"Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship more than one loaf. 15. And (Jesus) charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the ;leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."
Jesus used this lack of bread to tell His disciples to beware of the "leaven of the Pharisees." He was telling them to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees. What was wrong with their teachings? First, they put "the teachings of men" ahead of, or on par, with scripture. They were big into traditions that had arisen after the "Bible days." Aren't we glad that this element of Phariseeism has not found its way into our lives and churches? Of course, I'm being sarcastic here, because we certainly are guilty of this. A lot of what we do is based on tradition rather than on the word of God. That's why we have trouble over "cutting down the oak tree that my granddaddy planted in the churchyard." You know what I mean! Second, they thought that they were righteous. Because they thought that their righteousness arose from their own thoughts and deeds, they were self-righteous. They actually thought that they were better than other people. (Remember the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18.) Again, this element of Phariseeism has not fully died today. If we are not careful, we will "look down our noses" at other people. We might live better lives than they do, but we are still only "sinners saved by grace." Paul warned the Romans: "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." What Paul meant was that they were not completely sinless themselves. Remember what Jesus said to the men in John 8 who brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to him: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Jesus is definitely not impressed with our righteousness. If He is impressed with anything in our lives it is our faith, because it is only by faith that we can please Him. (Hebrews 11:6) There is more that could be written about this, but this is probably enough for us to meditate on for now. "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." Bro. Joe
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“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
I guess that we would all like to live what would be considered “a worthyChristian life.” We probably think that to live such a life would entail being a super-spiritual person who talks holy talk and knows all of the holy moves. By that description, Jesus would have lauded the Pharisees as living a worthy life. But instead of praising the Pharisees, He compared them to a bunch of snakes. Paul, who was once a Pharisee, but got over it after Jesus took over his life, gave the ideal description of the worthy life in Ephesians 4:1-3. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live humbly – in “lowliness and meekness.” In our affluent society the worthy life can be described as seeking greatness in the eyes of the world. But the worthy Christian life is not the result of seeking personal greatness, in fact, it is the opposite. It is seeking humility. Humility is not something that we can achieve, because if we think that we have achieved it, we are not humble anymore. This does not mean that humble people must have inferiority complexes. We have a great misunderstanding of what Christian humility is. We seem to think that it entails being a doormat for the world. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, in order for people to live humbly in this proud world, they have to be secure in Jesus and in themselves. Humility does not come from a sense of inferiority but or insecurity, but from a sense of personal well-being and security. In order to let other people go first, one really has to be secure in oneself. That sort of looks like Jesus, doesn’t it? We can live humbly when we realize that that we do not need to be “number one” in order to feel good about ourselves. In fact, the Greek word for “meekness” means to be under control, not to be weak and beggarly. In our case, it means to be under God’s control. In order to live a worthy Christian life we will live patiently – “With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” The Greek word translated “longsuffering” could be called “bulldog tenacity” today. Patience, or longsuffering, is not just sitting and waiting, taking on a martyr complex, or spirit of resignation. It means to persist in Christian living, meeting life’s hardships without bitterness and complaint. It appears today that few people are aiming for this kind of patience, even in churches. It also means that we should “forbear one another in love.” This does not mean to merely put up with people; it means to forbear because we love people. We get “out of sorts” with each other at times, but we do not have to stay that way. Patience, love and forbearance go hand-in-hand with worthy Christian living. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live in unity – “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Humility, patience, forbearance and love are results of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Only He can lead us to humble and patient living, and only He can lead us to unity in Himself. If we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not be led into disunity. Because we are human, we will have disagreements, but in spite of these disagreements, the Holy Spirit will not lead us into disunity. If we are divided in our fellowship it is because of us, not because of the Holy Spirit. Disunity is Satan’s domain. Certainly a worthy Christian walk will not lead to disunity. In light of this text, will you live humbly, patiently and in the unity of the Spirit? If you will, you will live a worthy Christian life. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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