God And Mammon

The warning of Jesus in Matthew 6:24 that no one can serve two masters could have many applications, yet the context sees Jesus immediately bring up God and "mammon," or money, as the two masters he is immediately speaking of.  Referring to these two things, he states rather clearly that trying to serve God and money as equal masters will lead to trying to put one over the other.  It is not that one cannot have affection for two things, but that treating two incompatible things as masters of one's life is inevitably disastrous for moral resolve.  It is folly to think that a person can base their life around any moral obligations rooted in God's nature and still prize money as their highest concern, or even as a concern equal to that of reason, truth, God, and morality.  What this does not mean deserves attention for the sake of conceptual clarity.

From a strictly logical standpoint, it is clearly true that having money and extended wealth is not the same as being driven by greed, covetousness, or any other kind of materialistic selfishness.  A person could have great wealth and not have a trace of greed in their mind or could not even have clothing and a home and be wildly consumed with greed.  A person with great wealth could also be seized with deep greed, and vice versa.  Money is something a person inherits or owns, while greed is a mental state characterized by a desire for personal gain at the expense of concern for truth, moral obligations, or other people.  All of this said, there is a way to distinguish between money and greed on a purely conceptual basis.

There is also a way to distinguish them in the context of Christian theology.  When God sometimes provides material wealth as an intentional sign of favor, as is the case at the end of Job, the Bible automatically contradicts the idea that wealth itself, whether it takes the form of money or broader material possessions, is a mark of wickedness.  Matthew 6:24's declaration that no one can serve God and money is therefore not a denouncement of money, but of prioritizing money over matters of truth and morality or prioritizing them equally.  The very nature of a deity with a moral nature deserves a far higher role in one's life than mere wealth.

It would therefore be contrary to Christianity to either treat money as an inherent sign of divine blessing or as something to be fearfully avoided.  It is not Biblically sinful to pursue money, use it for the sake of necessity and pleasure, or excitedly think about possessing or obtaining it.  Living in this way would not be an attempt to "serve" the two masters of God and money/mammon.  Instead, this does not have to involve anything more than displaying love of God by complying with his commands while still engaging in nonsinful pursuits one subjectively gravitates towards.  The issue arises when money is revered as the focal point around which life revolves.

It is possible to be devoted to God and love money for the practical security and benefits it can provide, but it is impossible to be a slave to the pursuit of money and truly be committed to God.  There would then always be conflict, or at least potential, perhaps imminent conflict, between the overemphasis on a mere social construct used to measure arbitrary financial power.  Moreover, it would already be philosophically invalid to place devotion to the only being whose nature could ground moral obligations with a social construct that involves arbitrary monetary values.  Understanding and reacting to the former deserves to be a higher priority than something of comparatively utter triviality.