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Friend, you were made to serve the King!

Matthew 6:24 “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.”

Yeshua (Jesus) ties it all together now: the treasure, the heart, the eye, all of it lands on this understanding — no one can serve two masters. This isn't a nice suggestion for balance; it's a Kingdom fact: God did not design our hearts to answer to two thrones at once.

To fully understand what Yeshua is saying, we have to step into the Hebrew mindset of this passage, because these understandings can easily get lost in translation.

Let’s start with words — love and hate, because this is where people usually get tripped up. In covenant language, love and hate are about loyalty, not sentiment. Think about Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Scripture says he loved Rachel, and God saw that Leah was hated (Genesis 29:30-31). Does that mean Jacob hated Leah as a human being? Not at all. It's describing how Rachel held first place, covenant priority in his life.

So when Yeshua says you'll love one master and hate the other, He's talking about allegiance. One gets your loyalty, and the other gets pushed to the edges, whether we admit it or not.

And God was always about loyalty. Every Jewish child would have grown up quoting the Sh’ma (שְׁמַע), which states: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One; love Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Not half your heart. Not whatever's left over after everything else gets its share. All of it. God isn't asking for a slice of your life; He's asking for all of you. This is the very commandment Yeshua points back to when He's asked which is the greatest commandment, and He quotes the Sh'ma straight out of Deuteronomy 6:5, telling us the whole Tanach (Old Testament) hangs on this, adding, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Now let's look at that word mammon, because it's not just a fancy word for money. It's Aramaic, not Hebrew, and comes from a root connected to aman (אָמַן), the same root you hear in amen, meaning to trust, to be faithful, to be established. So, at its core, mammon means whatever a person leans on for security. Yeshua isn't just warning us about cash in the bank; He's calling out our habit of building our safety, our identity, our whole future on mammon instead of on Him. Mammon can become a false god the moment we look to it, instead of the Lord, for provision and peace. It can promise security but cannot give peace. It can fill the hand but cannot heal the soul. It can be gained in a lifetime and yet lost in a moment.

The last word worth digging into is serve. In Hebrew, it is avad (עָבַד), and it means serving, laboring, and worshiping. That's no coincidence; it is a revelation. Whatever you serve receives your strength, and whatever receives your strength can eventually become what you worship.

So the real question isn't whether you have money; it's whether money has you.

Let's be clear: Yeshua isn't attacking the wealthy. Abraham was wealthy. Job got everything back double. Solomon's riches were part of God's blessing, not a mark against him. The money was never the problem; it's who's sitting on the throne of your heart. Paul says it best in 1 Timothy 6:10: it's not money itself but the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. When God is King, wealth becomes a tool in a steward's hand. But let mammon take the throne, and that same wealth becomes a chain. Yeshua draws this line not to keep you poor, but to keep you free!

This is where the ashrei life is found, blessed is the one whose heart belongs to the one Master who faithfully provides, no longer ruled by the fear of lack or the relentless hunger for more, but rests like the lilies of the field, who neither toil nor spin, yet are clothed by the Father in glory, trusting that He who provides for them will surely provide for you.

Friend, celebrate your trust in Him today, not your bank balance. Let your heart run to the Lord first, because that's where you truly find security, and His Kingdom stands stronger than every promise the illusion of mammon ever made. Ashrei is the one whose heart belongs to one Master, because the one who wholeheartedly serves the King is truly free!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George & Baht Rivka (Baltimore, Maryland)

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