Who is Your Master?

Dear friends, may the beginning of this week prove to be one of renewed energy and strength as we trust in the Lord that together with Him, we can make it through whatever may come our way this week.

Jesus’ familiar phrase “You cannot serve both God and Money”[1] was addressed to his disciples with the Pharisees eavesdropping in the passage found in Luke 16:1-13. The complete verse where that phrase is found by Jesus reads, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.”[2]

About one-fourth of what Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount had to do with money (materialism). It is also said that Jesus spoke more on the topic of money and material possessions than he did on prayer. Should we deduct that material possessions were more important than Jesus; no, but he was fully aware of human nature’s tendency to cling to material possessions in such a way that our devotion to God would become mediocre.

Jesus’ own words clarify that he was not only warning against the dangers of “money” when he said, “No servant can serve two masters.” God is the Master and the other master can be any number of “things.” All along Jesus’ main objective with his disciples was to make of them devout followers of the Father’s ways. If the Father is not mastering our lives, then something else is. Who/what is mastering our time, energy, resources, etc. It is not so much that Jesus is calling us to abstain from routine activities; rather, he is cautioning against allowing for those routine activities to shape, form, rule, govern, and master our lives.

Who is your master? What is your master? Who or what determines what you do with your time, energy, resources, etc.? Is the Father’s agenda?

A faithful disciple’s goal is to live under the Father’s master agenda more and more each day while becoming less and less influenced by the popular cultural pull; in short, for the Father to master us, and not for us to master ourselves.

Prayer: Lord, help me realize that if You are not my Master, then something else is. Through your Spirit grant me direction and strength to seek out the Father’s agenda in such a way You truly would master over my life. In Your Name I pray. Amen.

By grace alone,
Pastor David

[1] Luke 16:13
[2] Ibid.