Matthew 6:24 God and riches, which will you serve?

The word "Riches" at Matthew 6:24 in the New World Translation is being taught to mean Material comfort and enjoyment, but that is misleading.
1 Timothy 6:10 uses a different Greek word for "the love of money".  It is φιλαργυρία http://concordances.org/greek/5365.htm

23“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

      24“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. New American Standard Bible

What is the "mammon" that Bibles translate "wealth"  "riches" or "money"?

According to Strong's Concordance it is used only four times.

NWT Luke 16:9 ...."make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous riches so that when such fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwelling places"

NWT Luke 16:11 if you have not proved yourself faithful in connection with the unrighteous riches, who will entrust you with what it true?"

NWT Luke 16:13 No house servant can be a slave to two masters...you can not slave to God and to riches

NWT Matthew 6:24

What does "mammon" mean?

"the treasure one puts faith in"

I have two questions for you to think about.

How can the same organization teach that Ecclesiastes 7:12 is true (I mean the way they translate it), but Luke 16:11 is also true (the way they translate it)?

NWT Ecc. 7:12 "For wisdom is for a protection [the same as] money is for a protection, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom itself preserves alive its owners."

If money is for a protection the same as wisdom is, how are riches unrighteous?  Applying logic to Ecc 7:12 means wisdom can be unrighteous also, as they are the same.  I do not believe wisdom can be unrighteous unless it is false wisdom of the kind that one would lean on (one's own understanding).

What do you put your faith in (or with)?

Family values?

Your religious faith?

The Bible?

Your fellow worshipers?

Your goal?

Your town?

Your country?

Your ancestors? 

Money?

What do you believe in so strongly that it has become your treasure that you put faith in?

That is your mammon.

How do I know?

It's logical that what you believe in leads you.

Can you be led by what you believe in and also be led by Christ?  You would be going in two different directions.  Can you do that?

Are those things bad to believe in?  Of course not.  But to be owned by them is bad.  


Do you think it does not make a difference how it is understood?