Two Masters - But Who do You serve

The Scripture in Revelation 3:14-22 has been coming to my mind a lot recently, especially verses 15 & 16. It talks about us being lukewarm, in other words serving two masters, the Kingdom or the world. If we are lukewarm, that means we want the best of both worlds. We want the best of the Kingdom, and we want the best of the world.

But God is very clear in this passage, and others, that it’s all or nothing - we either serve Him as Master, or we choose the master of the world. Yet as Christians, I wonder if we’ve truly learnt the implications of ‘sitting on the fence’. We want to straddle the Kingdom and the world and hope that God won’t notice.

Here’s a picture that God showed me - the wall between our neighbour and ourselves on the driveway is low. That’s how most of us perceive that picture of straddling the Kingdom and the world. (Left Picture).  But if we move to the wall between the street and the house (Right Picture) – it’s higher, a little more difficult to straddle. So if we look at the pavement as the Kingdom and the bushes and roses as the world, we see the entanglements and the thorns that harm us as we try and live in the world and enjoy the things of the world more than the ways of the Kingdom. Yet the pavement represents the ‘Highway of Holiness’ – it’s not always a smooth way, but it’s the only way.

From First15 Devotional 17 May 2026 - “Complexity enters into our lives as soon as we try and juggle living for the world and living for God. There is a fence between this world and God’s Kingdom too high to straddle. It is impossible to put one foot in God’s Kingdom while keeping a foot in the world.

You cannot have both love for the world and love for your heavenly Father. This world is at enmity with God (James 4:4). It is set against him and his ways. But you and I have been given a choice by the powerful sacrifice of Jesus. We’ve been given a real, available option to serve and love the eternal, Almighty God.

It’s time for the Bride of Christ to end its affair with the world. It’s time for us to let God love us and in response live for Him alone.”

We are reminded that we are in the world but not of the world. We’ve been created to transform the world around us, not be shaped by the world. We cannot love God and love the ways of the world in equal measure. We cannot be in friendship with the world if we want to be called friends of God. We have to determine what’s in our hearts and who or what we will be beholden to when we make our choice about who we are serving and where our desires lie. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot be lukewarm.

Too often, we have not exhibited a lifestyle of being fully satisfied in God and His plans.  We exhibit a lukewarm faith where we neither experience the fullness of God or what the world has to offer.  As a result, our lives are lived without passion, joy, or abundance in any form.

Sometimes for Christians the dilemma arises about who we are to obey when it comes to the things of the world, and especially the laws of the land. The Bible says in Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, and Luke 20:25 that we are to give to Caesar what’s due to him, and God what due to Him. Whilst our first priority is to give everything to God, I believe that in this verse, Jesus encourages us that we must be obedient to the laws of the land. We need to let the ways of the Kingdom shape how we honour these things. 

We must obey the law, and we must pay our taxes and dues. We need money to live, so earn that money honestly. But don’t let money or the job/way of earning that money become the master. It becomes the master when we think about money more than we think about God. It becomes the master when we pursue riches rather than pursue the Kingdom. The same applies to all the things of the world that we chase after.

Scripture is very clear that we should fix our eyes on God – Matthew 6:24 urges us to worship the true God and not be enslaved by money. Colossians 3:14-17 reminds us that the Word of Christ must dwell in us richly and flood us with wisdom. That every activity of our lives should be drenched with the beauty of Jesus. 1 John 2:15-17 is the warning that we are not to love the world or the things of the world because the things of God and the things of the world are incompatible. The desire to be in the world leaves God out of the picture, or at least at a lower rung in the equation.  Hebrews 12:1-3 reminds us why we need to serve the Lord as our King and Master – that way we will run the race set before us and we won’t become worn down or cave in to life’s pressures. God has a plan and a destiny for us, and as we keep seeking the Kingdom of God, as we keep gazing upon His beauty, as we continue to praise God in the beauty of His holiness, then we will know that we are on the path set before us, serving only God and the Kingdom.

I encourage you to consider whether you are indeed serving two masters.  Or maybe you are a lukewarm Christian.  And if you are, then simply confess and repent and choose to serve the Only Master who is worthy of being served – God. Live for the Kingdom and bring Heaven to earth every day.

Blessings

Jean

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