Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 6:24

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." — Matthew 6:24 (ASV)

No man can serve two masters—Literally, can be the slave of two masters. The clauses that follow describe two distinct results of attempting to combine these two incompatible forms of service. In most cases, there will be love for one master and a real hatred for the other. The person who loves God cannot love the evil world and, to the extent that it is evil, will learn to hate it. The person who loves the world will, even while offering lip service, hate the service of God in their inmost heart.

However, some natures seem hardly capable of such strong emotions as love or hatred. In that case, the outcome will be similar, though not identical. A person’s will drifts in one direction or the other. They will be devoted to one with whatever affection they are capable of and despise the other. Either God or mammon, but not both together, will be the ruling power in their life.

Mammon—The word means “money” or “riches” in Syriac and is used in this sense in Luke 16:9. It appears frequently in the Chaldee Targum, but no similar word is found in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. In the fourth century, Jerome found it in use in Syria, and Augustine found it in the Punic dialect of his native country. There is no reason to believe it ever became the name of a deity, like the Greek god Plutus, who was worshiped as the god of wealth. Here, it is obviously personified to contrast the service or worship of money with the service due to God. Milton’s description of Mammon among the fallen angels develops this same thought (Paradise Lost, Book 1, line 678).