“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus - Matthew 6:24
This is a powerful truth that Jesus was speaking of. You cannot have 2 masters. He was speaking about money in this passage.
And in 2 Timothy 3 it says,
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
People will be lovers of themselves!
On a recent trip to a very beautiful place, I was struck by what might be a very serious problem that the Christian faces in 2018. On this trip there were about 20 people on a boat travelling from place to place together. In this midst of this beautiful place, people’s faces were glued to their phones. They completely missed the beauty around them. I was also looking forward to getting to know new people, but this was not easy in this situation.
We as Christians should be careful that we don’t become addicted to our phones. Ask yourself these questions.
1.Could you delete Facebook, Instagram, or any social media and feel completely at peace with it?
2.How often do you look at your phone, every hour? Every few minutes? Could you put it aside for many hours and be ok with it?
3.If you post something or post pictures and you don’t get many likes, does this affect your emotions?
No one can serve two masters. Has your phone become your master?
Why has this become a problem? 2 Timothy 3 tells us why. People will be lovers of themselves. Our phones have become tools that help us do this easily. We can create a life or a personality that is not at all who we really are, so that we will be more liked on social media platforms. We love being loved. We could be doing it all so we’ll be more loved. We have to go back to the truth; our heavenly Father loves us unconditionally. Is his love not enough?
One dangerous result of our addiction to our phones is that with our noses buried in our screens we are not looking up at the people all around us. God is interested in people. When Jesus walked the earth he was aware of people and responded to them in obedience to his father. Shouldn’t we have his heart too? Looking into people faces, looking for where we can be of help. Looking for where faces are tormented by hurt. Faces where the person may be hungry for God.
Let’s put our phones away and really look around us with prayerful hearts and see how we can serve our heavenly father.
This is a powerful truth that Jesus was speaking of. You cannot have 2 masters. He was speaking about money in this passage.
And in 2 Timothy 3 it says,
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
People will be lovers of themselves!
On a recent trip to a very beautiful place, I was struck by what might be a very serious problem that the Christian faces in 2018. On this trip there were about 20 people on a boat travelling from place to place together. In this midst of this beautiful place, people’s faces were glued to their phones. They completely missed the beauty around them. I was also looking forward to getting to know new people, but this was not easy in this situation.
We as Christians should be careful that we don’t become addicted to our phones. Ask yourself these questions.
1.Could you delete Facebook, Instagram, or any social media and feel completely at peace with it?
2.How often do you look at your phone, every hour? Every few minutes? Could you put it aside for many hours and be ok with it?
3.If you post something or post pictures and you don’t get many likes, does this affect your emotions?
No one can serve two masters. Has your phone become your master?
Why has this become a problem? 2 Timothy 3 tells us why. People will be lovers of themselves. Our phones have become tools that help us do this easily. We can create a life or a personality that is not at all who we really are, so that we will be more liked on social media platforms. We love being loved. We could be doing it all so we’ll be more loved. We have to go back to the truth; our heavenly Father loves us unconditionally. Is his love not enough?
One dangerous result of our addiction to our phones is that with our noses buried in our screens we are not looking up at the people all around us. God is interested in people. When Jesus walked the earth he was aware of people and responded to them in obedience to his father. Shouldn’t we have his heart too? Looking into people faces, looking for where we can be of help. Looking for where faces are tormented by hurt. Faces where the person may be hungry for God.
Let’s put our phones away and really look around us with prayerful hearts and see how we can serve our heavenly father.
「一個人不能侍奉兩個主，不是惡這個愛那個，就是重這個輕那個。你們不能又侍奉神，又侍奉瑪門。」馬太福音6:24
一個人不能有兩個主人，這是耶穌所教導強而有力的真理。在這段經文當中，耶穌所談論的是金錢。提摩太後書3章1至5節說：你該知道，末世必有危險的日子來到。因為那時人要專顧自己，貪愛錢財，自誇，狂傲，謗讟，違背父母，忘恩負義，心不聖潔，無親情，不解怨，好說讒言，不能自約，性情凶暴，不愛良善，賣主賣友，任意妄為，自高自大，愛宴樂不愛神，有敬虔的外貌卻背了敬虔的實意。這等人你要躲開。
人們將會變成自己的愛人！
在最近一次的旅途中，有件事情令我很震驚，而這可能是現代的基督徒正面臨的嚴重問題。在旅程中，大約有20個人一起搭船遊玩，雖然身處在如此美麗的景色當中，他們的臉卻是緊緊的黏在手機上，完完全全地錯過了環繞身旁的美景。本來我很期待能夠認識新朋友，但是在這樣的情況底下，認識新朋友是件很不容易的事情。
身為一個基督徒，我們應該要謹慎自己，不對手機上癮。試問自己：
1.你能夠刪掉臉書（Facebook）、IG（Instagram）、或是任何類型的社群軟體，內心完全感到平安嗎？
2.你多久會看一次手機呢？每個小時？每幾分鐘？你能夠把手機擺在一旁好幾個小時的時間而不去看它，也沒關係嗎？
3.如果你發佈文章或照片，卻沒有很多人按讚，這樣會影響到你的心情嗎？
一個人不能侍奉兩個主。你的手機成為了你的主嗎？
為什麼這會是一個問題呢？提摩太後書第3章告訴了我們原因。人們將會變成自己的愛人，而手機已經變成促使我們走向這光景的工具。在社群平台上，我們可以刻意營造出一個外表，為了讓人更喜歡我們，但卻並非是真實自我的生活或特質。我們渴望被愛。我們所做的事情，為的是讓人更喜愛我們。我們需要回到真理裡面，我們的天父無條件地愛著我們，難道祂的愛不夠嗎？
對手機上癮的危險後果之一，是我們埋首在螢幕裡，而無法抬頭看看周圍的人。神在乎人。當耶穌走在世上，祂關心注意人，而因著對父的順服，祂也回應人。難道我們不該擁有耶穌的心懷嗎？看看人們的臉龐，尋找我們可以提供幫助的地方，看看那些在傷害中痛苦人們的臉龐，也許那些正是渴慕神之人的臉龐。
讓我們把手機放一旁，認真地以禱告的心，看看我們的身旁，尋見那服事天父的方式。
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Dylan Olding
翻譯/潘鳳珠
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