Seventeen times in the New Testament, leaven (yeast) illustrates something sinful. I still remember, from my bachelor days, the little tiny packet of yeast that I would put into the bread machine, along with all the other ingredients, to leaven the bread. A little “leaven” of sin is just as harmful as a little cancer, a little gangrene, or a little disease because it quickly spreads and destroys. “…Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened…” (I Corinthians 5:6-7)
Jesus warned his disciples of three dangerous forms of leaven:
- The Pharisaical Leaven of Hypocrisy
Luke 12:1 “…Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
The term hypocrite originated in the Greek drama and means to “put on the face.” The hypocrite was an actor in a play. He pretended to be something that he was not. The Pharisee pretended to be spiritual as he paraded his giving, his praying, and his fasting (Matt. 6). All of his good works were done to be “seen of men” (Matt. 23:25). Christ warned his disciples to “beware” of this leaven by making sure their inside was as good as their outside:
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. (Matthew 15:7-8)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)
- The Liberal Leaven of the Sadducee
Matthew 16:6, Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were the major ruling religious party of Christ’s day. They were very liberal with their handling of scripture interjecting their own human reasoning into the interpretation of it. They thought that the archaic writings of scripture needed to be brought up to date with modern understanding. They proposed a parable to Jesus in Matthew 23:23-30 to prove in their minds that there couldn’t possibly be any resurrection of the dead. “A woman married and was widowed seven times by seven brethren. In the resurrection whose wife would she be?” Jesus simply corrected their reasoning with Scripture and told them they erred in two ways:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)
Not knowing Scripture – When the leaven of liberalism sets in, emphasis on the teaching, preaching, reading, memorizing, and studying of Scripture is left off, causing God’s people to perish (Hosea 4:6).
Not knowing the Power of God – The power of God is only known by believing in the Word of God. When you leave of the ministry of the Word, you leave off the powerful object of our faith, the Word of God.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
To purge out the leaven of liberalism in my life, I need only to ask myself if I am obeying, Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
- The Worldly Leaven of Herod
And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. (Mark 8:15)
Herod the Great was the great builder of Palestine and the darling of Rome. Herod’s followers the Herodians were wholly given to the Greek culture, the Roman power, and the politics of the times. They tried to trap Jesus by asking, “Is it lawful to give unto Caesar?” (Mark 12:14) “This present world”, in every age, has had its allures. Jesus knew his disciples were going to be tempted by the leaven of worldliness, and he prayed the following to His Father:
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15)
We are also instructed to be in the world but not of the world, not conformed to it (Romans 12:1-2) and to definitely not be in love with it (I John 2:15).
Every believer has to make his decision to either chose God or the god of this world:
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)
Beware of the leaven of Herod by considering what happened to the apostle Paul’s hand-picked preacher boy, whose Christianity by appearance probably would have put ours to shame:
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,” II Timothy 4:10