On the Same Page
"No slave can serve two masters;
for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth."
Luke 16:13
I told my son one thing and my wife told him another. Our teenage son would spend hours on the computer ‘talking' to his friends so my wife and I agreed together on a time limit and gained our son's reluctant agreement. That's the easy part. Enforcement is the challenge. My son gets ‘lost in cyberspace' with his friends. So we ‘bring him back to earth' with periodic reminders. At some point just past the agreed upon limit, Tom may get two different messages from his two separate parents. Dad may respond, "Okay son, ½ hour more if you agree to get outside and get some exercise." Mom may soon walk by and demand, "You're twenty minutes past your limit. Shut it down now. Vacuum your room." "But dad said..." "We all agree to this limit. That's it." Even in the best of homes, parents have to work hard at being ‘on the same page' so the children have one ‘master' not two.
Jesus knew that you and I cannot serve him if we also gave ourselves to serve money. Unlike good parents, these two will never be ‘on the same page'. Money will make demands of you that God rejects because they are not in your best interests. You must choose your master.