Serving Two Masters Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Sermon on the Mount

• Jesus tells his disciples, “No one can serve two masters.”
• In modern times, most people can do two things at one time. Some can even do a lot more. It’s called multitasking. So what is Jesus talking about?
• To better understand this, we’ll look at the Greek word that’s translated as “serve.” This word comes from doulos. A doulos is a slave.
• Slaves have no personal rights, and they have no “personal time” for themselves.
• A master has absolute control over his slave, and a slave is completely loyal to his master.
• Therefore, a slave could never have two masters.
• If one master would say, “Go to the marketplace,” his slave would have to do it right then.
• If there were another master, he might choose at that same time to tell the slave, “Go do the laundry.” The slave would have to do that too.
• A slave simply couldn’t be doing two separate things (going to the market and doing the laundry) at the exact same time.
• The slave could not possibly satisfy them both. Anything less than total obedience meant certain death.
• Jesus continues his teaching by approaching the problem from another point of view—the masters'.
• For the sake of argument, let’s say two masters wanted to share a slave.
• To this, Jesus says, the slave “will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
• The translation “hate the one and love the other” doesn’t really mean what it sounds like to us today.
• “Hate” doesn’t mean hatred as is thought of today.
• It is a Jewish idiom that talks about one’s level of commitment.
• Despite the slave’s best efforts to be fair, the slave will pick one master to obey over the other.
• Similarly, “despise” means something like disregard or “pay less attention to.”
• So the slave is not hating or despising the masters; the slave is simply prioritizing—choosing one over the other.
• Only one of the masters will be given absolute loyalty and the full commitment of the slave.
• Even today everyone has an ultimate loyalty. There can only be a first place for one thing.
• Jesus ends by saying, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”
• “Mammon” is another word that came from the Greek.
• Originally, mammon meant “entrust.” It was whatever a man gave to someone to keep safe for him.
• Over the years, that morphed. Instead of giving “mammon” to someone for safekeeping, people began to keep it for themselves and put all their faith in it.
• Why is Mammon written with a capital “M”?
• People have thought that it might mean the “god of humankind.” It probably means wealth, and some translations simply say “money,” written with a capital “M.”
• It could also mean gain, possessions, success.
• Whatever Mammon is, it is the opposite of the true God.
• It is a human god which is powerfully attractive.
• People can have money, a house, and possessions (things they own), but they should not be controlled or mastered by them.
• Jesus is telling his disciples to be aware of the dangers and distractions that would cause them to lose their focus.
• Jesus is saying that the goal of hard work is not personal success, but service to others. It’s about giving, not getting.
• He’s saying, “You cannot do both.”
• He’s trying to free them from trying to do something that’s impossible—serving two things at the same time.
• And if Jesus says it is impossible, any and all attempts to do it are a waste of time and effort.
• He’s asking disciples to turn their backs on the gods of this world and serve only the living God.
• What or whom the disciple chooses to serve—human gods or the real God—will become Lord and master in the disciple’s life.