Serving Two Masters
“Don’t you know that if you offer to be someone’s slave, you must obey that master? Either your master is sin, or your master is obedience. Letting sin be your master leads to death. Letting obedience be your master leads to God’s approval. You were slaves to sin. But I thank God that you have become wholeheartedly obedient to the teachings which you were given.” Romans 6:16-17
Throughout the old testament, the Israelites succumb to worshipping false idols on and off. Whether its worshipping graven images they physically made or living a sinful lifestyle with a mentality that excludes God from the picture, they abandon their Creator. My mom gave me a devotional named “No Other Gods” last year that I’ve been slowly working my way through amidst all the other reading/writing that I’ve been catching up on. While opening up this devotional and picking up where I last stopped, I came upon a verse in 2 Kings that caught my attention. A little while later, as I also slowly made my way through the old testament, I stumbled upon the same verse in 2 Kings, and it stopped me again. The verse read, “So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods.” (2 Kings 17:33). I read it again, and then again. What? They feared the Lord, but continued to serve their own idols anyway? They knew they were doing wrong, but continued to do it anyway? I read on and stopped at 2 Kings 17:41, “So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children-as their fathers did, so they did to this day.” Wow. I was shocked… and then the words settled in. I felt the Lord laying them gently in my lap, nodding, revealing them to me because I was ready to take them in.
You see, every time you’ve chosen something over God, it’s become a false idol. An idol doesn’t always mean a carved graven image. It’s not always physical. It can be mental and emotional. The state of your heart and mind is the state of your spirit. It’s about your intentions. What are you focused on? What are you valuing above everything else? Anything that takes up the most room in your heart/mind/soul and doesn’t leave enough space for the Lord, is a false idol. Whether it’s spending all your time on a romantic relationship, friendship, anxiety, fear, status, anger, jealousy, porn, sex, drugs, etc., what you invest the most time on is what you choose above all other things. That is a form of worship because you are devoted to what you deem important/what brings you pleasure. Even a positive thing can potentially turn into a bad one if you have no balance (and when you take God out of the equation, everything is out of balance). Are you procrastinating spending time with God so constantly that it eventually doesn’t stay a priority? Is what you’re choosing to focus on helping you or draining you? You know that Sunday School song (that I’m pretty sure every Sunday School teacher in America taught us), “be careful little eyes what you see? Be careful little ears what you hear?” It’s a cute song for kids, but it doesn’t simply apply to children. Sometimes adults need this reminder as well. What you fill yourself up with eventually becomes a part of you who you are and has eventual influence over your thoughts/emotions/actions.
Why is it called a “false idol?” The things of this world are material. Although they can feel larger than life, they are only temporary fixes with temporary value. Only the spirit is eternal. What will you live your life for? What will you prioritize? Life is like a breath of wind, a flash, and then it’s gone. (Psalm 144:4). Time waits for no one, but rather continually beats forward, the clock always ticking. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” While He may be found. Don’t wait too long.
The verse in 2 Kings applies so much to our world today because we’re really not that different than the Israelite’s back then. We “love” the Lord, yet we continue to live our sinful lifestyles and living for our physical selves rather than feeding our spiritual soul. We let everything get in the way of spending time with God and choose everything over giving Him at least a few minutes of our day. When you live your life that way, it not only affects you, but affects those around you who see your actions and assume that it’s okay. The verse says that the people not only served both idols and God, but so did their children, and their children’s children. It’s a ripple effect and it can span generations. This applies to everyone, unbelievers and Christians alike. You can sit in the front row every Sunday and still never pick up the Bible on your own time. You can consider yourself a Christian your entire life and still never let the Holy Spirit enter and dwell within your heart. Believing in God and following Him are two separate things. You can’t serve two masters and yet like the Israelite’s, we continue to try to do so, convincing ourselves it’s acceptable. I have been guilty of this too. We all have at one point or another. Even with the best intentions, as flawed humans, we will always fall short of the glory of God. I realize now that though I didn’t realize it, anything that takes away time from God is something I am placing before Him, and therefore I am saying I value that above Him. As I continued to walk deeper with Christ, He revealed it to me when I was ready to listen, and He will often do that. It’s why you’ll read a verse the first time and have a completely different understanding the second time you read it. When you finally understand, you are really paying attention. Not with a worldly view, but with a spiritual one. There are layers to revelation. He is a detailed God and He knows everything about your personality. He made you. He will reveal more and more the further you walk with Him because He knows when you’re ready. The further you walk into the waters, treading away from the surface and into the depth, the more you will receive revelation from the spirit.
Following Christ is not always easy, but it doesn’t mean we give up, because we know the glory of His presence, the goodness of His grace, the promise of eternal life through His love is much much better than anything the world could ever offer. There is joy in His presence, there is hope in His word, and there is freedom in following Him.
“So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.. Therefore do not let sin control your mortal body so that you obey its desires. Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.” Romans 6:11-13.
Who/What will you choose to follow and who/what will you live your life for?
