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 the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
This important issue is part of the sermon on the mount. Here are the verses that precede verse 24.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
If we take verse 24 out of context we will find ourselves thinking of serving God or money, and granted that is a problem, but it is not everything.
God’s first commandment says that we shall have no other god before Him. We can create gods out of anything, not just money.
In context verses 22 and 23 are speaking to light versus darkness. It is one or the other. We either serve the light or serve the darkness.
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
All others walk in darkness. Who is the master of the darkness, hiding in the shadows, unseen yet causing the blind to stumble at every turn? Satan but those who walk in darkness don’t see it that way.
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”