Two Masters

Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Observations:
 Key Word: Serve - shown in the arc: δύναμαι (dunamai) - to do, to act. However, the more common Greek text has the word δουλεύω (douleuō) - to serve or obey as a slave.

Sometimes this word is translated "worship". So it would not be incorrect to render the passage. "No one can worship two Lords... he will either love the one or hate the other... You cannot worship God and money."

Jesus is aware that people will always serve the master that they love. We will always be devoted to the one we want to serve and please.

Jesus makes another claim: It is impossible to serve two masters. Then He continues by explaining why this is true. He gives a negative and a positive proposition to explain the idea.  The explanation that He gives is clear and concise and He leaves no room for any sort of neutral ground. There seems to be no third option. Either they will serve God or they will not serve God. There is no un-affiliation. There is no "undeclaired".

Interpretation:
The way Jesus presents this teaching leaves it undeniable. The truth is that it is unavoidable; we will never be able to serve more than one god, more than one master, more than one idol. Truly, we will either serve the Creator or the created thing.

Rom 1:25 - ...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped andserved the creature rather than the Creator.

Paul brings more light into the situation by calling the disobedience what it really is - worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. And he says that it begins with exchanging the truth for a lie. What is this truth? An element is what Jesus brings forth - we cannot serve two masters. Jesus makes that an unavoidable claim. Either it is true or it is not. To accept Jesus as Lord is to renounce all desire to serve our natural desires. Those desires may take the form of many things and wealth is merely one of them. At the end of the day though, it is worshipping the created thing - the self.

Jesus commands His disciples to follow Him. However, what Jesus wants His discples to understand is that following Him means giving over themselves to Him. Calling Him "Master" means not only is He their teacher or Rabbi but also that He is their Lord and their God. It means renouncing all other allegences to the flesh, sinful desires, selfish ambitions, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.

Application:
Applying this to our lives is the very center of the gospel: Accepting Jesus as my Master

The question we should ask ourselves will always be: "Am I attempting to serve the Lord and someone else at the same time? What ways am I not giving Him complete service and worship?"

Want to see the arc? http://biblearc.com?11nt

The Lamp of the Body and Bible Arcing

Matthew 6:22-23 - The eye is the lamp of the body, so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Observation: Overall, this is given as a matter of fact. It is true of all people even though Jesus is teaching the disciples, it is a universal truth claim.

This the premise He begins with: the eye is the lamp of the body. The eye is elevated in importance and given the responsibility of supplying light to the whole body.

However He makes this condition: the eye must be clear - single (focused). Only then can it give light (vision) to the rest of the body. The alternative situation is also explained. If the eye is bad (defective) or evil (malicious) then its vision or ability to radiate light is forfeited. The result is continued darkness for the rest of the body.

Interpretation: Since our ability to see and understand and react to our surroundings is directly dependant on the clarity of our vision of the physical world. Jesus tells us that if we have a clear sight of what is important in life, the treasure of Heaven, then the rest of life can have coherance and understanding. vv 22-23 are in context with Jesus' teaching on money, so this directly applies to materialism and what we make our treasure (vv 20,21) and what/who we serve (v. 24). It is Jesus' overall intention to cause us to understand it is His lordship that must govern our lives. Anything else is darkness. When it comes to money, Paul supports this teaching:

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.But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 1Ti 6:9-11

The point that Jesus makes is that it really does matter what we desire. It does matter what we pursue.

Application: This clarity of sight is not a passive quality of the eye though. It requires intensionality to focus on the right things. If an archer is not even aiming at the bullseye of a target then it is certain that he will not hit it. In fact, he will be even more likely to strike an inocent bystander if he shoots without pointing at his intended target.

So for us, to be able to be obedient to Christ we must have our gaze on Him - our eye fixed on Him. Otherwise, every aspect of our lives will be darkened - shrouded from the light of His truth - which only leads to disobedience.

The questionsto ask ourselves are "Do I pursue Christ? Is my gaze on Him?"

If you would like to see the Bible Arcing tool where I did this study, here's the link: http://biblearc.com?e27o
It's a pretty dang intense method of examining the text.