| The Christian Life | March 1943 |
Two Masters
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”—Joshua 24:15
SINCE the fall of man in Eden two powerful principles have been operative in the earth, one righteous and the other evil. Back of these principles have been their sponsors. The principle of righteousness emanates from and is promoted by the Creator, Who, to the Christian, is the loving Heavenly Father. The principle of evil is promoted by the great adversary of God, the fallen Lucifer, variously designated in the Bible as the Devil, Satan, and “that old serpent.”—Isa. 14:12; Rev. 12:9; 20:2
Man, who was created in the image of God, would, by nature, prefer to yield to the influences of righteousness and to live in harmony there-with. But on account of the original transgression of Adam, the entire race is born in sin, hence inclines away from God and from the high principles of righteousness sponsored by Him. There have been a few, however, throughout the ages to whom God has spoken and with whom He has specially dealt, and these, under the encouragement of this divine fellowship, have striven against the downward and evil tendencies with which they have been surrounded and by God’s grace have been overcomers.—Jas. 5:10,11
Sin in the earth, under the leadership of the fallen Lucifer, could have been prevented by the Creator, but in His wisdom He saw that great advantage would accrue to the human race by permitting them to experience the terrible results of disobedience to divine law. Nor does the fact that Satan and the principle of unrighteousness have dominated in the affairs of men since Eden indicate that God has lost control of the situation nor that His spirit of love and righteousness is inadequate to combat the forces of evil. It is simply that He continues to permit evil in order that each generation of the race, in its turn, may experience what the rulership of Satan means, so that when later the opportunity is given to them to choose between good and evil, their choice will be an intelligent one, based upon actual experience.
In Genesis 3:15 God gives us a hint of the great struggle that would exist between those who would serve Him and those serving the Adversary. He explains that He would put enmity between these two classes, which He here symbolically describes as the “seed of the woman” and the “seed of the serpent.” In the light of God’s unfolding plan we today are able to know that the seed of the woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15 is in reality the Christ or Messiah of promise, consisting of Jesus, the Head, and the church, His body. But the Adversary did not understand this and since God, beginning with Abel, has. been selecting others also from the fallen race and preparing them for future service in the Messianic Kingdom, Satan took occasion to oppose these too, so that all who have served God and endeavored to live righteously from Eden until now have felt the result of Satan’s enmity against them. This enmity will continue until Satan is bound and the Kingdom fully established. We are told that then the “rebuke” of His people will God take away from off the face of the whole earth.—Isa. 25:8
Both Masters Demand Obedience
When, in Genesis 3:15, God said that He would put enmity between those who served Him and those who did not, He didn’t mean that He would be the creator of strife: The strife, rather, is the unavoidable result of obedience to God by those who serve Him and the yielding to the influences of evil on the part of those who serve the other master, which is Satan. God causes this warfare only in the sense that He sets up the high standard of righteousness for which those who essay to serve Him are bidden to strive. God permits the Adversary to exercise his counter influences in an effort to beat down the courage of those who have turned their faces toward God and are resolved to overcome, in all its forms, the spirit of selfishness which they recognize to be Satanically inspired.
The divine law, which has been the touchstone of righteousness, has, throughout the ages of the divine plan, called for obedience in many and various ways, but regardless of the details, the incentive for obedience, as well as the great objective to be obtained by it, has been love. Satan, on the other hand, has influenced his subjects through the appeal of selfishness. Every detail of the confused and conglomerate mass of misconceptions and deception by which he has led people away from God for six thousand years has been an appeal to the self-interest of those under his influence. God Himself is love and demonstrated the principle which motivates all His purposes—and by which He desires His servants to be influenced—by giving the dearest treasure of His heart, His only begotten Son, to be man’s Redeemer. Satan’s spirit of selfishness is revealed by the Scriptural explanation that he attempted to usurp God’s position in the universe, and it is this same spirit of self-seeking that he endeavors to inculcate in those who serve him.—Isa. 14:12-14
It helps in an understanding of what constitutes God’s spirit of love, the Holy Spirit, to contrast what the Scriptures say about it, with what they say about the selfish and unholy spirit of Satan. Various manifestations of the Holy Spirit are referred to as “the Spirit of Christ,” the “Spirit of holiness,” the “Spirit of truth,” the “Holy Spirit of promise,” the “Spirit of meekness,” the “Spirit of grace,” the “Spirit of prophecy.”
The various manifestations of the spirit of Satan are described as the “spirit of fear,” the “spirit of bondage,” the “spirit of the world,” the “spirit of error,” the “spirit of divination,” the “spirit of antichrist,” and the “spirit of slumber.” Just as all the various manifestations of God’s Spirit represent the operation of love in one form or another, so these different forms of evil are all representative of selfishness.
Divine Admonitions to Obedience
Many of the divine admonitions contained in the Scriptures for the guidance and encouragement of the Lord’s people reflect the thought of the two masters who are calling for our, obedience. One of these, for example, is that of our text, Joshua 24:15, in which Joshua calls for the obedience of Israel to God by saying, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” In this particular instance the choice was to be made between the heathen gods, served by the nations from whom the Israelites were separated, and Jehovah, the true God. From the time that Israel left Egypt, Satan had endeavored to lead them away from Jehovah by appealing to their selfishness. God permitted them thus to be tested, the tests almost always being in connection with material plenty and comforts.—Exodus 16:3,8; 17:2,3
The false gods set up by Satan, the super-lord of all false gods, are, not always those of wood or stone or clay such as are worshiped by the so-called heathen nations. Christians today are not tempted to worship a sacred cow or a wooden image, but many have to choose between full devotion to the Heavenly Father and the giving of time and strength and influence to the worship of a symbolic golden calf.
In the city of Ur, from which Abraham was called by Jehovah, the people were worshipers of a moon-god. The spiritual seed of Abraham today are not tempted to worship a deity like that, so Satan appeals to their selfish instincts along other lines. He endeavors to lure them away from the course of full devotion to righteousness by holding up before them the pleasure god; or the god of ambition; or pride; or vain-glory. Any or all of these may become idols which we could set up in our hearts and by worshiping them be drawn away from full devotion to the true God.
A Daily Choosing
It is not enough that, in the beginning of the way, we choose to serve the living God. Every day from that time forward Satan, by one means or another, sets before us the opportunity of serving other gods, and brings all the pressure to bare upon us he possibly can in order to turn us aside from the course of full devotion to the Heavenly Father. Daily, therefore, we will find it necessary to choose whom we will serve. Our success in overcoming the selfish influences of the various Satanic suggestions and deceptions with which we are daily presented will depend largely upon the firmness with which we decide to do the right. Hesitation and faltering indecision are almost certain to lead to defeat. On this point the Scriptures admonish us, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”—Jas. 4:7; I Pet. 5:8,9
It is folly to suppose that we can successfully serve two masters. This is clearly pointed out to us in Luke 16:13 where we read, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” In this particular case the master, Satan, is indicated as making his appeal for our devotion through the love of money or “mammon.” The same principle, however, holds true irrespective of the method which Satan may use in appealing to our selfishness. The Apostle James expresses the same principle when he says that “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”—Jas. 1:8
Not only does Satan, the master of unrighteousness, endeavor to lure us away from our devotion to the true God by direct appeals to selfishness, but he attempts also to break down our determined devotion by putting obstacles in our pathway which make it hard to carry out our consecration. He may bring persecution, for example, coupled with the tempting suggestion that we could avoid all this by being less zealous in our service of the true Master. He may cause the loss of our friends or of our good name and in many other ways impress upon us the many disadvantages which accrue from what he presents as the foolishness of serving the true God. All of this is part of the enmity which he manifests toward the seed of the woman. Our only hope of being able to withstand his attacks is by relying on God’s promises of grace to help in every time of need.—Heb. 4:16
Darkness for Light
In addition to the allurements and the obstacles by which Satan attempts to break our allegiance to God, he also uses the method of deception described by the apostle as the art of “appearing as an angel of light.” (II Cor. 11:13-15) This simply means that he attempts to have us serve him while verily believing that we are opposing him and serving our Heavenly Father. The only safeguard against being misled by his deceptions is that of our full devotion to the principles of righteousness set forth in God’s will for us. The great objective of God’s plan for each of His servants is that they might be filled and controlled by His spirit of love. During the Gospel age the great test of our obedience to the principle of love is our own willingness to lay down our lives in the divine service. In this we have Jesus as our example.
If our consecration to God is not whole-hearted and absolute, Satan will be able to deceive us by pointing out ways of alleged service which do not call for the laying down of our lives in sacrifice. The flesh does not like to sacrifice. The flesh is better pleased when it is pampered and cared for and made comfortable, when it is looked up to and praised and petted. Any deceptive suggestion calculated to make us believe that we should thus cater to the flesh will, indeed, deceive us if we lose sight of the terms of our consecration. If we keep in mind the demands of love, and remember that the narrow way in which we are walking leads to sacrifice and death, not to ease and comfort, Satan will not be able to influence us by any of his seducing doctrines.
Darkness and light as antitheses are closely associated in the Scriptures with selfishness and love, which are also opposites. As our Heavenly Father is the God of love, He is also the God of light; and as Satan is the god of selfishness, he is also the god of darkness. Allied, with these opposites are also death and life, so when we think of the master, Satan, we associate with him the principle of selfishness which leads to darkness and death. And when we think of Jehovah, our Heavenly Father, we associate with Him the thought of love and light and life.—I John 4:16; 1:5; Psa. 36:9; John 17:3
Darkness symbolizes the reign of evil accompanied by all the nocturnal experiences of fear and pain and finally death. Contrasting with this is the beautiful symbol of light and the blessings of peace and happiness and finally of everlasting life to be available for all’ who, when the opportunity is afforded, bring themselves into line with God and the great principle of love for which He stands and by which all His intelligent creatures who want to live forever must be motivated.
Throughout the ages there have been many wicked characters in the earth who, through their selfish arrogance, cruelty, and degradation, have been apt representatives of the Satanic god whom they served. Likewise, there have been many righteous and noble characters, as, for example, the ancient worthies of the Old Testament, who, through their love for their fellowman and their devotion to the principles of divine righteousness, have exemplified, in various ways, the character of God. In addition to all this “cloud of witnesses” there is another who stands out preeminently, so preeminently, in fact, that He could say to His disciples, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (Heb. 12:1; John 14:9) This was Jesus, the living example to us of what is involved in serving the true God. Because Jesus was fully at one with His Heavenly Father and because in the perfection of His glorious character, He displayed fully the love which caused His Father to send Him into the world to be man’s Redeemer, we read that “in Him was life; and the life was the light of men.”—John 1:4
Of Jesus it is also said that He was God manifest in the flesh. (I Tim. 3:16) This, of course, doesn’t mean that Jesus was God. What it means is that the clearest conception we may now have of the glorious character of God is that which we see exemplified in the life of Jesus. Jesus, by His faithfulness in laying down His life, revealed for us the true significance of all the divine requirements of those who take up their cross to follow Him into death. When Satan presents his deceptive theories which are calculated to turn us aside from the narrow way, we need only to look unto. Jesus and learn from His example how He interpreted the divine will in His own life, to be sure of what God would have us do. He, then, is our living Example and as such, our Master, our Teacher, in the things of God.
Final Victory
The enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will end in a complete victory for God and for all the forces of righteousness emanating from and sponsored by Him. The church will be given the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in God’s due time Satan himself will be bound for a thousand years. Through the Christ, the evil influences of selfishness and darkness and death will be dispelled and finally eradicated from the earth. The knowledge of the glory and love of God will be universal, and those who yield fully to its influence will, themselves, become filled with the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of love, and will not only be restored to perfection, but given the opportunity of living forever among the other millions of restored and happy humanity—happy because they have learned that the way of love is the best and only true way to life.