“Now what I say to you is this: use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it gives out, you may be welcomed into the eternal home. Someone who is trustworthy in a small matter is also trustworthy in large ones, and someone who is dishonest in a small matter is also dishonest in large ones. So if you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who is going to trust you with the real thing? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what ought to belong to you? No servant can be slave to two masters, for he will either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and money.”
The P’rushim heard all this, and since they were money-lovers, they ridiculed him. He said to them, “You people make yourselves look righteous to others, but God knows your hearts; what people regard highly is an abomination before God! Up to the time of Yochanan there were the Torah and the Prophets. Since then the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is pushing to get in. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the Torah to become void. Every man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and a man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery.
“In other words, don’t strive after what you will eat and what you will drink — don’t be anxious. For all the pagan nations in the world set their hearts on these things. Your Father knows that you need them too. Rather, seek his Kingdom; and these things will be given to you as well. Have no fear, little flock, for your Father has resolved to give you the Kingdom! Sell what you own and do tzedakah — make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, riches in heaven that never fail, where no burglar comes near, where no moth destroys. For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also.
And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
You cannot be a good Christian and a good Roman. You have to choose one or the other. The two systems are always going to be at odds with each other. The Way of the Lord is not ever going to align with the way of humanity. The way of humanity is an abomination to the Way of the Lord. Yeshua responds to the scorn of those in the way of humanity by calling out those who are trying to serve two masters, “You people make yourselves look righteous to others, but God knows your hearts; what people regard highly is an abomination before God” (Luke 16:15 CJB). From the Geneva version it states the same, “Yee are they, which iustifie your selues before men: but God knoweth your heartes: for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15 GNV).
That which is highly esteemed, what people regard as important, what the way of humanity sets as a goal, is an abomination before God. You cannot be a good Christian and a good Roman. These two ways, these two kingdoms, these two thoughts, are always at odds with each other. These two spirits are at war.
Yeshua was imprisoned for teaching the Way of the Lord. Yeshua was murdered by the state for teaching the Way of the Lord. The apostles were imprisoned for following the Way of the Lord. Many apostles were murdered by the state for following the Way of the Lord. You cannot be a good Christian and a good Roman.
I know folks get caught up in this glorified ideal that they live in a Christian nation. There is no Christian nation. There never has been. There is no Christian nationalism because there is no Christian nation to frame that ideology upon. Trump did not hang on a cross for your soul. Yeshua did that. Biden did not wipe away your debt of sin. Yeshua did that. Congress did not pass a covenant with God. Yeshua fulfilled that. You cannot be a good Christian and a good Roman.
Every thing that folks judge as good that the way of humanity gives through the state is at the point of a sword. The state is incumbent on the threat and potentiality of force. The Lord gives through love. You cannot be a good Christian and a good Roman.
So, you are going to have to choose which master you are going to serve. Are you going to look for salvation in the way of humanity or in the Way of the Lord? That is your choice.
Shavua tov. Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.
