Chapter XIV.
47. Then, further, the statement which follows, “No man can serve two masters,” is to be referred to this very intent, as He goes on to explain, saying: “For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will374
| 374 Alterum patietur; Vulgate, unum sustinebit.
|
submit to the one, and
despise the other.” And these words are to be carefully considered; for who the two masters are he forthwith shows, when He says, “Ye cannot serve
God and
mammon.”
Riches are said to be called
mammon among the Hebrews. The Punic name also corresponds: for
gain is called
mammon in Punic.
375
| 375 Augustin is the only one to give this derivation. His residence in North Africa is the explanation of his knowledge of the Punic. The word probably comes from the Chaldee and through the Hebrew word aman, “what is trusted in.” (See Thayer, Lexicon.)
|
But he who serves
mammon certainly serves him who, as being set over those earthly things in
virtue of his perversity, is called by our
Lord the
prince of this
world.
376
| 376 John xii. 31 and xiv. 30.
|
A man will therefore “either
hate” this one, “and
love the other,”
i.e. God; “or he will submit to the one, and
despise the other.” For whoever serves
mammon submits to a hard and ruinous master: for, being
entangled by his own
lust, he becomes a subject of the
devil, and he does not
love him; for who is there who
loves the
devil? But yet he submits to him; as in any large
house he who is connected with another man’s
maid servant submits to hard
bondage
on account of his passion. even though he does not
love him whose
maid-
servant he
loves.
48. But “he will despise the other,” He has said; not, he will hate. For almost no one’s conscience can hate God; but he despises, i.e. he does not fear Him, as if feeling himself secure in consideration of His goodness. From this carelessness and ruinous security the Holy Spirit recalls us, when He says by the prophet, “My son, do not add sin upon sin, and say, The mercy of God is great ;”377
and, “Knowest thou not that the
patience378
| 378 Patientia…invitat; Vulgate, benignitas…adducit.
|
of
God inviteth
379
| 379 Patientia…invitat; Vulgate, benignitas…adducit.
|
thee to repentance?”
380
For whose
mercy can be mentioned as being so great as His, who pardons all the
sins of those who return, and makes the
wild olive a partaker of the fatness of the olive? and whose severity as being so great as His, who spared not the
natural branches, but broke them off because of
unbelief?
381
But let not any one who wishes to
love God, and to
beware of offending Him, suppose that he can serve two masters;
382
| 382 Luther says the world can do it in a masterly way, and carry the tree (or “water” according to the English figure) on both shoulders. This verse is a rebuke to those who think they can combine a supreme affection for heavenly and for earthly things at the same time, and pursue both with equal zeal.
|
and let him disentangle the upright intention of his
heart from all doubleness: for thus he will think of the Lord with a good heart, and in simplicity of heart will seek Him.
383
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