This famous verse continues the discussion of wealth, and makes explicit what was implied in
Matthew 6:21: a person cannot pursue both material goods and spiritual well-being. The two goals are mutually exclusive. This famous saying also appears at , but there it comes at the end of the
Parable of the Unjust Steward. In
Luke's Gospel, the saying is thus clearly one about God and money. In Matthew, the previous verses imply it can mean placing anything above God. Leon Morris notes that the ,
douleuein, translated as
serve, literally means
be a slave to, unlike in Luke where the reference is to servants. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translated the phrase as "No one can be a slave of two masters". David Hill notes that while labourers would frequently have more than one employer, it was impossible for a slave to have two masters and the author of Matthew may have chosen the slave metaphor as the clearer one. However, Morris notes that mentions a slave with more than one master. What Jesus is noting is not a legal impossibility, but a psychological one. While the slave might at first believe he can serve both masters equally eventually he will come to prefer one over the other. The slavery metaphor also can mitigate Jesus' warning. One cannot be a slave to both God and money, but it does not mean that one cannot be both a slave to God and also pursue a reasonable interest in money. This verse is not a call for the renunciation of all wealth, merely a warning against the idolization of the pursuit of money. The
word translated as "love" is
agapēsei. The word
mammon was a standard one for money or possessions, and in the literature of the period it is generally not a pejorative term. Frequently Jews were called upon to honour God with their mammon, by making donations. Some other texts, such as
1 Enoch, do use the pursuit of mammon as a negative contrast to the pursuit of holiness. Traditionally it was believed that Mammon was the name of a pagan god who was synonymous with greed, but there is no evidence that a god by this name was ever worshipped and it is uncertain how this word entered the lexicon. Despite this the word is still frequently left untranslated as though it were a personal name. The character of Mammon also appears in the works of
Milton. Matthew 6:24 also parallels part of Saying 47 of the noncanonical
Gospel of Thomas.
Thomas Aquinas has a homily on this verse, in which he states: "The Lord Jesus Christ shows in these words that God alone is to be served, and that no one is to be obeyed in opposition to God, and that no one is to be hindered from serving God, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,' Matt. 4:10." He then goes on to state fives reasons why we ought to serve God: 1) On the ground of congruity; for all things serve Him, whence it is sufficiently congruous that man also should serve. 2) He alone has in us the right of possession of us. 3) On account of the dignity of serving Him. 4) On account of the necessity of so doing. 5) For the sake of our advantage; for many profitable things flow to man from the service of God. ==Commentary from the Church Fathers==