You Cannot Serve God and Mammon!

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27; Lk 16:9-15

Today’s Gospel highlights the impossibility of serving both God and Mammon. 

We must note that Jesus does not say, ‘It is difficult to serve both God and Mammon.’ Instead, he makes a definite statement when he says, ‘You cannot serve both.’ In showing both God and Mammon as incompatible masters who demand absolute loyalty, Jesus rules out the possibility of clinging to both at one and the same time. In other words, to serve God is to reject money altogether. But we must also accept the fact that our greed for money eliminates God from our lives.

Moving on, we find Jesus exposing the Pharisees, saying that the religious leaders of the day ‘loved money,’ and when they heard Jesus’ teachings, they ‘sneered at him.’ Though the religious leaders appeared devout and law-observing, their ultimate trust was not in God but in money. Thus, though they pretended to serve God, they turned money into their real god. Their hypocrisy and unfaithfulness are examples of the fact that while they paid lip service to the true God, they worshipped money. 

Jesus turns the Pharisaic hypocrisy and unfaithfulness into a moral lesson for his disciples. Successful discipleship depends on how we overcome the eternal struggle between love of God and love of money. Unfortunately, the love of money makes us falsely assume and believe that with money, we can secure our own future apart from God. Such a temptation turns money into a rival deity and not just a tool. 

Moreover, it is not surprising that many social media posts acclaim money as always ‘ultimate.’ In this regard, I came across an interesting description of money as ‘God in circulation.’ When money becomes the ultimate thing to be revered as god in circulation, we make ourselves subservient to it. This is how greed for money becomes idolatry because it blurs our vision of God.

For Jesus, the test of discipleship lies in where we place our trust. Undivided hearts are a sign that we trust and worship the true God. It is the God-first attitude that shows money its rightful place. 

Let us pray for grace to faithfully serve the one true Master – God!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar