Tim Price (Omaha, Nebraska) is a friend of mine who works as an editor, publisher and writer. Tim is currently working on a book called The Tale of Two Masters, uploading individual chapters to academia.com as he completes. He has given me permission to copy one chapter of his new book on this blog, a chapter I believe is extremely important for Jesus followers who are living through America's charged political atmosphere of 2016. If you take seriously the call for Jesus to be the Lord and Master of your life, then take a few moments and be challenged from Tim's writing on the difference between Jesus being your master and the machinations of the world being your master.
In God's Kingdom - the very thing Jesus brings - there is equity, equality, etc. But in the kingdoms of this world there is none of this. Oh sure, there are attempts at altruism, but the world can only attempt to achieve what God's Kingdom already brings. Christians often make the mistake of believing altruism can be achieved through unregenerate people. The New Testament teachings of Christ are clear; God alone is able to make people capable of true goodness. The machinations of the world can only make attempts at altruism, but they are destined to always fail. It is Christ in us who is our hope of true goodness.
Please read Tim's article below carefully. After reading it, see if you don't have a better appreciation of the difference between what God is actually doing in His people and what the world is deceiving people into doing and believing through political, social, and cultural change.
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The Tale of Two Masters
Tim Price
No one would be surprised that the average church person
could quote a number of isolated biblical texts. Or even that a few small
snippets of Bible verses are commonly known in unregenerate circles. Yet, I
wonder at the penetration level of these texts. For the church folk, are these
texts applied in real life? Does the well-knownness of a text equate to a full
understanding or application of it in our life? Many would like to think so,
yet I wonder. Let’s consider just one such text:
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:24 NIV)
Many
a churchman could quote Matthew 6:24 verbatim. However, is it understood in a
circumspect application or is it another of those texts we quote that has no
real root in our lives? To answer such a query one would have to know what does
Matthew 6:24 mean. Does it refer to: money, idolatry, control, all of the foregoing
or even more?
In an attempt to answer my own question I went straight to the Internet in search of meanings inferred from this text. I wanted to know what currently shapes the collective notions about this text as far as general understanding. There were no shortages of commentary. Those cited below were randomly chosen from the first page of search results.
1.
John Gill’s exposition on the Bible regarding the stated text says:
Whereas it (mammon) is not a Hebrew word, nor an adjective, but a substantive, and signifies riches; which are opposed to God, being by some men loved, admired, trusted in, and worshipped, as if they were God; and which is incompatible with the service of the true God. A
2.
The Bible Hub provided their commentary concerning our text. They listed many
interpretations. This one is from Ellicott’s
Commentary for English Readers:
…Literally, can
be the slave of two masters. The clauses that follow describe two distinct
results of the attempt to combine the two forms of service which are really
incompatible…there is obviously an approach to a personification (of mammon)
for the sake of contrasting the service or worship of money with that which is
due to God. B
3. The Christian Resource Institute notes:
The two words "serve" and "masters" refer to a slave's relationship to a slave-owner… The verse ends with a summary statement: You cannot serve both God and Money. The Greek word for Money is Mammon, which was taken from Aramaic, the language of Jesus. It meant wealth, property, or possessions…C
It
appears the commonly understood meaning of this text is anchored to the final
word in the verse: mammon (money).
However, is this all the verse is speaking about? Another detail to consider is
in reference No. 3, which reminds us, “The two words ‘serve’ and ‘masters’
refer to a slave's relationship to a slave-owner.”D This detail cannot be missed, nor subordinated to the
other point concerning mammon. It is astonishing that the money detail carries a
disproportionate weight of interpretation in many, many commentaries. E
One can only wonder why the master-slave context of this verse has apparently been glossed over. Slave has become a dirty, evil word in our day. Christians consider themselves very much a part of “mankind”: the milieu of general society and human existence. And thus, we, more often than not, reflect society’s sensitivities. Since abolition, the word slavery carries a stigma and curse, so much so that it can’t be referenced without a subconscious undercurrent of denial and strickenness rising up to slam any door that could be opened on meaningful understanding from biblical references to the topic. As an example of this palpable reticence, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary clearly avoids articulation on the connection between master and slave in its “definition” of master.F
I
observed this common aversion in another piece I wrote: Chapter
4 - A Kingdom of Bond-Servants. Other authors have also taken notice of this
inclination—prompting books like Slaves of Christ, by Murray J. Harris and Slavery as Salvation by Dale. B. Martin. Both authors hope to remind
us of the exquisiteness and purpose of servile terminology in the New Testament.
The need is to restore a rightful understanding and application of the imagery
of slavery unhindered by the popularized misinformation that the culture of our
day has sought to rendition us with.
Matthew’s
verse starts by noting two masters… What is a master?
A
master in the time and context of the text’s authorship was (and still is) a
person who owned slaves. Slavery was about being completely occupied in one’s
existence to the allowance of whoever owned you for the purpose of doing work
that did not profit you. A slave had no sense of self other than mere
existence. Murray J. Harris noted, “…the slave's alienation from family and
tribe, including communal religion, so that his focus of attachment became his
master; his identity became so inseparable from his master.”
Today,
how many things occupy our minds about the existence in this world and all the choices
ostensibly forced upon us in our
modern situation? How many of the factors in our existence limit our choices?
How many of these things foster a sense of belonging and identity that in turn require
our cooperation?
Few
church people can see past the political and temporal reality around us. More
importantly, they are totally owned
by this reality. Being a Christian, to most, is just another of 20 things to which
we are connected rather than following Christ owning us and everything in life
being trimmed and defined by that Master-slave relationship. We allow the world
order and temporal existence to own us, but not God. Christ was addressing this
unfortunate reality in the Sermon on the Mount; most pointedly in Matthew 6:24.
Christians correctly expose the Evolutionists’ interpretations of what they observe when the Christian says something like, “You (Evolutionists) interpret what you see in the strata according to an explanation in which you’ve attached subjective meaning.” Point being—made by the Christian exposé—is that this self-serving understanding only confirms the Evolutionists’ theory as being legitimate. Yet, Christians do almost the exact same thing regarding politics, society, life and existence. Christians see a reality around them and then use it to interpret the Bible. This approach only supports the course of the world as it is. G The Bible was never meant to be interpreted by history or current events or the way things seem at one point or another. The Bible transcends all that. Instead, the Bible tells us how to understand what we see while we maintain God’s purpose and direction.
The
highest number of Christians will fight the notion that anything is their
master other than God. They’ve been taught by the institutional church to
excuse various details as a reality of the world we live in, in spite of NT
teaching. Yet, their dependence on and abdication to the temporal order; its
divisiveness, its logic and direction tells us that indeed that the highest
number Christians are owned by the
temporal order. They see no other way to be present for God in the context of
the world order other than to play its games. Jacques Ellul noted this poor
trend by saying, “Other pronouncements show that the moment one speaks of
‘presence to the world’ Christians translate this as political presence. It
would seem that there is absolutely no other way to be present to the world
other than to engage in politics.”H
Christians
cannot conceive of another means to engage an unbelieving society. They send
missionaries to other cultures, nations, and places to engage those groups of
unbelieving people with the truth of
the Bible. Yet, “here at home”—a notion utterly foreign to the NT teaching for
the follower of Christ—they set aside the NT and stay entrenched in society as
a co-owners and benefactors of the state.
What’s
wrong with that picture?
Ultimately,
the tale of two masters is the story of the master of the temporal order and
the master of the eternal now-reality order of the Kingdom of God (KOG). There
are only two realities. Yet, for the last 1700 years, the organized church has
sold believers the false idea that we—as the collective body of Christ—are NOT
the KOG amongst the kingdoms of men. The KOG has been spiritualized into
meaninglessness by turning it in to mere metaphor and/or pushing its reality
into next life.
This
is clearly in spite of what the NT teaches, where most references to the KOG
are in the now-reality tense. For example, Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first”—what—“the
Kingdom of God.” Then it says, “and all these things will be added to you,”
speaking of material/temporal things. Let’s consider a couple of questions:
When
is the seeking—and finding—of the KOG to occur? Now or in the next life?
And
when will everything be added to us
in having sought the KOG? In this life or the next?
Clearly,
this text is speaking of a now-reality, why? Simple! Of what need or use would all these things—what shall we eat, or
what shall we drink, or what shall we wear,—mean to us in the next life? This
is just one of 40+ such now-reality
texts concerning the KOG. What was Jesus doing, teaching about the KOG if it
were only a hereafter reality? It is
in fact that the KOG is a now-reality
that was the basis for which Christ spent so much time teaching about it.
The
state, in Christ’s day, meant enslavement to all in the realm to the reigning
actuary of the day. The state was about belonging, identity, and protection.
Today is no different. Today, people—to include Christians—are just as enslaved
to the state in order to keep the freedoms it offers and to protect the way of
life they have come to enjoy in this country from it’s enemies foreign and
domestic… The KOG in Christ’s day meant real freedom, real love, and a
transcendent reality outside the manipulation of the state. Serving God meant
real, palpable reward in this life as well as the next, see: Mark 10:29-30. The
order of the KOG was the antithesis of the world order, and still is.
Today,
many believers foolishly look upon modern society as good, as ascending, and as
improving… The world order has abolished many “evils.“ But has it brought
anyone closer to God? It offers “rights”, “freedoms” and the establishment of a
reality where mankind seems to becoming better all the time.I The unregenerate or mankind
proposes “social justice”, “egalitarianism”, “social equity”, and “gender
equality” J as basic
human rights. Not only this, but also these “rights” are part of ever widening
the array of what “inclusiveness” and “identity” can mean. There is serious
expectation of these “improvements” and hell to pay from the masses if it were ever
exposed that such are just political
footballs, not a reality of an accomplished continuum.
The
list of inclusions, under the leadership of the unregenerate world order, has
grown to the point where many Christians can’t agree biblically on these “acceptable
paths,” i.e. transgenderism, the normalization of homosexual choices and even the
move to normalize pedophilia.K
These latest moves of the temporal order threaten “the church” because it
depends on the state for inclusion, identity and belonging within the state’s
order, as well as protection. Yet, the state requires a price for such, which
the religious community is finally beginning to wake up to.
The
tale of two masters is a tremendously sad story. It is indeed about two
competing kingdoms. Unfortunately, it has become a history of treachery. The
followers of Christ have been offered and awarded a reality beyond compare in
this life. However, the response of most Christians historically has been to
minimize the now-reality of eternal order in favor of the temporal order;
expecting to benefit from the latter and enjoy it for all its worth. They don’t
realize they’ve sold their birthright for a bowl of soup like someone else we
ought to have learned from.
Jesus
lived the KOG, which contrasted the reality of the world order of His time; and
people flocked to Him even though they had to give up everything to follow Him,
see: Matt. 19:27. We’ve deceived ourselves into thinking that the Sermon on the
Mount doesn’t say what it does… We’ve shoveled what “master” and “slave” mean
under a rug as far as the KOG. And thus the kingdom of the world, the order run
by the enemy of God, has nothing to contrast it. If the Christians won’t live
the KOG, in keeping with Christ, how is anyone to see that the world order is a
fraud and grandiose failure? Without the KOG, the temporal order can appear
credible in its attempts to prove God wrong about mankind: humanity is not utterly evil, right?
The
gospel—the good news—of the kingdom of God is that the KOG is something utterly
different, but every bit as real as the order of the world. The KOG offered
something the world order could not and would not offer people. The KOG is an
exclusive reality with a high price that even the poorest of the poor in the
world order can afford.
Christians
have reduced what it means to follow Jesus into thinking that “engaging the
world” is holding to a different belief in a belief in one’s head, staying
aloof in religious clubs so as not to be surrounded by evil, and then going out
and manipulating public policy with their esoteric ideals so they can feel comfortable
as they wait for the grave where everything will be the betterment of the KOG
in the hereafter. They have no realization that one can be MORE present in the
world and utterly contrast it by being the KOG amongst the kingdoms of men in
the everyday living within the world, by being slaves of Another.
What
is the KOG amongst the kingdoms of men?
It’s
letting the world be as it is, as most missionaries do, yet living and being a
contrast within a foreign order. If the world order is air, we are perfume. Its
air carries us, but it is not us. The KOG is about being truth, love and
justice in our dealing with one-another. It’s about offering what we are to the
people we meet and interact with. The KOG is about being a contrasting reality
within the temporality of the world. But it is not a continuum that is a
dependable benefit to the world. The KOG isn’t about fixing the world or
changing it. Mud is mud and we need to get over that fact and allow it to be as
it is.
The
KOG is about doing the will of our Father in Heaven. It’s about doing only what
He shows us to do… So many of us do what we think is best and offer our best
efforts. But this so misses direct guidance; say nothing of obedience. The
problem with Christians is that they have gagged God, theologically. They’ve
limited themselves to trying to figure out a book, while not being concerned
that Jesus sits in heaven with a proverbial sock in His mouth. It wouldn’t
matter if He could speak because nobody is listening for direct guidance.
Christians continue to listen to Constantine, that the church and the state can
rule together and affect change in the world. Yet, they have failed to realize
that putting their lamp under the basket of the state has hidden (obscured)
their light.
In
these latter days, God is going to purify His Bride. The state will continue to
pressure change in the way of perversions, counterfeit progress and other political
footballs to keep the simpleminded pre-occupied. What calls itself church will
be forced to either throw out Constantine—and our belonging and identity with
him—or continue as the state’s pet and perish in God’s confrontation of the
order of the world. If believers do what is right, following Jesus will once
again become a persecuted involvement. In this renewed outlook, we will not
allow the state to tell us what we will and won’t do as far as the application
of scripture. We will become uncompliant with the state’s progressive
developments. We will disband our huge institutional edifices and take up
action in our homes through functional relationships; utterly depending on God
to meet, to minister, and to exist.
So!
The question is:
When
won’t there be the tale of two masters in your life? As a follower of Jesus,
when are you going to take God serious as your master and throw out the
impostor of the state and quit trying to belong to it? Christians continually
look for allowable options, but Jesus’ gospel is a very narrow way. God is
listening and seeking repentance from His followers who have not realized that
He is seeking differentiation between the order of the world and His order
(KOG). God’s word is clear, if you have not been taught to miss it.
End Notes
E.
The following sources park the chief meaning of Matt. 6:24 at dealing with
money and little else. Few of these do not deal with “serve two masters” other
than to say that money is the one master this verse is talking about:
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, Pulpit Commentary (Joseph Exell),
Expositor's Greek Testament, Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament, Matthew
Poole's Commentary, Adam Clarke’s Commentary, John Lightfoot Commentary, Wesley's
Explanatory Notes, John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible, Phillip Schaff's
Popular Commentary on the New Testament, Greek Testament, Critical Exegetical
Commentary, F.B. Meyers’ Through The Bible Commentary, Chuck Smith Bible
Commentary, E.W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible Notes
F. Merriam-Webster Dictionary - this
dictionary goes as far as to deemphasize “a servant” as being nothing more than
being “managed” instead of owned in reference to servants.
G.
I noted this reality in my first book, The Diluted Church: Calling Believers to
Live out of their True Heritage, pg. 23
H.
False Presence of the Kingdom, Seabury Press 1972 Congress Catalog Card Number
77-163369-736-272-C-6 pg. 96
I.
Hawk and the Eagle, by John Denver. In the lyrics Denver writes this notion of
human perfectability, “and reach for the heavens and hope for the future, and
all that we can be and not what we are.”
J.
Social justice, egalitarianism, social equity, and gender equality are knock
offs of what the earliest of church lived, which embodied the KOG as a
now-reality. These new articulations are strictly humanistic attempts to make
mankind appear better and transcending his old self…
