“No servant can serve two masters,” not because there are two, but the Lord is One.” (St. Ambrose)
“ ‘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’ (Matthew 6:24). In this life, it takes intensive effort to achieve a financial position which gives us anything resembling complete control. Our life becomes consumed with achieving temporary fiscal security. This is why the Lord teaches us to rid ourselves of “worry about . . . life, what you will eat or what you will drink . . . or what you will put on . . . For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (vss. 6:25, 32).” (Dynamis 6/23/2020)
“Our Savior is the light of the world, and to know Him means to participate in His divine energies from the depths of our souls. The eyes of our souls must become fully transparent to His light so that we will be able to obey His commandment: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14-16). If the light of Christ is not in us such that we gain the spiritual vision to know the Lord and see everything else in Him, we will inevitably end up serving at least two masters.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Political ideologies nationalism also demand our loyalty and can be that second master we desire to serve. Christ made it clear that one cannot serve two masters –either God is our master or something else we value is. Our role as believers is to put God first, to seek first God’s Kingdom, and to realize all other values pale in comparison in value. “God and country” is another divided loyalty and we cannot serve both masters. This is very hard for us to consider especially if we have been blessed by living in our country and we have a love for it. Christ is clear that His Kingdom is not of this world, and so we always must be aware of divided loyalties when it comes to citizenship for Christians.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“We must also remain on guard against the various forms of idolatry that tempt us to gain the world at the expense of our souls. The Lord rejected the temptation to repudiate the Cross for the sake of gaining earthly power and establishing a political kingdom for the Jews. We must likewise refuse to allow loyalty to any worldly agenda or group to obscure the demands of faithfulness to the way of Christ. That is true in matters seemingly large and small, ranging from our opinions about international affairs to how we treat our friends, neighbors, and family members. We cannot serve two masters in any dimension of our lives. Those who try to do so will risk losing their own souls in a vain effort to gain the world. The message of the Cross remains foolishness to those who make any scheme for success in this world their false god, no matter what it may be. If we become so enamored with anything that we refuse to place faithfulness to Christ first in our lives, we will show by our actions that we are ashamed of our Lord and His Cross.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
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