Luke 16:13 lays down an important biblical axiom: “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.”
This verse, along with its counterpart in Matthew 6:24, highlight the gigantic fact that every human being is in one of two spiritual kingdoms – the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ or the kingdom of Satan. There is no middle ground! Notice the opposites – love and hate.
Luke 9:50 adds, “And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”
And James 4:4 fearfully warns: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity [that is, hatred] with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
The “world” is well-defined in 1 John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
The kingdom that a person is in actually dominates, or drives, his life with unyielding force. It is rooted in his soul and influences his every thought, word, and action. As Proverbs 23:7 proclaims, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”
And Luke 6:45 affirms: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
And 1 Samuel 24:13 states, “As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked…”