My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST SAID: NO SERVANT CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS” [Luke 16:13].
Speaking to His disciples said, “No servant 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” [Luke 16:13].
Ultimate loyalty cannot be divided. Our devotion is dedicated either to God or wealth (materialism), NOT both. God knows our hearts and where your loyalty lies. We encounter an ultimate “either/or” choice, because on the one hand we have the choice of God–and for Jesus is the Living God revealed in the Holy Scriptures and our earthly attachments. “Mammon” is a Semitic expression that means worldly wealth or property. Faithfulness in the Holy Scripture is often equated with undivided loyalty, commitment, with being steadfast, trustworthy and reliable.
One witnesses absolute loyalty in the lives of the holy martyrs of the Church who were willing to be imprisoned, tortured and die for the glory of Christ. A luke-warm kind of ‘service’ to God is refused by Him. Saint Theophylact explains, “Since the God-pleasing stewardship of wealth cannot be accomplished without detachment from riches, the Lord adds to His teaching, and says, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon, that is, it is impossible for a man who is passionately attached to wealth, and who holds back even a part of it, to be a servant of God. Therefore if you intend to be a faithful steward (servant) of God, do not serve wealth, which means, do not have any tie of affection to wealth, but truly serve God. Everywhere the Gospel condemns the love of money, which is the impassioned bond of affection and devotion to wealth.”
God condemns the Pharisees because they loved money. Being lovers of money, they were unhappy by what they had heard about non-possessions. Christ reveals their hidden wickedness and shows that despite their feigned righteousness, they are an abomination in the sight of God. “Earthly wealth” He calls “least” because it is small and insignificant; indeed, it is nothing at all, since it is transitory. But the heavenly wealth He calls “much” because in his handling of earthly wealth, usurping for himself the things that were given to him for the COMMON NEED OF THE PEOPLE, will not be found worthy to be trusted with the heavenly wealth, and he will be cast out as unrighteous. He names as “unrighteous mammon” that wealth which we have in our possession, if it were righteous wealth, we would no longer have it. But now, since we still have it, it is abundantly clear that we kept it for ourselves and did not distribute it to the poor, and thus it is unrighteous. This wealth that belongs to the poor and to withhold it is wrong.
“Our own” is the heavenly and divine wealth, for there in heaven is man’s true citizenship and birthright. The money and possessions of man who has been created in the image of God are indeed “another’s” and alien to man because neither money nor possessions resemble man. But the enjoyment of divine things and communion with God–these are “our own.” We are stewards and not lords and masters, writes Saint Theophylact. Those who united to Christ through faith in Holy Baptism begin a re-creation process, being renewed in God’s image, and likeness.
Somehow we, as Christians, have distracted or have misunderstood how we should relate to riches. The wise believer understands that our earthly life is temporary and brief, while our heavenly one is eternal and endures forever. Why is man wasting this opportunity,this gift of life, this precious time? Why invest all of his life to accumulate material things which inevitably will be left behind? Jesus says, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a need for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” [Matthew 19:23-24]. And speaking to the youth who had kept all the commandments, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me” [Matthew 19:21]. “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” [Matthew 19:22]. Riches are a serious obstacle in entering the Kingdom of God because people are too attached to them.
God acts in cooperation (synergy) with the human soul. To save the unwilling would be compulsion, but to save the willing is a show of grace. Perfection is voluntarily to sacrifice all and to follow Christ for the cause of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God does not belong to sluggards but to those who “want to be perfect.” Our Holy Orthodox Church teaches that the ultimate purpose of spirituality is to become perfect in Christ through love which means attaining perfect, selfless love for God and our fellow men. Our Lord Christ is Perfect God and Perfect man. Therefore, humans must strive to be perfect, pure, merciful, compassionate, gentle, and kind. Our Savior says: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” [Matthew 5:48]. Every Christian should grow into the perfection of the “Father.” [Ephesians 4:13]. Christ is our guide, and He is able to bring us to participate in the very life of God , which is agape (love).
There are so many billionaires today but they are never satisfied with their wealth, they want more. They have such an opportunity to help the poor and the underprivileged today but most of them lack compassion. Money has become an obsession with them and they use their wealth to oppress their fellow men. Greed is their greatest illness but they are not looking for a cure. Instead, they use their wealth to acquire more power and be able to control the people. They believe themselves to be ‘gods’ and demand unquestionable obedience by all. Their attitude is not only insane but it is demonic. They have stopped believing in the Almighty true God and wish to determine the future of all mankind. They are indeed possessed by wicked mammon.
We, Christians, are to be made perfect in Christ. “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in Me” [John 17:23]. Also, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” [Hebrews 10:14]. The completeness of Christ’s Sacrifice establishes the prophesied New Covenant: Sacrifice for sin IS COMPLETE, SANCTIFICATION IS PERFECT. Christ’s is the offering for all sin–voluntary and involuntary–which demonstrates God’s incomparable grace toward us. As believers we look unto our Lord Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross” [Hebrews 12:2]. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” [Hebrews 12:14].
Man tragically may listen to more than one master in his life. The Holy Apostle asks the question, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.” [Romans 6:16]. Though we choose freely, we are never without a master, either Satan or God, law or grace. If one should defect from grace and return to his former master, the law of sin, he will find himself led to “death,” the “second death [Revelation 20:14]. But those “UNDER GRACE” (vv. 14, 15), WHO LOVINGLY AND WILLINGLY TAKE ON GOD AS MASTER, PRACTICE OBEDIENCE AND GROW IN GOD’S FREE GIFT OF “RIGHTEOUSNESS” They cannot keep on sinning (John 14:15).
A master can take a different form. Drug addiction becomes one’s master because the addicted person is loyal to and obeys willingly. Other masters can be alcohol, gluttony, greed, fornication, adultery, pride, despair, hate, riches, and many others. We can be enslaved by any one of these passions and sins. Christ’s call to follow Him is a call to abandon all other masters in our life. We cannot serve two masters because, as our Lord Christ made perfectly clear, we end up hating one and loving the other. Each one of the masters demands different things from us and competes with the other for our total loyalty. There is only one Good Master and that is Jesus Christ Who suffered for us and Who willingly shed His precious blood on the Cross to save us. There is no other master who loves us unconditionally. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” [John 6:47].
The genuine follower of Christ “knows His voice…will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” [John 10:4-5]. There is only one Good Shepherd, the “sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep BY NAME and LEADS THEM OUT” [John 10:3]. Jesus is the True Master of the sheep Who protects the sheep from danger. Christians do not hear the voice or any pretender and dangerous and evil master who wishes to do harm to us. Listen to our Lord Jesus Christ, our Divine Master, our Creator, our Father, our Good Shepherd, and our Redeemer.
___________
“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 