May 9

The Love of Money

No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. — Matt 6:24 BSB

We should carefully consider the meaning of these words, remembering that it was our Lord who spoke them. “Mammon” means wealth, and “serve” means to be enslaved by. Paul loved to call himself a servant, or slave, of Christ. But Jesus tells us here that we cannot be slaves to both God and wealth. We can’t belong to two masters at once. If we’re enslaved to wealth, we aren’t God’s servant. If we belong to God, wealth can’t be our master.

Think about how degrading it is for anyone made in the image of God to be enslaved to money. Even in the gentlest sense of the word, no one should ever be a servant of money. Riches are meant to be our servant. How humiliating it is for someone to become a servant to their own servant! A person should be ashamed to call money their master.

Money is supposed to serve us, and as long as we control it, it can be a blessing and a tool to do good. But when we bow down to it, crawl in the dirt for it, and sell our souls to obtain it, it becomes a curse. It’s clear why anyone who serves God can’t serve wealth. God requires all our hearts and rules over our entire lives. He will not share His throne with the god of gold.

God’s true servants may have wealth, and some may even be very rich, but they must use their money to honor God and bless the world in Christ’s name. They must own the money; the money must not own them. It should be in their hands, not their hearts. This is a vital lesson for us to learn. Many Christians are in danger of abandoning the sweet, blessed service of Christ for the servitude and slavery to wealth.