Luke 16:13(NKJV) 13“No servant 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.”
We are currently studying the principles of divine prosperity. Yesterday was September 11, 2010, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. There is a spiritual principle that says, “all truth is parallel. What happens in the natural is parallel to something that is happening in the spirit. Although terrorists had long hated and targeted America and American influence, September 11 was an escalation in their war against the United States. I believe this parallels an escalation in a spiritual war as well. The spiritual war is not between competing ideologies or religions. It is a war between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light.
This is not a new war. It has been going on since the devil’s rebellion against God in heaven. It continued through the Old Testament age. The most significant battle of this war was fought between Jesus and the devil in his death, burial and resurrection. From that time until now the kingdom of darkness has been moving to restore its hold upon man. Christianity is the only thing that can keep man free from the bondage of the devil. Underneath all conflicts in the natural world, you will find some way in which the spiritual conflict is reflected. September 11, 2001 marked a new phase in the war between darkness and light.
What does all this have to do with divine prosperity in your life? In wartime, the emphases in life changes. Everything becomes about winning the war. This is a major battle in the war against darkness. It may be the most blatant battle between these two forces since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is using everything at his disposal to defeat the kingdom of darkness and minimize its influence in the earth. That includes you and me. It also includes our prosperity. God wants to prosper us so that we can attack the kingdom of darkness. God wants to prosper us so that we can display the glory of the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of the one true God.
In today’s verse, I believe we find a major key to releasing this prosperity in our day. Jesus says you cannot serve two masters. The word master here means “controller or controlling influence.” There cannot be two controlling influences in our lives. He says we can love and be loyal to only one.
If there is a second controlling influence, it will cause us to hate or resent the first. We will find ourselves betraying the first master while we try to serve the second. It is possible to balance the two for a time, but eventually we will find the opposing requirements of the two masters cannot coexist. We will be forced to choose which one we will serve.
We know that one of the masters Jesus is referring to is himself. Jesus is the Lord of the church. He is the only one who should be controlling a believer. Who is this other master to whom Jesus is referring? Jesus calls it mammon. We are not familiar with this word. The New Living Translation calls this second potential master money. When we quote this verse we often say, “You cannot serve both God and money.” However, Jesus did not call this master money he called it mammon.
Strong’s Greek English Dictionary defines mammon two ways. First, mammon is wealth personified. I find this very interesting in view of our cultural view of wealth. It is the source of self-esteem, power and all things “beautiful” or it is the source of all things evil. Many in our society hold one or the other of these views. In either case, I can see this as a personification of wealth.
The second definition is avarice, or greed, deified. If wealth personified does not define our culture, than greed deified surely does. There are many who cry out against the oppression of the poor and the greed of the rich. Most of these people either are rich or want to be rich. Greed is looking at what someone else has and desiring that thing for yourself. No matter what your political persuasion or social position may be, I believe we can see this master gaining control throughout our society.
In both of these definitions, mammon is a person. I believe what we are seeing is a god, a demonic manifestation of the devil, who is trying to control our world. He is particularly trying to control the church. The devil knows that if the church breaks free from this master, we will be unstoppable in the current economic climate. We will have access to the resources of the Kingdom of God. We will not be limited the way the world is limited. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and, as one brother put it, “the tators under them.” It is God’s purpose to give us access to those resources.
How do we serve the God of mammon? A Christian can serve the God of mammon in two ways. The first way is to pursue wealth at the expense of the Kingdom of God and its principles. If we compromise the Bible in any way to gain wealth, we are serving the God of mammon. Remember, Jesus makes a very definitive statement about this. You cannot serve them both. If you serve mammon by giving it a controlling place in your life you will compromise you loyalty to the Lord and you will find your love for him growing cold.
The second way we serve mammon is more subtle. When I am so bound by lack that I must make my decisions based on money, I am serving the God of mammon. If my faith in God’s provision is not sufficient to overcome a lack of resources in order to obey God, I am serving mammon. The first type of service is more active and more sinful. The second type of service is not necessarily sinful, but it is just as paralyzing to the Kingdom of God.
This week we are going to look at some ways we can break the power of the God of mammon in our lives. First, let us make a declaration before the Lord. Put these words in your mouth. “I will not serve the God of mammon. I have only one master. I will stand by faith in his provision and pull down this false master in my life. Jesus is my one and only Lord and Master.”
With this thought in place, we can attack the God of mammon in our personal lives, in our church, in our community and in our world.
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