Serving One Master

Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) says:

“No one 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.”

According to Jesus, it is impossible for us to give our hearts to two masters at the same time. Doing so would be like trying to walk in two directions at once. We must choose whom we are going to serve: God or mammon.

So, what is mammon?

The word mammon is an ancient Aramaic term that came to represent trust in money or material wealth. Mammon is not money itself, but rather a demonic principality that seeks to misuse and abuse money by taking the place of God in our hearts.

The Bible does not say that we cannot have money. However, it clearly teaches that we must not serve it. The word serve describes a servant or a slave. It refers to someone whose actions are directed by another and who is bound to obedience for life. Jesus warns us against allowing money to take that controlling role in our lives.

Final Words That Shape a Life

Jesus later called His disciples and said to them, in essence, “Come a little closer. I have something to tell you before I return to My Father who sent Me. I have waited until now, but I cannot wait any longer. You will remember every word I speak for the rest of your lives.”

Now imagine that the One about to speak is Jesus Himself. How closely would you listen? How deeply would you reflect on His final words to you?

Jesus’ words in John 15 form the heart of His final message to His disciples on the night He was betrayed. By dusk the following day, He would be dead, hanging on a cross. Jesus knew that the words He spoke that night would echo in His friends’ memories for a lifetime. In time, the truth of that final conversation would lead them into an entirely new way of thinking and living.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
John 15:1,4 (NKJV)

A Sacred Transfer

There are moments in life when time itself seems to bow its head.

On the third day of October, 1967, while breath still moved through him and heaven felt unusually near, my father called me close. His voice was not loud nor hurried, but authoritative. It carried the calm of a man who had walked long with God and was now standing at the edge of promise fulfilled. I am reminded of the words:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7 (NKJV)

With deliberate grace, he gave instruction on his deathbed. It was not for comfort, but for continuity. Not for sentiment, but for stewardship.

“I want you to promise me that you will look after your mother and your siblings.”

I immediately doubted the ability of my seventeen-year-old self. I thought that there were others older than me.

“But I am choosing you.”

Two days later, on the fifth of October, 1967, he crossed from labor into rest and became part of the great cloud of witnesses.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”
Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV)

Some inherit positions through ceremony. Others receive them through paperwork and process. But there are callings that are transferred hand to hand and heart to heart while the oil is still warm. This was one of them.

Scripture tells us:

“One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
Psalm 145:4 (NKJV)

That day, I did not merely receive responsibility. I received a witness. It was a living testimony that the work of God does not end when a servant lays down his staff. It continues uninterrupted in obedient hands.

My father did not ask if I felt ready. He did not measure my strength or my age. He trusted the God who had carried him to now carry me. That is the quiet confidence of a life spent in faithful surrender.

The mantle did not fall to the ground.

It was placed.

And it was in the crushing and in the pressing that God made new wine.