Luke 16:13-18
“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.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
In the eyes of Jewish society then, the Pharisees were outwardly pious Jews who honoured God through their exemplary life in being blameless in keeping the Law. Yet inwardly they loved money. Though they justified well in the eyes of the Jewish society, God was not impressed at all knowing that they saw godliness as a way of gain.
So when Jesus taught that no one can serve both God and Money, they sneered at Him. These Pharisees could profess love for God outwardly but inwardly their real god was Money.
Jesus went on to teach that the old covenant was from Moses to John the Baptist and the new covenant had begun. And everyone had to force his way into the kingdom through jumping over the obstacles set up by the Pharisees. John the Baptist’s message of repentance centered on repentance from the sins of cheating and extortion originating from love of money and believers had to literally force their way in overcoming their covetous or greedy tendency to contentment. Luke 3:7-14.
But with the advent of the new covenant, it does not mean the moral Law or values will be discarded. So Jesus taught that it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out the Law.
I believe our Lord mentioned the law of marriage to expose the spiritual adultery of the Pharisees in believing they could have the best of both worlds. It is wishful thinking that they could worship both God and Money.
How similar are the modern day hyper grace false teachers with the Pharisees of old, though they preached two opposite extreme variants of the true gospel !
1. They can be so spiritual on the outside but inwardly they love money.
2. They see godliness as a way of gain. They preach a message of piety in tithing and giving, though one went further to stoke the covetousness of their followers through miracle seed teaching.
3. They trivialize or discard the law in order to justify covetousness.