Who do you really serve; in whom do you trust? Jesus presented two opportunities for serving; let’s examine them:
No man
can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or
else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon. (Mat 6:24)
“Original sin” implies that your
and my sins are genetic. Mankind has therefore always endeavor to serve two
masters. Did Adam and Eve quit serving God? No! Did they begin to serve the
Serpent? No; they were serving both God and themselves.
The problem of the seed of Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others through the generations was that it all
started with them adding themselves to the pantheon of gods. They never
abandoned the LORD GOD but as Genesis 4:1 reveals, if studied critically, she
became the god(dess); she provided to her lord, a man.
Who was her “lord’? The LORD GOD
was her lord, but she made herself another god when she signified that she had made
the next adam, Cain.
By the time of Jesus, the problem
with mankind was that they were still trying to serve both God and mammon.
God is “Theos” in the
Greek — the Supreme Deity. Not actually only the Supreme but the only true Deity
— THE Supreme Being — the One in whose Image that mankind was made. That
implies that all other beings are not supreme! They can only be as
god, not actual gods.
In other words, other beings only
think of themselves as the Supreme God. Lucifer thought of himself in the
same manner when he said, “I will be like the most High” (Isa 14:14). He accused
Adam of Eve of having the same aspirations as himself! Jesus accused them of
being as Satan when He said what He said in Matthew 6:24.
Lucifer had served God before the
foundation of the world. As it turned out, he was vain; his desire was for
himself to be the Lord of Adam. Lucifer could never serve two masters, even of
one of them was himself, so he chose himself as “Lord.” In Genesis 4:1, it
appears that Eve may have chosen Satan as well, but instead she was
self-servient. She also chose one master, and that was herself. Lucifer
knew what she would do because he had done so himself.
Next consider the archaic word “mammon”
(mamonas in the Aramaic). It means “What is trusted”
Therefore, the “two masters” are
God and your own selves. (You may have thought Lucifer was the “mammon,” but mammon
is many of the billions who trust themselves.)
Freewill is given two choices,
its is you who decides who to choose. You have an option: to trust God or trust
yourselves. You do not need to trust Satan because you belong to him the moment
that you are born (John 8:44). At birth, however, you do not belong to God because
you are genetically not of God. Everyone, to belong to God, must be “born again”
or reimaged by God.
Who is it, then, that serve two
masters? It must be the Christians! To whom is Jesus speaking? Not hypocrites (verse
5) and not heathen pagans (verse 7); He is speaking of those who claim God as
their “Father” (verse 1). In other words, Christians must be children of one god.
Because sin is genetic, it takes time to convert from a “babes in Christ” (1 Cor
3:1) to a fully regenerated creature set
apart as a son (gens) of God, to wit, as Luke wrote, “I commend you to
God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give
you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).
It appears that just as babies struggle
with parents for power, and they always do, a babe in Christ struggles with
their Father in heaven. Like a wild horse, the baby must be “broken” and shown
who truly has the power, and in like manner, a “babe in Christ” must be set
apart after his or her struggle with God. (Hint: As with Jacob, God is inclined
to allow the person to win the wrestling match. That is grace, but some just
refuse to win.)
The struggle is who they serve;
God or themselves? If anyone is self-serving, eventually they cease serving God
and become their own gods. Lucifer understood that, and since original sin,
that is the M.O. of everyone.
Even Christians are in danger of
rejecting God by continuation on their sinful path. God will never leave nor
forsake you, but it is you who may drift away because of the lusts of the
flesh. If you continue to do what you always did before you trusted Jesus, then
before long that trust will wither as you begin to trust yourselves more than
God. That is “falling away” (apostasia in the Greek; 2 Thes 2:6): “Let
no man deceive you (Christians) by any means: for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away (apostasia) first, and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition.”
Apostasy is defection
after once having affection for Jesus. As such, Christians are still choosing
their master as they lose their affection for God. Who causes the loss of
affection? Not Satan; he cannot be everywhere at once like God. It is you who
may lose the affection for God because He promises to never lose affection for
you.
It is not Satan that is now the problem. It is you! Your flesh retains the gens of Lucifer until you die, so it is the flesh that is the true adversary to God! Just when does that nature leave Christians? At the time of salvation: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb 9:28). When is the second coming?
15
…we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thes 4:15-17)
If looking toward the world, the
Christian is not looking toward Jesus. Each person is god of their own little “worlds.”
We know the world is not our home, but endeavor to take our world with us, and by
that I mean the things around us.
The other day, I caught myself
thinking, I hope there is Coke (soda) in heaven. I could be thinking,
I hope there is a room for me in Paradise! Both are about me, but the
former is about my desires for my flesh — my senses. The latter is about my
soul. Which is more important? The flesh will be discarded, so answer that “the
soul.”
Heaven is not about you but God.
You will be there, providing you retain affection for God, but it will remain
to be all about God. The person in heaven has sacrificed his flesh with its
desires and focus on Jesus sitting on the Throne. By then, the Christian should
be aware that there is no throne for him or her in heaven!
So, self-worship is not a
problem for you, you think?
“The disciples speaking to Jesus,
saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” (Mat 18:1). You see,
even the apostle, Peter, were among the disciples that worried about themselves
in the afterlife; they thought it would be a place wherein they had as much
power as God.
Who do you think is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? It will not be you but the Supreme Being Himself! Even the apostles were struggling to be like Lucifer, to wit:
35
…James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, “Master, we would
that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.” 36 And He said unto them, “What
would ye that I should do for you?” 37 They said unto Him, “Grant
unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand,
in thy glory… after Jesus spoke about it would not be them… 41 When
the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. (Mark 10:35-37; 41)
(picture credit; Terroir; "King Fauci)
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