Who Do You Serve?

"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

Jesus spoke with all authority as the Son of God.  This is one of many absolute, simple statements we nod our heads in agreement with but in practice resist or reject as untrue.  We think we are able to do what Jesus said no one can do:  that we effectively can serve two masters.  The truth is we can pretend to serve many masters at once, but we cannot serve any of them fully.  I had an experience yesterday that illustrates this well.

Yesterday I did something a bit different and threw a small brisket on the BBQ.  It was a low and slow cook and historically I have always used the BBQ hood thermometer as the gauge I refer to.  This time I used a temperature probe to monitor the heat level because this prevented me from needing to go outside and check it.  It is convenient because I can work at my desk and have a real-time readout of the temperature of the BBQ as well as the internal temperature of the meat.  Generally the thermometer on the BBQ is not nearly as accurate as the probe and there can be a large discrepancy between them.  This was the case yesterday of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

George Thorogood sung, "Who do you love?" and I needed to ask myself, "Which thermometer do I trust?"  Would I go with the BBQ thermometer or the Thermopro?  Previously I had decent results by relying upon the BBQ hood, but digital probes tend to be more accurate.  I was tempted to adjust the heat to land in the middle, yet doing so was a clear indication I really didn't trust either of them.  So I went with the Thermopro reading and disregarded the BBQ thermometer.  This is a point Jesus was making:  it is impossible to serve two masters at the same time.  A master demanded total obedience, loyalty and love of his servants, and no master will be pleased with a servant with divided allegiance.  If they have divided loyalty, are they really serving him whilst moonlighting for another master or themselves?

Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon."  "Mammon" is a word we never use today but what it represents is prevalent:  wealth, money, riches and property.  Jesus said it is impossible for a person to serve God and serve wealth and money.  Either we serve God with our money and stuff or we will serve our money and stuff as god.  A true servant of God will love and obey Him.  Attempts to divide our loyalty between God and the pursuit of worldly wealth will be in vain, for Jesus rightly says it is an impossible exercise.  When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all we need He adds unto us.  There is no one more wealthy or prosperous than the child of God in this life and the next, for God who gives wealth supplies wisdom for living.

It is good when we yield to God's word, submitting to the truth He has spoken.  Instead of our lives being a declaration of our love and loyalty to God they can be likened to an argument against Him, foolishly saying we can serve two masters.  Jesus tells it like it is:  we cannot serve two masters.  The question is:  who do I love?  Who do I trust?  Who am I serving?  May our lives answer and affirm we serve God with our money, property and stuff rather than the other way round, for all we have is a gift by His gracious hand.

Love Changes Everything

Knowing you are loved changes everything.  If we believe someone is acting against our best interest, we are naturally suspicious.  Our defenses go up and we are not likely to receive anything that is said.  When someone comes up to my door and offers me free services or appliances, I am most wary.  Giving away things is not a successful business model, so I wonder what the catch is.  It is easy to wine and dine someone in the hope of receiving profit, but this is not love.  True love has no catch as it acts unselfishly for the benefit of others.

The love of God is different than all earthly loves which come to an end.  Love offered that is refused remains unfulfilled, and receiving God's love by faith in Him is most fulfilling.  Anyone can mouth the words "I love you" but Jesus demonstrated His love for us while we were yet sinners.  In contrast to the greatest love a human can muster Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  God's love toward us was not because we were worthy or He hoped for satisfaction from us:  God's love springs from His goodness, compassion and grace.  The love of God is sacrificial in all aspects, for He gives, provides, protects, forgives and saves at His own expense.

Knowing God loves us helps us receive His instruction and correction.  Interestingly, Jesus did not walk around telling people how much He loved them.  He spoke of God's love as transcending humanity in magnitude, duration and power.  As Jesus demonstrated His love in death for lost sinners, so He did during His life:  He walked in love towards all by walking with people, talking with them, wept with those who grieved, healed the sick, delivered those possessed by demons and raised the dead.  When He raged against the hypocritical Pharisees He did so moved by love for them and the people they deceived.  He was patient with His disciples who did not understand Him and argued among themselves who would be the greatest--when Jesus infinitely surpassed them all in love, righteousness and grace.  He was rejected and hated, and yet He loved.  How great and persistent is Christ's love!

1 John 3:1 says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."  God's love transforms us through relationship with Him.  Before I knew her name, I remember the look the woman who would be my future wife gave me.  It was startling; she grabbed my attention because no one looked my way that way.  This beautiful woman in time became my beloved wife because out of love in her eyes toward me.  The love of Jesus for us transcends all romantic ideals, and knowing He first loved us ought to grab our attention and command a response from us:  will we be drawn to Jesus Christ because of His love for us or will we pursue a foolish ideal that does not exist?  You will never find an undying, active, unconditional love like God's toward us undeserving souls.  Because Jesus first loved us, we love Him.

Open the Door to Jesus

When we hear an unexpected knock at our front door, it is natural for our minds to quickly determine the proper course of action.  The first consideration when it comes to opening the door concerns our current personal state and appearance.  The second may be the state of our house.  If we are in the middle of cleaning or things are in disarray, we may choose not to answer or open the door.  There may be a situation, depending on who is at the door, that we would exit the door or close it behind us.  This way we can politely engage with our visitor without the welcome offer of hospitality.  There are those who invite people in and apologise profusely the place is not immaculate, and others that seem to pay the condition no mind whatsoever.  Our homes and our hearts are personal things we all handle differently.

Another reason we might not open the door is because we do not recognise the person and do not want to converse with strangers or sales people.  Even when we know the person who knocks at the door it does not guarantee we are inclined to open the door.  Like the bride in the Song of Solomon, we might not immediately open the door because it does not fit in with our plans.  When her beloved husband came to the door and knocked, the bride lamented she had just bathed and climbed into bed.  It was an inconvenience to shed the covers, put on a robe, and get up go to open the door.  In the song after awhile she decided she would open the door only to find her beloved had departed and no one was there.

In Revelation 3, Jesus describes Himself standing at the door of the church of Laodicea and knocking, calling out to those inside.  Jesus said in Revelation 3:19-20, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."  It is possible for people who know and believe in Jesus, genuine believers, to ignore Jesus at the door.  We can be more focused on how presentable we are rather than His worthiness to be joyfully welcomed as our Saviour.  It is good for us to be zealous in our repentance for sin even as Zacchaeus was when Jesus came into His life and volunteered to dine with him.  The chief tax collector responded joyfully and immediately offered to give half of his goods to the poor and if he had swindled anyone to return four-fold.

When we open the door of our hearts to Jesus, He comes in and contributes all that is needed for our forgiveness and cleansing from sin.  He does not condemn us but works to change us from within.  I remember when my mum visited my house and as we were talking she was putting away cutlery and casually pulled out the plastic tray and gave it a good clean.  This was done cheerfully and without censure, a beautiful picture of the cleansing work Jesus does in our hearts and minds when we simply let Him in and fellowship with Him.  As long as we hide behind closed doors and block His entry, we deny Him and ourselves the opportunity for growth in our relationship.  Praise the LORD Jesus loves us, stands at the door and knocks, calling out our name as His beloved brethren.  Let's open the door and welcome Jesus into our lives for His glory.

God's Purposes and Prayer

A brother in Christ was fond of reminding me concerning God's work, "God does not need us."  This is true.  It is a foolish thought to imagine God's work will not or cannot be accomplished without our efforts.  At the same time, God does choose to use us regular people to do His will.  Scripture shows He is quite particular and persistent to bring people to the place of submission and obedience to Him in faith.  Moses comes to mind, who after 40 years of tending his father-in-law's sheep was reluctant to even entertain the notion of returning to Egypt during a conversation with the living God after doing miraculous signs by divine power.  Praying to God became a life Moses lived continually out of sheer need.

A.W. Tozer provides some useful and edifying observations on this point in his book Going Higher With God in Prayer:

"It is a transforming experience when we realize that God wants to work through us to accomplish His work and goals, particularly through our prayers.  God does not do anything apart from His people.  Certainly, we have the storms and hurricanes and fire and all of that.  But when God wants to accomplish His purpose and goal, He always does it through His people...Moses did not have what he thought he needed to do what God was calling him to do....

That is the problem with Christians today.  They think God is interested in their education and skills in that the more they have of these, the more God can use them.  However, God cannot accomplish His goals through our abilities alone.  He can only accomplish His purposes through us when we yield ourselves completely to Him.  It is only when I as a Christian surrender everything to God, and hold on to nothing bad, that He can accomplish His work through me...God send David against Goliath to show that He uses people regardless of the equipment they have.  David's victory over Goliath wasn't David's victory; it was God's victory, without question.  God's strength is not in our weapons....

Another mistake many Christians make is to believe God wants to use their past to get a present victory.  God does not give us a reservoir of wisdom and power.  If He did, it would soon be stagnant.  God does not come to a man and pipe him full of wisdom and then say, "If you get in any trouble, come see me or call me up and pray, but in the meantime, you have the whole cistern full of power.  You draw on that wisdom because it's yours."  God never did it that way.  Instead, God gives a man a word of wisdom and give to him power, but God is the power in that man.  He is the word of wisdom in that man.  It is God working in the man, not the man working.  God becomes wisdom to us and becomes power to us.... 

The Church of God is going to bless, and the Christians whom God is going to bless will be those who have come to the end of their hoarded resources.  Then they will experience the grace of God in their lives and ministries.  God can only begin to work when we have come to the end of our resources and have nothing to fall back on.  People cannot build the Church.  It takes the Holy Spirit to work in a man who has surrendered everything and allowed God to do the work through the ministry of prayer.  God is not building His Church simply to have a religious organization." (Tozer, A. W., and James L. Snyder. Going Higher with God in Prayer: Cultivating a Lifelong Dialogue. Bethany House Publishers, a Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2022. selections from pages 133-137)