You Cannot Serve Two Masters
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – 1 Jn 2:15
This world system is anti-God and anti-Christ, and Satan sits as its head. This system occupies God’s creation and consists of people that God loves so much that He sent His Son to die for them, but God does not love the system! It produces people that tend to get worse and worse and need to be rescued. Much of this world is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual, but it is still anti-God and anti-Christ. So how can we, who have been rescued and freed by God from the clutches of this world, be friends of this world? For this reason, you cannot love the world and God at the same time. Love for the world pulls us away from the God’s love and for this reason, John says, “the love of the Father is not in him”.
Jesus said in 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 the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
If you love someone, you will hate anything that would cause harm to that person. If you are a parent who loves your children, you will hate anything that will hurt them. If you are married, you will hate anyone who will harm your spouse. If you love God, you will hate Satan and the world he rules.
This is clearly black and white stuff. There is no compromise. God does not work in compromise. You are either for Him or against Him. If say that you can love God and also love the world then it is like saying:
“I really love my wife but I don’t hate flirting in the office.”
“I really love going to Church but I don’t hate swearing and cursing with my friends at work.”
“I really love the fellowship in my Bible Study group but I don’t hate being unequally yoked with unbelievers.”
When we are focused on the world, we lose sight of eternity. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:18:
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
If we continue to love the world, we will lose sight of all that is eternal and we will forfeit the experience of knowing God intimately. Jesus calls us to store up our riches in heaven. To love the world is inconsistent with who we are as Christians. Loving and following the ways of the world, is like chasing after the wind, a meaningless futile exercise that leads to one’s own destruction because, it pulls away from God and it is perishable, and it prevents us from being focused on eternity.
We're not to love the world or the things of the world, or the love of the Father is not in us. Let's choose the good alternative, not just denying worldliness, but letting the love of the Father grow in us, caring more and more that he loves us and wants to be intimate with us, that he's available to us and will love us in return. For every indication of love that we give him, we get an infinite response back from him. It's a marvelous way to live. Choose the experience of the love of God, the challenge, the thrill, the laughter, the joy, the uncertainty and the adventure. To keep from being seduced by Satan let us fall more and more in love with the One whom we ought to love.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving us. Let us ask you to fill the broken cracks and empty holes in our lives, the places where we chase other people and things to fill. Please forgive us Today for relying on lesser loves rather than on you, our One True Love. As this world leaves us thirsty for more, we want to live our lives loving you and only you. Thank you that in you, "we will never be thirsty again" (John 4:14). Today, we choose to stop frantically pursuing other loves and instead embrace the power that comes with embracing your love. Let us empty everything so you can fill us with your unconditional love for us.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.