"No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money."

One of the crying concerns of our day is that there are not enough Christian men and women who will live out their lives in full extent of their Christian calling. We have the cross, the creed and the church, but not enough conviction, commitment, and compassion.

We are compelled to go back to the drawing board and ask, 'What does it mean to be truly a converted Christian?' 'Just what can we expect from believers who say that they follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly?' The question of religious conversion, when and how the process takes place, is of utmost importance to all of us as we desire to live out our faith and make a serious impact in our world today. Let us examine carefully what Jesus said about conversion.

What Conversion is Not
Let us begin by eliminating misconceptions of conversion, that is, what conversion is not. Religion is often reduced to an agreement on a list of moral rules to abide by (the list of do's and don'ts). So when we become a Christian, the general tendency is to align anew a list of activities we must now do and not do. Some of the old habits like smoking, drinking … etc. must give way to a new list of 'godly' things to do such as QT, attending prayer meeting and going to Sunday services.

But we know that conversion is not merely a re-arrangement of activities, not even a change of priorities. Why? Because it is not deep enough. We know so well that rearranging furniture in our room does not change what is in the room. In a similar way, rearranging our activities does not make a new person. Jesus expects us to be very different when we come to know him.

This is seen in Jesus' attempt to radicalize the demands of the law. Jesus says that looking at a woman lustfully is tantamount to committing adultery. How can this be, I ask? I only looked! And yet, reading between the lines of the Sermon on the Mount, there is no mistake in Jesus' radical stance. He means business. He expects those who follow him to live out the Kingdom values to the full. For him, there is little difference between our action and our intention.

Conversion is not about re-arranging our activities, not even rearranging our priorities. If it were so, our changed behavior would not go deep enough. What Jesus expected was much, much more. So don't trust those people who say that it is so easy to become a Christian, that all we need to do is to pray 'he little, lovely sinner's prayer.'

The problem with such an approach is that at the deepest core of our being, we know that we have not really changed. Such items as the fundamental things we believe in (life assumptions), and the principles we live by (life values), as well as the loyalty we give to someone or something (allegiances) — they have yet to go through a serious transformation.

So when push comes to shove, we revert back to what we really are, because we have not really become the kind of person Jesus wants us to become. That is the problem with simply rearranging our activities and changing our priorities. Conversion simply does not go deep enough.

What Conversion Is
A prominent Christian anthropologist, Charles Kraft, once described conversion in his book Anthropology for Christian Witness as 'a basic worldview clash and its subsequent change.' What did he mean by that? Every culture and every individual living in that culture has developed a way of looking at the world. We call this 'a worldview.' A worldview is like a pair of glasses. We wear them to see things clearly; but for the most part we are not aware of the fact that we are wearing them. Through our worldview we see the world and try to make sense of what is going on, subconsciously.

The worldview, which we have held for so long, comes into a violent clash when we are introduced to the demands of Jesus Christ. We used to believe in one thing, say, in the power of fame and fortune. They helped us understand what is important in life and what we should strive for in life. Now Jesus demands that we drop what we have so tightly held onto and start believing in what he offers. He says that our happiness is not in what we accomplish with our hands, but in trusting what the Lord gives. At this point, you see we have several options to choose from. But a choice we must make:

1. Do what Jesus says and begin an adventurous life of trust and obedience. Each day becomes a discovery of what God is doing in and through lives. We also become more and more like Jesus because we do what he tells us to do.
2. Reject the demands of Jesus and go back to our pre-Christian lives (very few of us actually do this).
3. Do not take the words of Jesus too seriously. But we 'negotiate' and tone down the demands of Jesus. We re-design the tenets of Christian faith as we see fit. We delude ourselves that we are 'good' Christians.

It is only when we choose to follow the first option with our whole heart, that a genuine clash of worldviews occurs, that of mine and that of Jesus. My worldview must give way to that of Jesus, the worldview of the Kingdom of Christ, if I am going to live a serious Christian life.

This week I met a missionary who reaches out to rich Chinese Filipinos here in Metro Manila. That is his personal calling. He told me that for many rich Chinese Filipino, that which gives them security, is, ironically, also the source of fear. They live in fear that someone will kidnap their children for ransom. They work in anxiety that their employees will steal money from them. They live and die in their wealth, but their money cannot save them. For them to become a Christian, it is not easy, for they have so much to 'lose'! Their worldview must be violently crashed with the worldview of the Kingdom of Christ.

Now we know why there are so few Chinese Filipino Christians here. Some say less than 1% of 1.2 million Chinese Filipino are Christians; others say it is only 0.1%. That is incredible! I pray that the light of God's revelation would shine upon their lives soon, that they would come to understand the true meaning of the following words of Jesus, 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free' (John 8:32).

Jesus' Demands
At the core of Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes the following statement:

"No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money."

The bottom line is deceptively clear and simple: who do you serve, ultimately?

At the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus commands his disciples to 'go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.' Have you thought about connecting these words with the radical demands of Jesus in with the words 'everything I have commanded you'? In other words, we know that easy believism was far from Jesus' mind when he gave the Great Commission. He really wanted his disciples to go out and start reproducing quality people of obedience from all people groups.

What is the message for you and me? Let us look closely at the text. You cannot serve two masters. First, Jesus puts our conversion experience in terms of choosing a new master to serve. It is in the language of 'service,' not, say, 'hold onto' or even 'experience.'

True conversion always demands the element of service based on complete surrender. In this world, we are so tempted to hold onto the ownership of our future, our dreams, and our goals. But when we become a Christian, we become servants of the living God. Remember we are now servants. We are not on our own. Being servants as such, we do not have their own agenda as such. Once, I read a book written by a missionary to China titled, Have We No Rights? I would like not only the missionaries but all followers of Jesus Christ ask the same question, 'have we no rights?' The answer is that believers are the ones who have voluntarily forfeited their rights. They now find joy in fulfilling the Master's wishes. Obedience becomes the source of the believer's joy.

Dietrich Bonhoffer, a German martyr during the Hitlers' regime, once put, 'he who believes obeys, and he who obeys truly believes.' Our conviction must be connected to our obedience. Obedience marks the faith of a true convert. One cannot claim to be a serious convert and follower of Christ and yet still dreams of one's own future plans apart from Christ.

Isn't that what Paul meant when he said,
'I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of god, who loved me and gave himself for me' (Gal 2:20)

Second, Jesus reminds us that conversion will bring forth a lot of conflict in daily living. You will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Notice the language of conflict. The convert's new life is now a series of conflict, a daily battle of choosing between what Christ wants and what he wants. There is hardly any neutrality about it.

You ask, 'does it have to be all this serious hard and always?'

One of the hardest things I had to face in obeying Christ's call to follow him was to say no to good things in life. Saying 'yes' to Christ sometimes meant saying 'no' to good things in life, like having to say good-bye to our loved ones in order to pursue our new calling in new places.

I still remember vividly when my friend left for a mission field several years ago. He held his son (barely two years old) and his wife had her infant daughter in her arms. Standing in front of this family heading to Azerbaijan, was Jonathan's mother. She was in her early 70's. Her face was all wrinkled from years of hard living. That day, there was more hardship to face yet. She had to say good-bye to her son's family, including the two little ones. My eyes gazed upon her face. As if I could read her mind, I could 'hear' her whispers, 'Son, I am not sure if I will ever see you again in this life. When you come back, I may be with the LORD already. But I will pray for you.' I said to myself, 'O LORD, does it have to be this cruel?'

Obeying God by going to a mission field is a great thing. But it also comes with a price. We have to say 'no' to some really good things in life, like having to say good-bye to our loved ones and friends. Jesus describes the emotions we go through as one of 'love' and 'hate.' Because we love Christ, we must be willing to 'hate' the world. That is the perspective we are to have when we are making decisions for Christ. Yes, there will be conflicts on a daily basis, when we choose to follow Christ. Let us be reminded of this important fact: that when we lead someone to Christ, we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship.

Third, Jesus makes it very clear that he will not share lordship with another. You cannot serve both God and money. Huwag kang "mamangka sa dalawang ilog." If we truly love someone, we do not have the need to look for love somewhere else. We only want to focus on the person we love. It is a lie when people say, 'I really love you,' and yet pursue other relationships. Moreover, no self-respecting person would want to share his or her lover with others. Jesus loves us and he does not want us to love others but him.

There cannot be any other that can come between Jesus and me. The Bible calls it 'idol.' Here in this text Jesus identifies money as a chief form of idol. It is true that money can be a real source of trouble for Christians. We trust in God and we also trust in money, preferably in lush green US dollars! But Jesus warns clearly that he will not share his glory with another.

Money is but only one type of idol. There are more, some are blatant and others more deceptive. They come in all types of justifications — accomplishments, security, fame, future goals … etc. But in their final analyses, they complete with Jesus for our utmost allegiance and therefore they are condemned to be 'idols.'

Let us recap. What does true conversion mean?

Conversion is choosing a new Master, Jesus Christ. Conversion is engaging in a daily battle of decision to serve the Master. Conversion is giving allegiance to Christ, and him only. It requires steadfast and enduring spirit from us. It reminds us that we are in a race, and it is not over until it is over. Conversion is a rigorous process of replacing our old self with the new self in Christ; it is not merely a re-arrangement of activities and priorities. Replacement, not re-arrangement, that is what conversion is all about.

I love Philippians 1:6 very much, 'I am confident that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the Day of Christ.' Let us continually seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. May our life be used greatly to bring honor and glory to His name!