You cannot have two masters.

[Heneni]

Jesus said...you cannot have two master. You will either love the one and hate the other.

Matthew 6: 24

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

I found this interesting piece by walter de la mere and it struck me that the love of money is just as irrational, as others feel we are about loving god.



Those who save money are often accused of loving money; but in my opinion, those who love money most are those who spend it. To them money is not merely a list of dead figures in a bankbook. It is an animate thing, spasmodically restless like the birds in a wood, taking wings to itself, as the poet has said. Money, to the man who enjoys spending is the perfect companion - a companion all the dearer because it never outstays its welcome.

It is responsive to his every mood...age, alas, has blotted out half that world of passionate delight in which I once lived, and to many of the things I once loved I have grown indifferent.

The love of money, however remains. So much do I love it that I feel almost a different person when I have money in my pocket and when I have none. Let me have but money, and , for the time being, I am back among the ardent attachments and illusions of the nursery.

From all this i am inclined to conclude that the love of money is a form of infatilism. The man who loves money is the man who has never grown up. He has never passed from the world of fairy tales into the world of philosophy (for philosophy, which is wisdom of the grown man in contrast to the wonder of the child, is as contemptuous of money as it is of jam, sweets, and bed-knobs).

Money, according to the philosophers, is dross, filty lucre, an impedimant rather than an aid to true happiness. Those who retain the nursery imagination througout life, however, cannot be persuaded of this. Money they regard as the loveliest gift ever bestowed on a mortal by the wand of a fairy godmother. They are like boys dreaming of a Treasure island; and their money-bags become almost as dear to them as - sometimes, dearer than - their country...

The love of money alone enables us in a very real sense to live till the end of our lives in the Golden Age.

Heneni

[ben d]

Thanks Heneni, that is an astute observation to make between the Mathew 6:24 scriptural quotation and the piece by Walter de la Mere.

And to guard against the tendency to complacency, one should keep in mind Revelations 3:15
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

[Heneni]

Jesus said....he is the bread of life...


And we must come to him if we are hungry and thirsty. Here is an interesting piece on appetite:

Appetite is the very essence of man, from which necessarily flow all those things which seem to preserve him.

Between appetite and desire there is no difference, save that desire is self-conscious appetite. It follows from all this that we desire and follow after nothing because we deem it to be good, but on the contrary deem that to be good which we desire and follow after.



If we then have an appetite for money...we will hunger and thirst for it.
If we have an appetite for god..if we hunger and thirst for him....we deem him to be good.

[ben d]

Originally Posted by Heneni

Jesus said....he is the bread of life...
And we must come to him if we are hungry and thirsty. Here is an interesting piece on appetite:

Appetite is the very essence of man, from which necessarily flow all those things which seem to preserve him.

Between appetite and desire there is no difference, save that desire is self-conscious appetite. It follows from all this that we desire and follow after nothing because we deem it to be good, but on the contrary deem that to be good which we desire and follow after.

If we then have an appetite for money...we will hunger and thirst for it.
If we have an appetite for god..if we hunger and thirst for him....we deem him to be good.

Rev. 3:20.
Look, I'm standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and we'll eat together.

Rev. 22:17.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is thirsty, come: And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely.