How many masters do you serve? Think about that seriously for a moment. How many different things have control over you in your life? Do you schedule your time around a certain activity or television show? Do you do things a certain way to please someone in your life? Are you a slave to money? Is money the motivator for how hard you work? Are you a slave to possessions? Do you always have to have the top-of-the-line, next best thing? Is it something less tangible: are you a slave to your lust? To your anger? Examine this question honestly and thoroughly: how many masters do you serve?

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Was money on your list? Does it have control over your emotions? Stress level? Joy? God should be our primary source of joy. Since God is always with us, we always have the joy of the Lord. In Nehemiah 8:10, we are reminded that “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” I am sure that none of us would say that we hate God, but that is how God feels when we serve something other than Him. He tells us that it is impossible to serve two masters and it is impossible to love two masters. If we are serving some other thing or desire, then we are despising God.

What else are you a servant to? Your sinful desires? Are you a slave to the desires of the flesh? Galatians 5:17 makes it clear that the desires of the flesh are in direct opposition to the desires of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:17

“For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.”

The only one we are to be servants to is God the Father. We follow Jesus’ example of this as He made it clear when He was here on earth.

Mark 10:45

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.”

He demonstrated this servant-lifestyle everywhere He traveled. Perhaps the clearest example was at the Passover meal before His death when the Son of Man washed the disciples’ feet. There was no boy there to wash their feet, as was custom, and instead of any of the disciples recognizing this problem and stepping in, it is Jesus who served and washed the feet of His disciples.

In Luke 17:7-10, Jesus teaches us about the attitude we should have as servants.

“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

We are simply doing our duty. An attitude is a reflection of who we are and we are servants of the Lord, servants of one master: God. We would be wrong to ignore the greatest act Jesus made as a servant when He asked His heavenly Father to have the cup of the cross passed from Him, but “Your will and not mine be done.” Jesus was a servant to the will of His Father to die on the cross for our sins. If Jesus can serve in such a manner, how much more should we strive to do what God asks of us? God will never ask us to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, so everything else pales in comparison. We should follow Christ’s servant attitude and serve only one master, the Lord God. 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

—Redeemed