Luke 16:13-15 — Only 1!

 READ THIS: Luke 16:13-15

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

If you remember from yesterday's blog post, Jesus's words here come right after a parable about worldly riches. Jesus is trying to make one thing clear to the Pharisees in particular, but also to us: you can only serve one master in this life... so who will it be? As verse 14 tells us, many of the Pharisees loved money and loved God, but here we see Jesus telling that between God and money, they can only choose to serve one of those "masters."

While money may not be the thing that we are tempted to serve, the lesson here is still just as important for us. We, like the Pharisees, can only truly serve one master, but sometimes we think we can serve God and something else. Whether that is friends, a relationship, social media, attention, popularity, or something entirely different, we have to remind ourselves every day that we can only choose one master to serve. As Jesus reminds us at the end of the passage, the things that the world values are often detestable to Jesus. Who are you choosing to serve today?

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. What worldly master can you be tempted to serve? Why?

2. Why can't we serve two masters? What's so bad about following Jesus and something else?

TRY THIS:

Write the number "1" somewhere that you can see it a lot today. You can write it on top of the papers you use for school, write it on your hand, or put it on a sticky note in your car. Let it be your reminder this week that you can only serve 1 master every day!

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