You cannot serve God and Mammon
“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
No servant 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. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:9-13).
How can we make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness? If you have a friend who has earthly riches, you have to befriend him by remaining faithful to him in money matters. You have to win his confidence by your faithfulness. He will definitely help you when you are in a financial crisis. You cannot win a rich friend if you are not faithful to him in money matters.
Money is no doubt the mammon of unrighteousness. But you have to spend it frugally, not in a lavish manner, and for the purposes for which is intended. If you are not faithful in that which is least, that is the mammon of unrighteousness, you will never be definitely faithful in much. If you are faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness, you will be faithful also in much. If you are unjust in the least, you will also be unjust in much. “Much” means the true riches where least means the mammon of unrighteousness.
The litmus test for a budding Christian minister is the money or the mammon of unrighteousness. If he fails to remain faithful in financial matters by overspending his available resources or by spending the same in a reckless manner for things which are not absolutely necessary for his ministry, he cannot be trusted by God for inheriting the true riches. If he covets the mammon of unrighteousness for his ministry, he does not remain faithful in the least because covetousness of material possession is against God’s will (Luke 12:15). If he spends the mammon of unrighteousness for the purposes of evangelism or God’s ministry in a frugal manner, he remains faithful in the least and will remain faithful in much and God will commit the true riches to him. Today, many ministers of God who have coveted the mammon of unrighteousness and used the same for building their own empires on this earth do not possess the true riches of God. The mammon of unrighteousness is visible whereas the true riches are invisible. The true riches are unseen virtues of righteousness and moral rectitude. The true riches are unseen virtues of humility and selflessness. The true riches are unseen virtues of simplicity and longsuffering.
Jesus had the true riches in His ministry. He led a very simple life. Jesus could have trained and taught His disciples to inherit the mammon of unrighteousness. But He asked them to carry “neither purse, nor scrip nor shoes” but to remain in the same house, “eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:4 and 7). I am not advocating here that a traveling minister of God in these days should not carry his purse or credit card or his shoes. But I add here that he should not covet purse or script or shoes.
There is not a single passage in the gospels where Jesus is found soliciting funds either for Him or for His disciples. When He had no money to pay taxes, He asked Peter to go to the sea to look for a fish. When He was hungry, He looked towards the fig tree for fruits. The true riches possessed by Him resulted in great blessings upon those who sought His ministry. He healed all the sick that approached Him. He fed all the people through the five loaves of bread and two fishes. Today, we find in many miracle or healing crusades that the majority of the sick people return home empty handed without receiving healing. All the people who attend the meetings are not blessed. It is because the ministers of God concerned do not possess the true riches. They covet offerings from those who would receive blessings or healing through their ministries and also they do not lead the simple life that their Master led. Sadhu Sundar Singh of India had the true riches and people all over the world saw Christ in him. A true minister of God does possess the true riches because God has committed the same to him after testing him through the mammon of unrighteousness.
The mammon of unrighteousness does not belong to us at all. It belongs to another man i.e. the owner of this world. If we are not faithful in the things that do not belong to us, how can God give us the true riches which are meant for us or which belong to us? God wants us to remain faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness so that we may inherit the true riches from Him.
What happens in our wonderful Christian ministries which were begun by the servants of God concerned with much ado in the beginning? No doubt, God did entrust them with these great ministries by giving them the mammon of unrighteousness. But in the long run, they became a prey to the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness. In the beginning, they used to count and value every single penny given as sacrificial offerings by the people of God. But afterwards, when their coffers overflowed with the mammon of unrighteousness, they did not realize the value of the same amount of money that they had once received. For example, a minister of God in the earlier days of his ministry accepted with thanksgiving unto God even a sum of $10 or Rs.450/-. But when he starts receiving more offerings in terms of thousands of dollars every month, he does not realize the value of $10.
During my prophetic session in Delhi, I teach about ten students who hail from poor financial background. Yet I do not call them “poor” at all because I teach them to inherit the true riches and not the mammon of unrighteousness. I taught them to be dependent upon God 100% for their daily living and not to let anyone know their needs. On a particular day of the class, one student had no money to pay for his bus-fare to attend my class. He came to my class walking all the way from his house. The same student had no money in his house for celebrating his daughter’s birthday. On the birth day of his daughter, he did not have a single penny in his pocket and he did not ask his senior pastor for money but prayed to God as advised by me. At that time, the Holy Spirit led a believer to give him a ten rupee note without his asking. For him, the ten rupee note was very precious and he bought some sweet for his daughter. When he testified this miracle to me during the class, I told him that he should remember this incident for ever and that when God gives him a greater ministry, he should not forget this incident and should realize the value of this ten rupee note. For me, a 100 rupee currency note has no value but for this student, a 10 rupee note had great value. At the close of the session, I gave him a hundred rupee note and asked to spend this money and to give me a report as to how he has spent that money.
Ultimately, Jesus warns us against serving the two masters i.e. God and the mammon of unrighteousness. We cannot serve both of them at all. If we serve the mammon of unrighteousness, we despise God. There is no “in between” service. If we look at a particular ministry of today through our prophetic eyes, we do see the embodiment of the mammon of unrighteousness enthroned thereon which is apparent through the extravagance and superfluous assets of the minister of God concerned. No doubt, a minister of God is required to lead a decent and comfortable life and to posses such assets that are absolutely necessary for God’s work. But he should not “own” such assets either in his own name or in the names of his family members. Such assets should be owned and administered by his faithful co-workers as God’s stewards.
Dear minister of God, you may be thinking that by preaching the gospel or by performing signs and wonders in Jesus’ Name, you are serving God. But if you serve the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness, you cannot be serving God.
By Job Anbalagan