Part 1- The Danger of Mammon: You Cannot Serve God and Money

Jesus named only one rival to God. Not politics, not pleasure, not power in general, but mammon. Our study of mammon helped us see why money is such a serious competitor for our hearts, and how we can break its hold.  This is such a serious competitor that Jesus talks about it in a way that should make us ponder.  

“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.”  – [.no-reftag]Matthew 6:24[.no-reftag]

As Christians, Jesus’ words in Matthew should make us take note.  Comparing the two masters of God and money, Jesus warns that if we try to serve both, it can lead to our destruction.  While certainly Jesus points out other areas of our lives that compete with God, money (and more specifically, mammon) is a topic He warns us to take seriously.  If we are to be those who find the abundant life, we must take the danger of mammon seriously.  

Anyone living in this wonderful country where money and the false promise of financial abundance rings loud can resonate with the struggle.  The power of mammon is strong.  The alure of comfort and control that mammon often flaunts is tempting. And when we are honest with ourselves, we know that the temptation to accumulate more and more is real.  

Andy Crouch’s teaching reminds us that money is not just a tool. It is a form of power. And the danger of mammon is not simply greed, but the illusion that we can have abundance without dependence: security without trust, power without relationship, control without God.

▶  Watch: Andy Crouch on Mammon

Money Is a Unique Form of Power

Power is the capacity to get something done in the world. Most forms of power must be used right away, in a particular place, with particular people. Money is different. But what we see from Crouch’s video is that mammon has three qualities that make its power uniquely alluring and deceptive:

[.text-color-blue]Money is fungible.[.text-color-blue] We can exchange it for almost anything. It can become whatever we want it to be.  Money gives us the ability to convert into obtaining the constant and changing desires of our hearts.  

[.text-color-blue]Money is countable.[.text-color-blue] We can know exactly how much we have, down to the cent.  At the opening of an app, we can see how much sits there and where we measure up relative to our needs and wants as well as to the world around us.  

[.text-color-blue]Money is storable.[.text-color-blue] We can save it and use it later, at a time and place of our choosing.  The lie of this feature seems to offer us a unique ability to control the outcome of our and others’ lives.  

No other forms of power work with such distinct properties.  And we shouldn’t be naïve not to believe that this offers real temptation and properties with which we must wrestle.  That is why the ordinary person with a bank account holds a kind of power that even mighty Caesar didn’t have.  

The Lie of Abundance Without Dependence

Pastor Jon Tyson describes the dream that money offers as abundance without dependence. With enough money, we are no longer dependent on our circumstances. We know what we have, and we can use it however we choose. It offers power without relationship, and control without needing anyone else.

That is the heart of the matter. Money promises that we can get what we want without needing other people, or even God. Perhaps this is precisely why Jesus says we cannot serve both. But mammon doesn’t make us its servant overnight. It slowly shifts our trust from God to ourselves. It tells us that our lack of more financial resources is our greatest problem and that more is always the solution. And “enough” is always just a little further away.

The Whisper Behind the Money

When Jesus used the word mammon, He left it untranslated. It reads almost like a personal name: a power with a will, seeking to pull human life away from the purposes of God. Crouch describes it as a whisper that comes with money, one that works to sever us from our relationships of love and from our care for the material world.

Mammon wants to turn persons into things. Its end is the commodification of everything, until people are treated as functions, transactions, and assets, and nothing – including God – is truly known or loved except the self.  

But God’s work runs in exactly the opposite direction: reuniting persons, reconciling relationships, and liberating creation from its bondage to decay. We cannot serve both at once.

“Jesus didn’t make Mammon a side temptation for a few, like we do. Typical Christians tend to shrink Mammon into one of many small idols…. For Jesus, Mammon wasn’t one idol among many equals, he singled it out as a direct competitor to God.” – Douglas Jones

The whispered lie rarely sounds dramatic. More often it sounds like this:

• “I am what I produce.”
• “I’ll be safe if I have enough.”
• “People are obstacles or opportunities.”

Mammon at Work

With the power of mammon and the lies it produces, it is inevitable to show its face in our workplace.  Crouch points out that mammon shows up in business as hurry and as the temptation to use people to get things. 

But as believers, Crouch suggests that we bring a different posture to money at work: let a business be roughly 80 percent about people and relationships and 20 percent about finances. Resist the pressure for quick returns in a narrow window. Choose patience and let things grow over time as relationships are honored. 

Crouch’s formula isn’t a secret, formulaic sauce that changes the effect of mammon, but it is a healthy reorientation that reminds us why we work as followers of Christ.  Put simply: mammon uses people to get things; the Kingdom uses things to love people. Money is temporary. God’s kingdom is eternal.

How to Detox from Mammon

As with all our sin struggle, there is hope in Christ.  Jesus never leaves us sitting in shame and despair.  In fact, Christ always provides hope for us to move forward, knowing that He has paid for our failures.   

To detox from mammon, the answer is not shame, and it’s not rejecting money itself. It is dethroning mammon. Crouch offers two practical ways to do that.

[.text-color-blue]1. Practice generous, sacrificial giving.[.text-color-blue] There are four things we can do with money: spend it, save it, invest it, or give it. When we spend, save, or invest, we stay in control. Only giving hands control away, and that is exactly why giving has the power to set us free. The tithe, giving ten percent of our income (and Crouch even suggests a tithe on our assets as well), is a starting point – but the answer goes to the heart and not to a rule.  The goal is to become more dependent on God than on money, perhaps leading not to the question of “how much can we keep” to the question of “how much can we give away.”

[.text-color-blue]2. Practice financial transparency.[.text-color-blue] Mammon thrives in secrecy. Sharing our financial lives with trusted friends makes us accountable and helps us resist the whisper before it takes hold.  Crouch encourages us to find a partner, friend with whom we can share the trends of our spending, our accumulation and our full financial house.  James 5:16 instructs believers to "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." In the case of mammon, mutual confession brings accountability, breaks the power of hidden shame, and invites spiritual support. 

Impossible for Us, Possible with God

Can we really dethrone mammon and reorder our lives around love instead of control? Jesus was honest about how hard it is. He said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God. But, Jesus didn’t leave there as He added the promise:

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  – [.no-reftag]Matthew 19:26[.no-reftag]

The gospel tells a radically different story than mammon does. In Christ, we already have every spiritual blessing. True abundance is not found in independence from God but in deeper dependence on Him. Gratitude reminds us that everything is a gift. Generosity reminds us that money is a servant, not a savior. Every act of trust and every act of giving declares that Jesus alone is Lord.

The question is not whether we desire abundance. The question is where we seek it. The abundant life is not found in the pursuit of abundance, but in the pursuit of Jesus.

Questions to Consider

1. Where does money give you a sense of control that prayer, trust, or relationships do not?
2. If God froze your income, investments, and net worth at their current levels forever, would you still believe you have enough because Christ is enough?
3. Does your current generosity actually cost you anything meaningful? Who has permission to ask you about it?
4. In your work, are people treated as persons to love or resources to optimize?
5. If someone looked at your calendar, ambitions, and financial decisions, would they conclude your life is shaped more by the story of “more” or by the story of Jesus?

Resources

Video: Mammon | Andy Crouch

Video: Mammon | Jon Tyson (Generous Giving)

Scripture: Matthew 6:19–34 and Matthew 19:16–26

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The Center San Antonio‍

Creating spaces of discipleship where men grow in their understanding of work as a calling from God, foster deep connections, live with intention, and mobilize for cultural renewal in San Antonio.

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