YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
For some years now this poem by Robert Frost has been one of my favorites. Now, I know that I do not look like the poem reading type, and really, I do not read many poems, but I like having a poem to fall back on because it makes me sound literate.
It tells us of a moment in life where we must make a choice and choose the path that we will follow for the rest of our lives. For some this could be a career choice, for others a romantic choice and even for some it could be a choice of what to have for dinner. I have always thought the poem is a perfect reference to the time in our lives when we make the choice of whether or not we are going to accept Jesus Christ.
TO me, the imagery is just overwhelming. I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference. The point is that there are times in our lives when we must make a choice. When we must choose to go the way everyone else is going, or to go the way less travelled. This choice is discussed by Jesus in Matthew 6:24
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.
You cannot serve two masters. You cannot go down the road that is well travelled and the road that is less travelled at the same time. You can only serve one. All too often we try to do both, but it doesn’t work. You cannot be in two places at the same time.
You cannot serve both God and the World or your treasure. You actually must make a choice.
You must CHOOSE who you wish to serve. You have that choice to make. God has given us the ability to choose him or to choose our wealth. Now our wealth doesn’t refer to just money, although money tends to be the biggest player in this. It’s anything that we prize and make the most important in our lives. It could be drinking, sex, gambling, eating, clubs that we support. Anything that comes into your life that you choose to spend all or most of your energy on. Your work, your church, and your family can all be your mammon.
We have the right and the ability to choose, but the consequences of our choices have already been predetermined by God. The person who has accepted Christ as Lord has the rewards of an abundant life as is seen in John 10:10.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Life is better with Christ. With Christ, life is at peace, and no matter what tribulation may arise, the peace that God gives us is greater.
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Now if you notice in these two verses, they both play off of each other. The verses list the good things about following Jesus, and they list what you get when Jesus isn’t in your life. The first verse talks about a thief and the bad things that he does—he steals, kills, and destroys. Jesus is just the opposite—He gives life and instead of destroying he gives life that grows and thrives.
In the second verse notice that the worldly peace really isn’t peace at all! You get fear and worry and doubt from it, but the peace that Jesus gives provides us just the opposite.
It provides hope and courage, and that courage boils down to faith. If your god is mammon, then what do you have to look forward to? Destruction? Being Robbed? Fear? Worry? Doubt?
Or should we choose Christ and have peace and a more vibrant life? What a God we CAN serve if we so choose. In Exodus and Numbers, we read about the Jews, the children of Israel being led to freedom by the man God himself called to lead them. Now the Jews had been praying and crying out to God to deliver them from their bondage.
God heard the cry of his people and sent Moses to deliver them from slavery to the promised land. On the way the Jews felt that they were in an impossible situation and wanted to return to Egypt. They wanted to return to the shackles of bondage. Slaves without hope instead of trusting God to deliver them to the promised rest.
The Jews came to that fork in the road, and they took the road less traveled, but as they went down that road, they doubted the choice that they made. They wanted to be slaves of Egypt instead of servants of God. Slaves and servants are two different things.
A slave has no rights. They are property. They can’t make any decisions for themselves, and they are subject to the whims of an ungrateful master.
A servant chooses whom he will serve. It is the desire of the servant to please his master and his master in return loves him for it, but the servant is free. He is elevated above the value of a piece of property.
He is worth something to the master. You see, the Jews here learned that they could not serve two masters. They learned that they could not be a slave and a servant. Egypt would have been cruel to them. They would have been beaten and tormented for leaving. Their lives would have been miserable. They would have no hope no peace, only fear and punishment.
But they chose the better course. They continued on the road less travelled that they might serve a loving God who would reward them for their faithfulness.
We too come to that same road. That choice that we must make. Do we choose to continue in a life of sin, glorifying our mammon? It is written that “All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” All of us have sinned. When we sin, we are in bondage. We are slaves to the evils of this world.
Look at 2 Peter 2:19.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
Much better is it to be free and a servant of God than to be a slave of our mammon, slave to sin.
Matthew 19 : 16 - 22
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?"17 So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."18 He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,'19 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This man was a slave to his mammon, and he chose to remain a slave rather than lay down his sinful nature and be a servant of Jesus Christ. Did you notice that the only commandments that Jesus talked about here were the easy ones? Don’t steal, kill, commit adultery, don’t lie, honor your parents, and love your neighbor.
Jesus knew where this man’s loyalties lay. The other commandments are just as important, and Jesus chose to focus on the very thing that was holding up this man’s decision, his possessions, his mammon. Jesus isn’t saying that wealth is bad, and in order to follow him you must give up everything.
No. Jesus knew that this man was a slave to his possessions. He knew that the man was not a good steward of what he had, but rather what he had was a steward of him. Jesus doesn’t want our stuff; He wants us to put him before our stuff. You can still be wealthy and be a servant of Christ. You just can’t be a slave to your wealth and a servant of Christ. If this man had chosen to put Christ first and his wealth second, he would have had that life more abundant, he would have had the peace of Christ, but instead all he got was sorrow.
Woe is me. My life is so bad, I have all this wealth and can’t get to heaven. You can’t take it with you. You need to leave behind those things which come between you and God. You need to leave behind that baggage. There are no bags allowed on this direct flight to heaven.
Whatever you place first in your life will be what you focus on, and when we’re not focused on God we live an anxious life, full of doubt and worry and mistrust, full of fear and despair. Rather hope in the Lord and he will renew your strength, you will not stumble, you will not fall but rather you will mount up on wings as eagles. You see without this hope in the Lord you stumble and fall.
Why? Because you are shackled to your sins and that is a long cumbersome chain to try and walk around with. It trips you up and makes it so you cannot walk. Let go of your sins and let God be your master. Let go and let God. Jesus is saying for you and I to trust Him. You see the people that don’t trust him have all that anxiety. All that worry and doubt. Jesus is saying don’t get all worked up about the things that He takes care of. He has everything under control. He knows what he is doing. After all, He was the force behind Creation. He knows your needs even better than you do.
Matthew 6: 8
8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Trust him to provide daily what you need. Trust him and you will have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. Leave the thoughts of tomorrow for tomorrow. Stay focused on today. If you chose him as master, you have nothing to worry about because will be brought into the family of God.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Would you believe in his name? Will you put your own mammon aside and take that road less travelled? Will you be like the Jews and come out of your bondage into a land flowing with milk and honey? Will you be like the wealthy young man who had the opportunity to become a child of God, but instead turned away from Christ and remained a child of mammon?
Christian friend, have you let mammon come between you and the Master?
You see the choice is yours. You are standing in a yellow wood. Will you take the road not taken?