Who Are You Going to Serve?

Few of us can really survive with divided loyalties.  You can’t be a NY Yankee and Boston Red Sox fan at the same time.  You can’t be a Dallas Cowboy and Pittsburgh Steeler fan at the same time.  It just doesn’t work.  The principle is even more important when we think about who we are going to serve with our life.  Jesus says the following words in Matthew 6:24  24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

At first glance this appears to be a little too harsh a statement from Jesus.  After all, we can work two jobs…we can play on two sports teams…we know how to juggle competing responsibilities.  But if we think of it this way we are missing the point.  Our problem is that we are not understanding the proper use of the word “master” and the verb “serve”.  Yes, you can play on two sports teams and hold down two jobs.  But here the words “master” and “serve” are meant to communicate undivided and total loyalty.  Our problem is with a softening of the word “serve”.  We think of serve as doing things when we can…doing things in a way that might still fit our schedule or agenda.  What Jesus has in mind here is something different.  He is talking about total commitment to a cause.  There is no divided loyalty for a true and genuine servant.  There is only total obedience.

When we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ we go from being a servant or slave of sin to a servant or slave of Jesus.  That is the language of the New Testament.  We will miss the point if we “dumb down” the requirements of what it means to be a servant.  Of course, as a servant of Jesus we can still be on a softball team and still have other interests but everything we do and everything we are comes down to our service for Jesus.  We really cannot serve two masters.

So who will you serve???

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