Beware of Leaven

“Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."” (Matthew 16:6 ESV). The command from this verse is to watch and beware of something that leaven represents. Normally we think of leaven as a substance like yeast that is added to dough to make it ferment and rise. That is what the disciples thought, but Jesus had a different meaning in mind. He was thinking of a pervasive influence that would modify one’s behavior negatively.  With the emphasis on watch and beware, one realizes the influence by the Pharisees and Sadducees was inclined toward evil. Looking at the last verse of this section that our verse is from, verse 12, we see that Jesus was referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The application of this command for us is that we are to carefully evaluate what we hear and determine if it is really true so as to not be led astray. If it is true it will encourage freedom, otherwise it will lead us toward bondage. Consider the following verses: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:1-3 ESV). In addition to this test we need to determine if there is any conflict of the message with Scripture.

Prayer

Father, today we seem to be willing to accept what we hear if we find it agreeable to our thinking. Even Christians are becoming a standard to which a message is evaluated, not truth as found in the Scriptures. As we drift away from Jesus, the source of truth, we drift away from an interest in truth and the ability of discern right and wrong. Father, you provided us with salvation, but with it came the handbook of life. We need to spend more time learning how to live by the handbook if we are to obey this command.

See "The Commands of Jesus" Index to view other commands.