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Love and Hate

              “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

 

            You cannot serve both God and money, or power, fame, order, utopia, the common good, the government, self-interest/ego/self-fulfillment, romance/relationship, control/competence, heaven, or even goodness. I wonder how many people are aiming for heaven but have no desire for God? This is something we may know in our heads, but our lives tell a different story. Some claim that an atheist believes in no gods, but whether or not the atheist believes in a god, one or more gods rule their lives. It might be Reason, Themselves, Science, or any of a number of others – but whatever we accept as having power over the universe and ourselves is our god. It doesn’t have to be a being. It can be nothing more than an idea as long as our perceptions about the universe, other people, and ourselves are informed and directed by it. The thing that orders and directs is the god, and the order and direction are the religion. We might not grant them the titles, but they function as or in the place of God and religion.

            Some would object to the words love and hate because they believe them to be words that deal with emotions rather than operations. Hatred and love may have no emotions attached to them at all. It can be about obedience. If we love God, we will obey His commandments. If we don’t love Him, we’ll obey someone or something else’s dictates. It can be about choices. Neglect isn’t the result of seething emotions. It’s the result of a lack of emotion and attention. But you don’t neglect something or someone you love.

            And when you relegate someone or something to the #1 spot in your life, everything else must be less. Claims of “ties” and equal placement do not work. When those two masters disagree, which side will you take?

 

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