- You Cannot Serve Two Masters/Ye cannot serve God and mammon - Luke 16:13 lays down an important biblical axiom. This verse along with its counterpart in Mat 6:24 highlight the gigantic fact that every human being is in one of two spiritual kingdoms – the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ or the kingdom of Satan. There is no middle ground! Notice the opposites – love and hate. Jam 4:4 fearfully warns against the love for the World. The “world” is well-defined in 1 John 2:15-17. The kingdom that a person is in actually dominates, or drives, his life with unyielding force. It is rooted in his soul and influences his every thought, word, and action.
Luke 16:13 “No servant 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.”
Matt 6:24 “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.”
Jam 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity [or hatred] with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
- Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also - Whatever is of utmost value to a person will receive the greatest amount of attention in terms of time, labor, and money. It is that which consumes our thoughts, is the object of our words, embodies our hopes, shapes our goals, molds our future, and ultimately gives meaning and purpose to life. In essence, one will either be serving Christ in the Kingdom of God or Satan and his kingdom.
Mat 6:19-24 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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.”
Luke 12:16-21 “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Heb 11:24-26 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”
- Good treasure of the heart brings forth that which is good - Of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaks. Those whose heart have been circumcised (Eze 36:25-27, Rom 2:29) and have been placed in the Kingdom of God by God Himself, identify with Eph 2:8-10. They will, in turn, be speaking about the Bible and the Gospel of Salvation. Their meat and drink will be the Word of God.
Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Eph 2:8-10 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
1 Cor 2:6-7 “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:”
1 Cor 2:13 “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
2 Cor 4:13 “We having the same spirit of faith [or the Spirit of Truth], according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”
- Evil treasure of the heart brings forth that which is Evil - Likewise those who are under Satan’s control also speak and act according to their spirit – in other words, “the spirit of the world”or “the spirit of error”. They speak in their own wisdom or the wisdom of the World and NOT in the Wisdom of the Bible. That spirit is typified by the rich man of Luke 12:16-19. As “bread of heaven” and “living water” typify the true Gospel (sin, righteousness and judgement) on which believers will be feeding on, eating and drinking in Luke 17 also typify the false Gospels (health and wealth and prosperity) rampant today, on which unsaved will be feeding on.
1 Sam 24:13 “As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked [unsaved]…”
Luke 12:16-19 “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
Psa 52:1-7 “Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually. 2Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 3Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. 4Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. 5God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living [heaven]. Selah. 6The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him: 7Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
- Sources of Entanglements - The caution given in 2 Tim 2:4 is to NOT become “entangled with the affairs of this life”. What are the “affairs” of this life? A very real and insidious problem of life on this sin-cursed earth is that we can became captivated by “… all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. Luke 17:26-29 has a fitting commentary of our day. Spiritually speaking, this underscores the duty of all believers to sacrificially publish the Gospel as widely as possible until the Lord returns - use our money or riches of the world for the kingdom of God. Could it be that God might so work in each of us that we might affirm along with the Apostle Paul the words of 2 Tim 4:7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”
2 Pet 2:20 “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.”
2 Tim 4:10 “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica…”
Luke 17:26-29 “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
Luke 16:9-11 “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness [make believers by using worldly riches to send forth Gospel]; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. 10He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. 11If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon [worldly], who will commit to your trust the true riches [heavenly]?”
Luke 19:31 “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come [entangled with proclaiming Gospel].”
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