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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Two Masters
Matthew 6:24
W.F. Adeney
Christ here passes from the consideration of thoughts and desires to the large world of action. His rule of life touches us all round. It begins with the heart - the inner chamber, the sanctuary. It also applies to the life, the work, the scenes of daily life in the world. Now, we are carried out to this busy world to consider the principles that rule our conduct there.

I. WE MUST HAVE A MASTER. This is assumed. Christ considers two forms of service. He does not contemplate the absolute freedom in which we are our own masters. We profess to be free, and claim to rule our own conduct; but that is only because the chains are gilded, or because the silken threads are invisible, because our obedience to our chosen master has become a second nature, i.e. because we serve from love and not from constraint. But all true service is heart-service; it springs from love; it is given willingly; and therefore it does not perceive the yoke of servitude. Yet he who escapes from the service of God as an irksome burden, irksome because his heart is not in the service, will certainly fall into the clutches of some other master - mammon, sin, evil habit, lust, fashion, etc. - all of them being but representatives of the great usurper.

II. WE HAVE A. CHOICE OF TWO MASTERS.

1. God. It is not enough to think of God as our Benefactor; we must remember that he claims our service. This is implied by his Fatherhood, because a father expects obedience on the part of his children. Now, it is not to be denied that the service of God is a very difficult service. It involves the renunciation of sin and the practice of self-denial. It requires absolute submission of the will in interior desire as well as in visible work. In our own strength it is impossible (Joshua 24:19). But God gives strength equal to the task. The reward of his service is immeasurable, not only in subsequent wages, but in the present joy of serving so good a God, delighting to do his will (Psalm 40:8).

2. Mammon. One form of low service. The unworthy service may assume other forms. But this is most prevalent and tempting. It is seen in the race for wealth, in the greed of covetousness, in the slavery of material pleasures and earthly desires. It is degrading to the soul, and it ends in weariness, disgust, and bitter disappointment (ver. 19).

III. WE CAN SERVE BUT ONE MASTER. This is not a question of simple inconsistency and incongruity; it is a matter of absolute impossibility. Christ does not say, "Ye ought not;" he says, "Ye cannot." There can be but one true service rendered by our real selves. Yet nothing is more common than the foolish attempt to achieve the impossible. The result is the miserable failure of a distracted life. The man who would serve two masters has no success or joy in either pursuit. When trying to serve mammon, he is haunted by a disturbing conscience that restrains him from going as far as he would, and vexes him with muttered reproaches. When endeavouring to serve God, he is invaded by a host of foolish fancies and worldly anxieties. He cannot give himself to the worship and service of God, and therefore these things are a weariness of the flesh. Thus he fails, and. is miserable whatever he does. The secret of happiness is whole-heartedness. There is no joy on earth like the deep and satisfying gladness of a complete surrender to God as our one Lord and Master. Happily the principle is a safeguard for the true servant of God. The service of God excludes the service of mammon, and so keeps us safe. - W.F.A.

Biblical Illustrator
Serve two masters.
Matthew 6:24
Neutrality in religion exposed
W. Jay.
I. No MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS.

1. There are many who contrive to elude the force of this maxim, or make awful experiments to try the certainty of it.

2. Nor are these persons wanting in excuses to palliate, if not to justify their practice.

3. There are, however, four cases in which you may serve two masters, but the exceptions only render the general rule more remarkable.

(1)You may serve two masters successively.

(2)By serving one in reality and the other in pretence.

(3)You may serve two masters unequally.

(4)When they are on the same side and differ only in degree. You cannot serve God and mammon.

II. ONE OF THESE YOU WILL UNAVOIDABLY SERVE.

1. It is impossible for a man to be without some master.

2. The advocates of independence are greatest slaves.

3. The service of religion does not demand greater privations than that of sin.

III. YOU OUGHT TO SERVE GOD. Remind you —

1. Of His various and undeniable claims.

2. Of His designs in employing you in His service; our own good, not His need.

3. Make the right choice.

(W. Jay.)

The impossibility of serving God and mammon
E. Cooper., J. Fell.
I. THE MEANING AND TRUTH OF THE MAXIM HERE LAID DOWN. The man who serves his master serves him with faithfulness and singleness of heart, with a mind wholly given to his service. It is impossible thus to serve two. He may appear to serve both: but let contrary interests arise and it will be seen to which he really belongs.

II. OUR LORD'S APPLICATION OF THIS MAXIM. God and mammon are two masters: cannot serve both.

1. You must follow your worldly business from right motives.

2. You must follow it by right rules.

3. You must use your worldly gain in a right manner.Two motives weigh with a man in selecting masters, interest or gratitude. On these grounds God claims your service above the world.

1. God can do more for you than mammon can do. God claims your service on the ground of what He has done for you.

(E. Cooper.)

I. THE NECESSITY OF DECISION IN RELIGION.

1. From the impracticability of uniting the two services.

2. From the misery which is an attendant on the attempt to unite these services.

3. The fatal consequences in another world.

4. The happy consequences from a uniform attachment to the right master.

(1)Faithfulness has its own reward;

(2)The path of decision is that of safety;

(3)In heaven.

II. APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT.

1. Decision of character, it is evident, is totally distinct from party spirit.

2. We do not intend anything like indifference.

3. But are not some decided on the other side?

(J. Fell.)

No man can serve two masters
J. Vaughan, M. A.
1. It is a moral impossibility. He will love the one, etc. Men who love the world hate religion; and those who hate the world love Christ.

2. A divided service is making a divided life, the world comes into the religion, and religion comes into the world; both are spoilt.

3. The luxury, repose, and strength of a heart quite made up.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

God and mammon
T. M. Macdonald, M. A.
I. THE SERVICE that cannot be divided.

II. WHY CANNOT BOTH BE SERVED.

1. Because God claims a whole service.

2. Because God claims a heart-service.

III. The GROUNDS OF A REASONABLE CHOICE.

1. Justice — God claims our service as His due; not upon contract, but natural relationship.

2. Gratitude — God has redeemed us.

3. Interest. Here mammon rests his whole case. His claim is that he offers

(1)advantages suited to our nature.

(2)That they are present. Examine his claims. They are not adapted to our nature as it ought to be. Are there no present advantages in God's service?Concerning the advantages of mammon three inquiries have to be answered.

1. Are they certain?

2. Are they real?

3. Will they last?

(T. M. Macdonald, M. A.)

The service of the heart supreme
Gurnall.
When a statute was made in Queen Elizabeth's reign that all should come to church, the Papists sent to Rome to know the Pope's pleasure; he returned them this answer, it is said: "Bid the Catholics in England give me their hearts, and let the Queen take the rest."

(Gurnall.)

You cannot sail under two flags.
The impossibility of serving God and mammon
J. E. Good.
I. THE IMPOSSIBILITY of serving both.

1. Because of their opposite interests.

2. From the different objects they have to advance.

3. From the nature of the flesh and the spirit.

II. THE PROPRIETY OF GIVING GOD the preference.

1. He has the first claim upon you. He your Creator.

2. Consider the relative character of the service. One your life and joy, the other servitude and death.

III. IMPROVEMENT.

1. The infinite importance of having singleness of heart in matters of religion.

2. How necessary to examine our hearts that we may know whom we serve.

3. What an awful idea the subject gives us of worldly-minded possessors.

(J. E. Good.)

The inconsistency of the love of God and love of the worl
W. Adey.
d: —

I. WHAT IS IT TO SERVE GOD?

1. A visible profession, a steady belief, and awful sentiments of a Supreme Being.

2. To ascribe that worship that is strictly due to Him, as an acknowledgment of His almighty power, and a testimony of our submission.

3. Regard to His sacred laws.

4. A ready and cheerful obedience to His will, and a resignation under afflictions.

II. WHAT IS IT TO SERVE MAMMON?

1. It implies a persuasion of mind that riches and grandeur are the true seat of human happiness.

2. It is to attribute that worship to the creature which is only due to the Creator.

3. It is to be so much devoted to the world, as to fret at every disappointment, and repine at the least obstruction to our growing rich.

III. To SHOW WHEREIN THE SERVICE OF GOD AND MAMMON IS INCONSISTENT. Their commands are contrary and irreconcilable. God commands us to seek Him first; mammon tempts us with kingdoms. God asks for our time; mammon takes it.

2. Annex a consideration to enforce what has been said.(1) The folly to saunter away this span of life in the fruitless pursuit of riches, since we cannot tell who shall gather them.(2) Can all the kingdoms of the world give us any inducement to their pursuit: they are gilded toys.(3) Riches make to themselves wings and fly away.(4) From the impossibility of finding happiness in the love of the world, and its inconsistency with the love of God, we meet with an indispensable obligation of fixing our attention on greater objects.

(W. Adey.)

People
Jesus, Solomon
Places
Galilee
Topics
Able, Attach, Bondservant, Bondservants, Can't, Despise, Devoted, Dislike, Either, Gold, Hate, Hold, Lords, Love, Mammon, Masters, Money, None, Respect, Servant, Servants, Serve, Slightingly, Wealth
Outline
1. Giving to the Needy
5. The Lord's Prayer
16. Proper Fasting
19. Store up Treasures in Heaven
25. Do Not Worry
33. but seek God's kingdom.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Matthew 6:24

     5413   money, attitudes
     5591   treasure
     5811   compromise
     5882   impartiality
     5884   indecision
     5907   miserliness
     7160   servants of the Lord
     7449   slavery, spiritual
     8208   commitment, to God
     8223   dedication
     8239   earnestness
     8304   loyalty
     8343   servanthood, in society
     8344   servanthood, in believers
     8463   priority, of faith, hope and love
     8702   agnosticism
     8723   doubt, results of
     8770   idolatry, in NT
     8810   riches, dangers

Matthew 6:19-24

     2426   gospel, responses
     8779   materialism, nature of

Matthew 6:24-34

     1660   Sermon on the Mount

Library
The Distracted Mind
Eversley. 1871. Matthew vi. 34. "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Scholars will tell you that the words "take no thought" do not exactly express our Lord's meaning in this text. That they should rather stand, "Be not anxious about to-morrow." And doubtless they are right on the whole. But the truth is, that we have no word in English which exactly expresses the Greek word which St Matthew …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

The Lord's Prayer
Windsor Castle, 1867. Chester Cathedral, 1870. Matthew vi. 9, 10. "After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Let us think for a while on these great words. Let us remember that some day or other they will certainly be fulfilled. Let us remember that Christ would not have bidden us use them, unless He intended that they should be fulfilled. And let us remember, likewise, that …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

June 16. "Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24).
"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24). He does not say ye cannot very well serve God and mammon, but ye cannot serve two masters at all. Ye shall be sure to end by serving one. The man who thinks he is serving God a little is deceived; he is not serving God. God will not have his service. The devil will monopolize him before he gets through. A divided heart loses both worlds. Saul tried it. Balaam tried it. Judas tried it, and they all made a desperate failure. Mary had but one choice. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

August 27. "Take no Thought for Your Life" (Matt. vi. 25).
"Take no thought for your life" (Matt. vi. 25). Still the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of Nazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have God's highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The most abused men are often most used. There are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood. There are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God's greatest blessings are lying behind the devil's scarecrows …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 21. "Consider the Lilies How they Grow" (Matt. vi. 28).
"Consider the lilies how they grow" (Matt. vi. 28). It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, "What in the world are you doing there?" he naively answered, "Why, I am trying to grow to be a man." His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently on the head, "Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

June 10. "Your Heavenly Father Knoweth Ye have Need" (Matt. vi. 32).
"Your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need" (Matt. vi. 32). Christ makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for spiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it. Why? Simply because it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters we can fool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we cannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must come or our faith fails. It is easy to say that we trust Him in things that are a long …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 12. "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You" (Matt. vi. 33).
"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). For every heart that is seeking anything from the Lord this is a good watchword. That very thing, or the desire for it, may unconsciously separate you from the Lord, or at least from the singleness of your purpose unto Him. The thing we desire may be a right thing, but we may desire it in a distrusting and selfish spirit. Let us commit it to Him, and not cease to believe for …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Consider the Lilies of the Field
(Preached on Easter Day, 1867.) MATTHEW vi. 26, 28, 29. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? . . . And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. What has this text to do with Easter-day? Let us think …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

'Thy Kingdom Come'
'Thy kingdom come.--MATT. vi. 10. 'The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad'; 'The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble,' was the burden of Jewish psalmist and prophet from the first to the last. They have no doubt of His present dominion. Neither man's forgetfulness and man's rebellion, nor all the dark crosses and woes of the world, can disturb their conviction that He is then and for ever the sole Lord. The kingdom is come, then. Yet John the Baptist broke the slumbers of that degenerate people …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Thy Will be Done'
'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 10. It makes all the difference whether the thought of the name, or that of the will, of God be the prominent one. If men begin with the will, then their religion will be slavish, a dull, sullen resignation, or a painful, weary round of unwelcome duties and reluctant abstainings. The will of an unknown God will be in their thoughts a dark and tyrannous necessity, a mysterious, inscrutable force, which rules by virtue of being stronger, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Cry for Bread
'Give us this day our daily bread.'--MATT. vi. 11. What a contrast there is between the two consecutive petitions, Thy will be done, and Give us this day! The one is so comprehensive, the other so narrow; the one loses self in the wide prospect of an obedient world, the other is engrossed with personal wants; the one rises to such a lofty, ideal height, the other is dragged down to the lowest animal wants. And yet this apparent bathos is apparent only, and the fact that so narrow and earthly a petition …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Forgive us Our Debts'
'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.'--MATT. vi. 12. The sequence of the petitions in the second half of the Lord's Prayer suggests that every man who needs to pray for daily bread needs also to pray for daily forgiveness. The supplication for the supply of our bodily needs precedes the others, because it deals with a need which is fundamental indeed, but of less importance than those which prompt the subsequent petitions. God made us to need bread, we have made ourselves to need pardon. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Lead us not into Temptation'
'And lead us not into temptation.'--MATT. vi. 13. The petition of the previous clause has to do with the past, this with the future; the one is the confession of sin, the other the supplication which comes from the consciousness of weakness. The best man needs both. Forgiveness does not break the bonds of evil by which we are held. But forgiveness increases our consciousness of weakness, and in the new desire which comes from it to walk in holiness, we are first rightly aware of the strength and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Deliver us from Evil'
'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13. The two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining silently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where storms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one is so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture of human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half! Hunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which includes them all--evil. Forgiveness and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Thine is the Kingdom'
'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' MATT. vi. 13. There is no reason to suppose that this doxology was spoken by Christ. It does not occur in any of the oldest and most authoritative manuscripts of Matthew's Gospel. It does not seem to have been known to the earliest Christian writers. Long association has for us intertwined the words inextricably with our Lord's Prayer, and it is a wound to reverential feeling to strike out what so many generations have used in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Hearts and Treasures
'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'--MATT. vi. 21. 'Your treasure' is probably not the same as your neighbour's. It is yours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. For what our Lord means here by 'treasure' is not merely money, or material good, but whatever each man thinks best, that which he most eagerly strives to attain, that which he most dreads to lose, that which, if he has, he thinks he will be blessed, that which, if he has it not, he knows he is discontented. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Solitary Prayer
'Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,'--MATT. vi. 6. An old heathen who had come to a certain extent under the influence of Christ, called prayer 'the flight of the solitary to the Solitary.' There is a deep truth in that, though not all the truth. Prayer is not only the most intensely individual act that a man can perform, but it is also the highest social act. Christ came not to carry solitary souls by a solitary pathway to heaven, but …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Structure of the Lord's Prayer
'After this manner therefore pray ye.'--MATT. vi. 9. 'After this manner' may or may not imply that Christ meant this prayer to be a form, but He certainly meant it for a model. And they who drink in its spirit, and pray, seeking God's glory before their own satisfaction, and, while trustfully asking from His hand their daily bread, rise quickly to implore the supply of their spiritual hunger, do pray after this manner,' whether they use these words or no. All begins with the recognition of the Fatherhood …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Our Father'
'Our Father which art in heaven.'--Matt. vi. 9. The words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their depth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and the savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom all their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look steadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when we bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns from them the lesson of divine love …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Hallowed be Thy Name'
'Hallowed be Thy name.'--Matt. vi. 9. Name is character so far as revealed. I. What is meaning of Petition? Hallowed means to make holy; or to show as holy; or to regard as holy. The second of these is God's hallowing of His Name. The third is men's. The prayer asks that God would so act as to show the holiness of His character, and that men, one and all, may see the holiness of His character. i.e. Hallowed by divine self-revelation. Hallowed by human recognition. Hallowed by human adoration and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Trumpets and Street Corners
'Take heed that ye do nob your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; 4. That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Fasting
'Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.'--MATT. vi. 16-18. Fasting has gone out of fashion now, but in Christ's time it went along …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Two Kinds of Treasure
'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 19-20. The connection with the previous part is twofold. The warning against hypocritical fastings and formalism leads to the warning against worldly-mindedness and avarice. For what worldly-mindedness is greater than that which prostitutes even religious acts to worldly advantage, and is laying up treasure of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Anxious Care
'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 25. Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for your life.'--Matt. vi. 24-25. Foresight and foreboding are two very different things. It is not that the one is the exaggeration of the other, but the one is opposed to the other. The more a man looks forward in the exercise of foresight, the less he does so in the exercise of foreboding. And the more he is tortured by anxious thoughts about a possible future, the less clear vision has he of a likely future, and the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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