You cannot serve God and money – Luke 16:13

Some people try to have the best of both worlds – dedicate their life to God but also dedicate their life to accumulating money. God says you must choose – a life dedicated to Him or a life spent accumulating money (great riches).

No servant can serve two masters, for 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. Luke 16:13

The pursuit of riches has been the object of people for thousands of years. Some people are consumed with the objective and are willing to fight, gamble, cheat and murder to get more money. Some people are willing to work extraordinary numbers of hours in order to earn more money. Some will fall out with their best friends over the pursuit of money.

The apostle Paul was fully aware of this and wrote these words:

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Timothy 6: 9-10

Why do people want riches?

Most people do not want to collect money so they can pile it up on a table and look at it. Rather, most of us want money because of what it can do for us. It represents power, prestige, security, independence and an easy life. It is for these reasons that many seek money.

King Solomon in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 15 summarises it well:

A rich man's wealth is his strong city.

He is saying here that it gives the man a sense of safety and the opportunity to indulge himself behind the defensive walls it offers. Some people say that they don’t need lots of money but not many of us would forego the chance to be wealthy, if it came our way (for example, through inheritance).

A form of idolatry

However, when we read the Bible, we are told that riches are a hindrance to righteousness. The reason is that wealth can very easily distract men from the service to God. This is what we are being told in the central verse we are considering in this article – Luke chapter 16 and verse 13.

No servant can serve two masters, for 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.”

It is very easy to set up this false god in our hearts and let it take the place of the true God in our lives. If we do this then it is a form of idolatry. Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Ephesians 5:5

This temptation is not restricted to the rich, it can also apply to those who do not have much wealth. It is quite possible that those who do not have much money may be even more anxious to get it. This will cause them to do what is contrary to what God wants from us. This is what it says in Proverbs 28 and verse 22:

A stingy man [a] hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.

[a] Hebrew: A man whose eye is evil

Jesus was fully aware of this problem, which men and women can allow themselves to get caught up in. As a result, he spoke these words:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6: 19-21

It would seem that he is trying to warn us that loving and pursuing money has the risk of taking over our life. It ends up affecting everything we do. We are always thinking about getting more money instead of thinking about God. Money becomes central in our life instead of God.

Riches are an illusion of happiness

The desire to have more riches is pursuing something that may be “here today but gone tomorrow”:

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. Proverbs 23: 4-5

We are being told in these verses that wealth is no guarantee of happiness. It can be like an illusion which is not real.

Happiness depends upon something deeper than just the acquisition of “things”.  Happiness cannot be bought with cash.

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. Proverbs 15:16-17

The picture here is very clear. Where there is little, there is fear of the Lord. However, where there is great material treasure in a household, people tend to trust in that and as a result, be a lot more demanding. As verse 16 says, trouble comes with great treasure. Wealth brings worry with it, whereas godliness comes with contentment.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 1 Timothy 6:6

The fountain of life

Earlier on in this article we read Proverbs chapter 10 verse 15, let’s read it again, this time including verse 14:

The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near. A rich man's wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

As we considered before, the rich man’s fortress (or strong city) is wealth. The poor man’s tower of strength can be the fantasy that he will be more devoted or holy by poverty, but it ends up to be his ruin because the real reason for his ideal is laziness, not holiness.  

The rich have stored up the wrong type of wealth. His treasure is money, not knowledge. However, the wise store up wisdom and knowledge so that at the appropriate time they can be a “fountain of life” to those who need it.

People, looking on the outward appearance, make great mistakes in judging the source of wisdom.  They often look toward those who are flamboyant and popular, but they should look to the aged and knowledgeable who have stored up experience and wisdom.

Summary

This brings us back to the central verse we are considering in this article, found in Luke chapter 16 and verse 13:

No servant can serve two masters, for 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.

We have seen that pursuing more riches will take our focus of what should be our number one priority. We should be devoting our life to God not to accumulating more riches. Riches do not bring the true happiness that a life devoted to God will bring us. We are being told in this verse that we cannot serve both – money and God. We can’t try to get the best of both worlds. We must choose.

Will you choose riches and money which is “here today and gone tomorrow”? Or will you choose God who is from everlasting to everlasting.