No One Can Serve Two Masters, Matthew 6:24

Dan Doyle

Loyalty. It is one of the most honored of human virtues. It is the cement of dutiful and responsible relationships, the bond of true friendships. Given the complexities of human relationships, we can sometimes find ourselves caught up in very difficult external and internal conflicts when we are forced to choose which loyalty is most important, which is of a higher order, which has the ultimate claim on our loyalty. And our choices always have consequences. Sometimes they require great courage, sacrifice, and even the reality of suffering.

Many areas of our lives command our loyalty: family, teams, our work, political parties, and even our country. In some ways, these are downward loyalties. Our Christian faith calls us to a higher loyalty, that is, to God alone. The demand for our loyalty can sometimes cause us to experience great inner turmoil, making our choices ever more difficult and ever more important. Such choices require immense personal courage on our part. What are my loyalties? How prepared am I to make the difficult choices when I am forced to choose between them?

For the Christian believer, there is one loyalty that surpasses all others. We see this in many places in the Scriptures. For example, in Matthew’s account of the rich young man who asks the ultimate question of Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life” (Mt. 19:16)? Jesus responds with, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (v.17). Jesus answers the young man’s questions, enumerating several of the commandments. The young man responds with great honesty, saying, “I have kept all these, what do I still lack” (v.20)? Jesus tells him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me” (v.21).

This very rich young man found himself on the brink of a very difficult decision. As the Gospel tells us, when the young man heard those words from Jesus, he “went away grieving, for he had many possessions” (v. 22). This young man stands in for us. He is us. We desire to know, to love, and to serve God, but we are also deeply engaged with the world in many ways. Maybe it is wealth and possessions that take up much of our loyalty. Maybe it is the groups we belong to, or the political parties we associate with. Certainly, we have our families, our associations, and our country. All have their claims on us.

But there are times when we are confronted with great moral dilemmas that demand choices from us. To which will I give my loyalty? It is times like these that we need great courage, the courage of a warrior, that comes from true faith in Jesus Christ. And we must choose Jesus first among all others. We must “sell our possessions”, the physical ones, the intellectual ones, and the emotional ones, if they are in any way contrary to the will of God that we see in Jesus Christ. This can only come from real, concerted, dedicated, and habitual prayer, study, and reflection on the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures, and dialogue with those who demonstrate by their lives a true, deep, and knowledgeable faith in God and the teachings of the Church. More importantly, it requires us to develop a true and deep relationship with the Person of Jesus.

To be effective Christian warriors, that is, saints, we must not lose our individuality in the quagmire of “group-think”, or turn away from our individual, personal relationship with Jesus for any of the lesser things of this world. We must truly believe that, though we may have to stand alone against great and even painful odds, we will never be alone. Most importantly, we must give our true loyalty, not to our “possessions”, not even to ourselves, but to the One who is greater than all of these things, God. We should always be very suspicious of “painless” moral choices. In matters of moral importance, we must decide to follow Jesus before all else, saying: “The cross before me, the world behind me. I will not turn back.”

Jesus tells us: “No one can serve two masters; for you will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Mt. 6:24). To be certain, there are great costs to us when we give our truest and fullest loyalty to God above all else. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26-27). To follow Jesus and to be his disciple in this world is to put Jesus first. Though this may sometimes involve suffering, the rewards are greater than anything this world has to offer. Love Jesus above all else, and graces unbounded will be poured upon you. You will never walk alone. Your shepherd is with you. Follow Him!