"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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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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