Jesus and Money

You Cannot Serve God and Money

‘No man can serve two masters... Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Jesus is not saying money is evil or that you cannot own it. He is saying money makes a claim on the heart like a master claims a servant, and the human heart has only one throne. You will end up loving and trusting one above the other. The issue is not possession but allegiance.

What Jesus actually said

‘Mammon’ is an old word for wealth or money treated as something you rely on. Jesus personifies it deliberately, as a rival master, because that is how money behaves when we let it.

What it means

The key word is serve. Jesus is not banning money any more than owning a tool means the tool owns you. He is describing what happens when money moves from being a servant to being a master, the thing we trust for security, reach for in fear, and measure ourselves by. Two masters cannot both be first.

This is remarkably freeing. It means the goal is not to feel guilty about every dollar, but to keep money in its place: useful, held loosely, ready to be given. When God is on the throne, money becomes a servant that can do great good. When money is on the throne, even a lot of it never feels like enough. That is why generosity is the great test and the great cure, because giving is how you prove, to your own heart, which master you actually serve.

Frequently asked questions

What does 'you cannot serve God and mammon' mean?

It means money makes a claim on the heart like a master over a servant, and the heart has room for only one true master. Jesus is not forbidding money (Matthew 6:24); he is warning that you will end up trusting and loving either God or wealth above the other.

What is mammon?

Mammon is an old Aramaic-derived word for wealth or money, especially money trusted in and relied upon. Jesus personifies it as a rival master to show how money behaves when it moves from servant to lord in our lives.