No One Can Serve Two Masters (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 21 (on Matthew 6:24) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110/npnf110.iii.XXI.html

On why the two masters are irreconcilable, and why the change to a better service is easy:

"No man can serve two masters:" meaning here two that are enjoining opposite things; since, unless this were the case, they would not even be two.

And it seems indeed as if the same thing were said twice over; He did not however choose this form without purpose, but in order to show that the change for the better is easy. I mean, lest thou shouldest say, "I am once for all made a slave; I am brought under the tyranny of wealth," He signifies that it is possible to transfer one's self, and that as from the first to the second, so also from the second one may pass over to the first.

On the horror of setting the name of gold beside the name of God:

Thus He presently adds, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Let us shudder to think what we have brought Christ to say; with the name of God, to put that of gold. But if this be shocking, its taking place in our deeds, our preferring the tyranny of gold to the fear of God, is much more shocking.

On the difference between possessing riches and serving them:

Tell me not of them that are rich, but of them that serve riches. Since Job also was rich, but he served not mammon, but possessed it and ruled over it, and was a master, not a slave.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 109 (on Luke 16:13) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, Library of Fathers, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_10_sermons_99_109.htm

On the conclusion of the whole argument, that a slave of two contrary wills can please neither:

"for you cannot serve God and mammon." For if, He says, a man be a slave of two masters, of diverse and contrary wills, and whose minds are irreconcilable with one another, how can he please them both? For being divided in endeavouring to do that which each one approves, he is in opposition to the will of both: and so the same person must inevitably appear bad and good.

On the two opposite characters that the two services stamp upon a man:

For the unrighteous mammon, by which wealth is signified, is a thing given up to voluptuousness, and liable to every reproach, engendering boasting, and the love of pleasure, making men stiff-necked, the friends of the wicked, and contemptuous ... But the goodwill of God renders men gentle, and quiet, and lowly in their thoughts; long-suffering, and merciful, and of exemplary patience, not loving lucre, nor desirous of wealth, content with food only and raiment

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapter 14 (on Matthew 6:24) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf106/npnf106.v.iii.xiv.html

On who the two masters are:

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.

On the hard and ruinous master that the servant of mammon does not even love:

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. ... 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?

On why the Lord said "despise" and not "hate" of God:

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.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 6:24) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.vi.html

On the name mammon, and the covetous man who cannot serve both Christ and riches:

"Mammon," - riches are so termed in Syriac. Let the covetous man who is called by the Christian name, hear this, that he cannot serve both Christ and riches.

On the servant of riches, who is guarded by his money as a slave:

Yet He said not, he who has riches, but, he who is the servant of riches. For he who is the slave of money, guards his money as a slave;