Mammon

"Mammon" stands in scripture as a personified word for wealth — and not a neutral one. The term carries the qualifier "unrighteous," appears as a competing master to God, and is named as a snare a man may go astray after. The teaching gathers around three movements: a use to which mammon may be put, a faithfulness it tests, and a service it cannot share with God.

The Mammon of Unrighteousness

Wealth is named "the mammon of unrighteousness" — a thing that fails — and is set within an instruction to use it for ends that outlast it: "And I say to you⁺, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it will fail, they may receive you⁺ into the eternal tabernacles" (Luke 16:9). The qualifier "unrighteous" is not incidental; the same phrase recurs as the test of faithfulness.

Faithfulness in Small Things

Mammon is the school in which a smaller faithfulness is tried before a greater is entrusted: "If therefore you⁺ haven't been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your⁺ trust the true [riches]?" (Luke 16:11). The contrast is sharp — "unrighteous mammon" against "true riches" — and the lesser is the proving-ground for the greater.

God or Mammon

Mammon is finally treated as a master, set against God, with no possibility of dual service: "No household slave can serve as a slave to two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to one, and despise the other. You⁺ can't serve as a slave to God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). The choice is exclusive.

The Heart That Strays After It

The same posture is praised in inverse form among the wisdom-blessings: "Blessed is the man who is found perfect, Who has not gone astray after mammon" (Sir 31:8). The man who has not strayed after mammon stands in the same place as the slave who serves only one master.