No one can serve two masters.
Mt 6: 24-34
The teaching of this Sunday is as follows: The disciple is to have single-minded devotion to God in contrast to hypocrites who pretend to give to God but in fact collect their reward from men. The disciple is to be a slave of God alone, and have no care for anything except his will; and if he does this, he should not be afraid for himself, because the God whom he serves is the God who cares for his creation. You can rely on him today and tomorrow.
The connection with the Beatitudes – The man who lives by faith (who puts his trust in God’s providence) is not anxious about his life. He is poor in spirit. God will reward him in the age to come and will clothe him and feed him here and now.
v. 24 - "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Mammon is an Aramaic word for ‘wealth’ or ‘property’. Devotion to God cannot be combined with devotion to mammon because there will be times when the former will require the sacrifice of the latter (cf. 5:29. 30. 40). A choice has to be made between God and wealth or between faith and anxiety.
v. 25 - "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
The disciple may protest: “But I must have enough to live and to clothe myself.” The reply of Jesus is: “God who has made life and the body will surely take care after those things which are less than these, that is, food and clothing.
v. 26 - Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?
If God feeds the birds, how much more will he feed men.
v. 27 - Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Anxiety cannot increase the “helikia” of a man. The Greek word may be translated as “span of life” and “stature”. These things are in the hands of God. Cf. Mt. 5:36.
vv. 28-30 repeats the argument found in v. 26. Anxiety is the penalty for men of little faith.
v. 31 - So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
Compare this verse to v. 25. This is another example of inclusion, a technique used by Matthew to round off the passage.
v. 32 - All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
The Gentiles who live without faith in God (cf. Mt 5:47) are anxious about these things. The disciples in contrast trust in God because he is a Father who knows all their needs even before they ask (cf. Mt 6:8).
v. 33 – But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
Righteousness with reference to moral conduct means conformity with God's will. It may also mean the saving activity of God.
v. 34 - Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.
It is futile to be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow is completely outside our possible control today (cf. Mt 5:36 ; 6:27).
Compare vv. 33 and 34 with vv. 10 and 11 of the Lords’s Prayer both found in this chapter (Ch. 6). Kingdom , righteousness, tomorrow, this day and kingdom, will (= righteousness), this day, tomorrow.
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