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Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) It’s easy for us to think of serving mammon as trying to get rich; then the verse does not apply to us because “trying to get rich” seems like something for Bill Gates, or John Rockefeller, or Andrew Carnegie, not us—we feel that we’re just “making a living” or “working toward a goal.” And maybe we are. But if we look at the context of this verse, we may find that it addresses our situations a lot more than we think.

As noted above, the “two masters” verse quoted here is Matthew 6:24. Let’s take a look at the next section, verses 25 to the end of the chapter in verse 34:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

When we look honestly at this section, it becomes fairly clear that in verse 24 Jesus is actually dealing with making a living, not becoming rich—the rich generally are not too concerned about where their food, drink, and clothing are coming from. Jesus is dealing with whenever we work for money, not just when we are greedy.

So, considering this, what is He telling us about our working for money? Is He telling us to be lazy and never work again? No, because Paul wrote, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8) What then can it mean?

Jesus was dealing with the issue of servanthood, saying that if we are focused on earning a living, we will be unable to serve God. If we go to work to earn a living, and feel that it is our work that is saving us from starvation, then that work will start to rule our lives, and, unless we repent, we will cease to serve God, because it is impossible to work at earning a living and building the kingdom of God at the same time. One has to be focused on building the kingdom of God, serving God and being righteous. Then God will provide for us.

God’s wants us to make a living because it is His plan for us, not because of fear of starvation. He has appointed work as a way of providing sustenance (I Timothy 5:8), and of helping others (Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”), but when work becomes impossible, God does not forsake His people. Thus, our focus needs to be on building the kingdom of God. When that involves a job, then we can build His kingdom through a job, and when it doesn’t, we can still trust God to provide for us, and we still need to, and still can, work for God.

God wants people who are completely devoted to Him, because He can use no other kind. “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,  That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:9-12)