“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24
Beginning next Monday, we will be kicking off our 31-day scripture writing challenge for the month of July focusing on writing the scriptures that speak about “One Another.” It’s no surprise that God brought me to this passage in Matthew. As followers of Christ, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
As Jesus taught His disciples in this passage, that many of us know as His teaching on worry, He began by saying no one can serve two masters. Why did He start His teaching about worry this way? Who is the one and who is the other? Before we can live fully and freely to love one another, we first have to answer this question.
Jesus goes on to talk about how we humans worry about what we are going to eat, drink and wear. He points us to God’s creation and nature that is all around us. Look at the birds, He tells us. They don’t worry about what they will eat or drink. They don’t store up food in pantries, basements or barns. They inherently know and completely trust that God is going to provide for them.
So why do we worry? If God feeds the birds, He will feed us too.
Back to our question about the one and the other. When our focus, devotion, and love is on Christ, the One, we don’t worry because we know He will provide for our every need. But, when our focus is on the other, ourselves and our needs, we worry. We worry will we have enough, will we be enough, will we be liked, will we be in style, will we be accepted, …will we be loved?
When we spend our time and energy worrying about ourselves (the other), Jesus is saying that it’s nearly impossible to love the One (Christ). We are a slave to Christ or a slave to worry. We cannot serve two masters.
But, when our focus in on God and His power to provide all of our needs, physical, mental and spiritual, we can freely and openly love others because we are not spending our time, energy and resources worrying about ourselves. Let us remember that when we love the One whose name is love and seek Him first, we can confidently serve and love one another without restriction.
We hope you will join us for our 31-day scripture writing challenge on One Another beginning July 1. Click here to sign up.
His servant and yours,
Paula