Who Do You Serve?

It is 18th November, Thursday morning, 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.

“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.” Matthew 6:24

Wow, that is quite straightforward, isn’t it?

We cannot serve two masters - It is either God or its Mammon, Mammon meaning worldly things. We will either despise one or the other. We will either hate the one or love the other. We cannot remain sitting on the fence. It can be very uncomfortable, especially if it is a barbed-wire fence!

The rich young ruler had to make a choice and he chose the way of Mammon. If we look at the word of God in Luke 18:23, the Bible tells us:

“But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”

You see this young man kept all the laws, he went to church, he paid his tithe, he did everything he had to do but then Jesus tested him you see... He said, “Well then, I want you to sell all you have and distribute to the poor, and then you will have treasure in Heaven and then come and follow me.”

I think Jesus was simply testing his loyalty. I don’t believe for a moment that Jesus has any problem with a person being rich because He had many rich friends. In fact, it was a rich man that took His body off the cross, Joseph of Arimathea... but He was testing his loyalty and the man had to make a choice, he chose to follow after his riches.

You know, I believe with all my heart if that rich man had said, “Yes Lord, I will give you everything I have,” the Lord would have given it straight back to him because the Lord doesn’t need his money. But the Lord Jesus let him walk away to a lost eternity, as one teacher told me a long time ago - He believes Jesus was standing there and the tears were coursing down His cheeks as He saw the young man, walked to a lost eternity.

I want to say to you today that it doesn’t matter what it is, it might not even be riches but if anything is more important to you than the Lord Jesus Christ it becomes an idol and it must be dealt with, today. We must put Jesus Christ first and foremost in our lives.

Have a wonderful day as you serve the Master. He is a good Master, He is gentle and He is full of love.
Goodbye.