24. No man can serve--The word means to "belong wholly and be entirely
under command to."
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--Even if the two
masters be of one character and have but one object, the servant must
take law from one or the other: though he may do what is agreeable
to both, he cannot, in the nature of the thing, be servant to more
than one. Much less if, as in the present case, their interests are
quite different, and even conflicting. In this case, if our affections
be in the service of the one--if we "love the one"--we must of necessity
"hate the other"; if we determine resolutely to "hold to the one," we
must at the same time disregard, and (if he insist on his claims upon
us) even "despise the other."
Ye cannot serve God and mammon--The word "mamon"--better written
with one m--is a foreign one, whose precise derivation cannot
certainly be determined, though the most probable one gives it the sense
of "what one trusts in." Here, there can be no doubt it is used for
riches, considered as an idol master, or god of the heart. The
service of this god and the true God together is here, with a kind of
indignant curtness, pronounced impossible. But since the teaching of the
preceding verses might seem to endanger our falling short of what is
requisite for the present life, and so being left destitute, our Lord
now comes to speak to that point.
JFB.
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