Matthew 6:24
Matthew 6:2424No 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 Watchtower applies to materialism and the pursuit of wealth — Witnesses are warned against letting career, possessions, or pleasure-seeking compete with Kingdom service. The verse is read as an exhortation to financial simplicity and Kingdom-first priorities. The deeper application — to the divided allegiance a Witness faces between the Watchtower's instructions and Scripture — is not entertained.
Affirm what the Witness already affirms: the prosperity gospel is a real scandal, and Reformed Christianity has been saying so for decades. Then apply Jesus's principle consistently. The Watchtower has accumulated billions in real estate (the Warwick complex, the pre-sale Bethel Brooklyn properties), and publications regularly encourage members to leave estates to the organisation, donate "surplus" funds, and consider naming the Watchtower in wills. is a warning to anyone accumulating wealth through the labour of others while claiming to serve God. Kenneth Copeland has private jets; Beth Sarim was a 1929 mansion built with donor funds for "ancient worthies" who never came. Jesus's verb here is starkly binary: you cannot be slaves to God and to Riches. The structural test cuts through every claim of religious motive — including the Watchtower's.