Matthew 6:24 (LSB)

Passage

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Nearby Context

Matthew 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Matthew 6:25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "serve", "masters", "either", "hate", "love", "other", "devoted", 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 your eye is bad your..." into verse 25's "For this reason I say to 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.