investigate what he means when he says, “Serve as a slave … to God” (Mat. 6:24 DKJV). From what we have already seen, we could summarize this as:

Partake exclusively of the Tree of Life,

Obey God’s directives in simple child-like faith,

In particular, treasure up your treasures in heaven,

Then you will have your heart anchored in heaven,

As a result, you will find it easier to have a healthy eye—one which is single-focused on God and on his system, and

Then you will have all the light and revelation you need for your whole life—including keys for the whole kingdom.

Don’t Serve Mammon

What then is serving as a slave to mammon? To answer this, we read on. We note that Jesus followed his warning about serving mammon with the words, “therefore … don’t.” This implies that he is now about to bring a practical application of what serving mammon is all about—or how to avoid serving him:

(Matthew 6:25 DKJV) “Therefore I say to you, don’t be distracted by thoughts about your life—what you will eat and drink; nor about your body—what you will put on. Isn’t life more than food, and the body than clothing?”

Submission to the counterfeit lord, “mammon,” involves allowing him to distract your mental focus (shifting it from heaven and its revelations) with “thoughts about your life.” We must ensure that we know precisely what Jesus meant when he said this.

The original Greek word translated here as “distracted by thoughts,” is translated as “take no thought” in the kjv and as “do not worry” in the niv. The Literal Translation of the Holy Bible has it as, “Do not be anxious." The original Greek word means “anxious” from the idea of thoughts that distract, part, or partition your mind. Therefore, we see that mammon’s objective is to divide our thinking. We note here what the Holy Spirit says in James’s epistle along this line:

(James 1:8 KJV) A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

(James 4:8 ESV) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Mammon injects thoughts into our intellect with the objective of putting us in two minds about what God says. He wants us to be distracted from our single focus on heaven and its revelation. He wants to introduce doubt about the wisdom of trusting God enough to obey him. In other words, Mammon tries to get us “off balance” in our thinking, so to speak. Scripture calls this being “double-minded”; it makes us “unstable” in all our ways, and completely prevents us receiving from God. It is a simple strategy, but one with devastating consequences—if we allow it to dominate us.

(James 1:7 ISV) Such a person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

If we become the “such a person” that James refers to, Satan achieves his objective; his kingdom is safe from the threat of having God intervene in earth’s domain. This is because God’s kingdom comes to earth replacing Satan’s when we hear God speak his word into our heart, perceive revelation from it, grow it as a seed to harvest, and act on it. If we do, we will “receive” something “from the Lord”; God’s kingdom will increase, and the devil’s will decrease.

Serving mammon obviously implies submitting to him and going completely his way. Probably none of us would consciously choose to serve the devil if blatantly confronted with that option. However, Jesus is warning us about a less overt way of surrendering to him; it involves allowing him to distract our thinking to the point where we become “double-minded.” This applies when your thinking becomes divided between God’s way and your own, which equals the world’s (the devil’s) way. This wavering between two opinions is deadly: it cuts you off from the flow of God’s life, and results in you becoming unstable in all your ways; it frustrates God’s objective of expressing his love to you, and it hinders his kingdom’s rule on earth.

Today, let’s be determined to avoid the focus-breaking distractions of Satan under the guise of mammon. No matter how testing and potentially worrying the pressures become, let’s fight the temptations to drop our faith and pick up the anxious, demonically empowered, worries that lead to trying to meet our own needs and solve our own problems. Our sole focus and heart anchor must be in God, Jesus, heaven and his kingdom. Always be looking for revelation from there to solve every need and problem. Do not be distracted by thoughts about your life!