Post #638365

“No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money. -Matthew 6:24 When I was in boot camp, there were a lot of times where the RDCs (recruit division commanders, Navy drill instructors) would mess with our heads. They would give us contradictory orders in order to make sure we had the force of will to make tough decisions and not crack under stress. You could be standing watch, and one of them would threaten that your life was at risk if you did not greet whatever Petty Officer or Chief walked through the door to the compartment you were standing by. Then, another RDC could tell you that the inspector is coming and you had better shut your mouth when he arrives or there will be dire punishment for you. Both RDCs had equal rank and had equal authority over you. Simultaneously you had contradictory orders that were both lawful. If you spoke the greeting to the inspector, you got in trouble; if you stayed silent, you got in trouble. But here is the hard part: you cannot pick a *neither* option. You had to obey one of them, and accept that obedience to one constituted disobedience to the other. You would get in trouble and do pushups till you puked either way. So it is with Christ's saying here. Though God is infinitely higher than anything else, from the ground level we must make a choice as to who our master is. If you follow God, He will have you do and say and believe things that enrage the world and violate the world's morality; yet you will be alive to Him, receiving blessings here and eternal life in the age to come. If you follow some worldly thing instead of God, then the world will demand you sin and blaspheme and hold to false beliefs, but it will "reward" you with some temporary earthly perks. You cannot choose to do both. To follow one means to be punished by the other. Follow God, and the world will persecute you. Follow the world, and God will sentence you to eternal damnation. If you *try* to be both, Christ says here that naturally you will end up serving only one. The wise man chooses to follow our Lord. Christ says you cannot serve God and money. Do not misunderstand - He says "money" as an example of the different worldly things people worship. You cannot be a "money-first Christian" the same way you cannot be a "race-first Christian" or an "ideology-first Christian" or a "sex-first" Christian. This occurs for sinful lifestyles quite frequently too. It is for this reason that the "celibate homosexual Christians" are more often damned than not, because their homosexual advocacy is clearly an attempt to serve two masters - and when it comes to it, they love their gayness too much to repent of it. Of course, many things people focus on are not sins in and of themselves. Having money isn't a sin, and neither is advocating for your race's well being or wanting to get married. Jesus will go on to say that our Father knows what you need and you can entrust these matters to Him. But God must be first, foremost, and preeminent in your life before they are even considered. Anything else is idolatry.