No man can serve two masters. Matt. 6:24.

Jesus did not want anyone to follow Him under false pretenses. Our choices must center in Christ. We begin here. The real problem is not lack of knowledge of the truth so much as the warping of our judgment. When a man has seared his conscience, it is no trick at all to rationalize or fool himself into choosing the wrong master. Men pay a frightful price for their illusions as to what they accept as the way of truth.

Neither serving Christ nor serving the world and the devil is an accident. We will only sink deeper and deeper in the mire if we choose the wrong master. In 6,000 years we have fashioned more than twenty civilizations and destroyed every one of them. And now for this twentieth civilization we are nearer than man has ever been to total destruction.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). Stake everything on this. This must be the rock-bottom of all choices: Christ as our master; Christ the one priority before possessions and things, good or bad. Many of the choices we are asked to make are tied to things and activities that in themselves are quite innocent. I knew a young lady with a wonderful head of hair. She spent two hours a day taking care of it. But she had no time for the study of the Word of God.

To young people in particular, the world offers a fascinating and glittering array of temporal pleasures. The offer that Satan made to Christ is still in season: "The devil . . . showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. 'All these,' he said, 'I will give you, if you will only fall down and do me homage' " (Matt. 4:8, 9, N.E.B.). Satan says, "Just include me in your many things. Give me a small portion of your devotion, and I will give you all that the world has to offer. Why take the hard road? What is wrong with a little concentration now and then upon giving priority to what the world has to offer? Why not call a moratorium on your religion, on your Christian witness, once in a while? Just do not plan on reaching the standards all the time. Why stand up against the crowd? Would you not rather be a living neutral than a dead hero?"

But we cannot serve two masters. This is where the final choice is made.