The Two Masters: God and Society

Mat 6:24 No man can serve 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. You cannot serve God and mammon.

"Mammon" is not from any Greek term, and there is some debate about both its source and its meaning. The most accepted view is that it is from Aramaic mamona, "riches" or "wealth," probably from Hebrew mamon, "security," "that which is trusted," or "deposit" or Hebrew matmon, "treasure." The term comes possibly from Akkardian "mimmu" meaning "property." Though supposedly Mammon was the name of a Syriac god of wealth, there is little evidence for this. The idea that Mammon was the god of avarice seems to arise in a much later period, probably from Milton. The best sense of the word seems to be "putting your trust in wealth."

Also important here is the term used for "serve," which is douleuo. This term means to be a slave and deriving from the term for slave or subject. Christ is saying that everyone is a slave to some master. We are either slave to the physical, looking for our freedom in wealth, or we are slaves to the spiritual, looking for our freedom in God. This opposition is completely consistent with Christ's analysis of the world as physical, social, and spiritual, where the physical and social are confused with each other.

My sense is that Christ used the term "mammon" because it reflects social wealth (that which is trusted) rather than physical wealth. For example, paper money is not physical wealth. It is just paper, but its value comes from the faith we have in the social institution, that is, the government, that issues that money. Christ never speaks against physical needs. He is always speaking against the social constructs that we mistake for our physical needs. He makes this point clearly in upcoming parts of this sermon.

The terms used here for hate and love are the same as those used elsewhere in the Gospel, mise0 and agapao. These terms however are echoed (as Christ often does to make his meaning clear) in the terms translated as "hold to" and "despise," which are much more complicated and represent the heart of what Christ is saying here about human nature.

"Hold to" is a complicated term, antechomai, which means literally to "hold against." It is a common word in Greek literature with the seeming contradictory meanings of "enduring" and "clinging to." It has some of the same sense of the way we use "stuck" in English, where there is a negative sense of being "stuck with" someone and a positive sense of being "stuck on" someone. The term of antechomai is contrasted here with the term kataphroneo, which means "to look down on" or "think poorly of." Notice that antechomai (future tense) describes a physical act, holding onto someone, while kataphroneo (present or past) describes a mental act, thinking poorly of someone. Both are compound words with a preposition. Ante means "over against" or "opposite" while echo means "to have" or "to hold." Kata means "down" while phroneo means "to think" or "to feel."

Christ is saving that when you love your master, you both endure and cling to that master, but, when you hate your master, you look down on that master. The first term conveys a sense of dependence while the second term conveys a sense of superiority. He is also saying that when you are torn between two masters, your attitude is split in this way: one master is depended on while the other master is looked down on. This is a tremendously insightful observation of human nature.

Interestingly, today we have people who look down both on God and physical wealth, but who cling desperately to "social wealth" of status among the elites. Wealth earned from social activities (acting in movies, writing popular books, politics, fashion etc.) has more status than wealth earned from meeting physical needs such as food service, selling ordinary cloths, and everyday goods. These are those who worship "mammon" in the sense that Christ meant it.