Matthew 6:24 (DBY)

Passage

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Nearby Context

Matthew 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light:

Matthew 6:23 but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!

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

Matthew 6:25 For this cause I say unto you, Do not be careful about your life, what ye should eat and what ye should drink; nor for your body what ye should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, nor reap, nor gather into granaries, and your heavenly Father nourishes them. Are *ye* not much more excellent than they?

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "serve", "masters", "either", "hate", "love", "other", "hold", and "despise". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "serve" and "masters", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 23's "but if thine eye be wicked thy..." into verse 25's "For this cause I say unto you...", so "serve" and "masters" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "serve" and "masters" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.