Beware Of The Leaven
Submitted by Pastor Steve Clark
Big Sky Baptist Church, Hamilton, MT
January 9, 2025
Mt 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
First question: What is leaven? Yeast, or “leaven,” is a powerful fungus that can cause a lump of dough to rise into bread. But it will also ferment liquids into alcohol or cause painful infections. It is something that corrupts.
The next question is: What Does the Bible Say About Leaven? The term “leaven” was often used figuratively to represent any kind of influence. In Scripture, the word is used almost universally to represent evil or sin.
For example: 1Co 5:7-8 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Next question: What is the Leaven of the Pharisees? Jesus calls the Pharisees teaching “leaven” because it has the potential of affecting not only their own lives, but everyone that they come in contact with. You see, the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees contained a mixture of God’s truth and man’s traditions.
The danger of this is that it spreads quickly. It starts affecting the thought process of an individual. Then, it starts affecting the thought process of a group, and from there, it starts to corrupt their hearts and minds to the true meaning of God’s Word!
The leaven of the Pharisee’s made the commandments of God useless by their traditions according to Matthew 15:3-6. It also made them hypocrites because they taught one thing and practiced another. They were teaching, “do as I say, not as I do.” It turned God’s Word into a religion, and there was no relationship.
So what can we learn from this? A little sin in the life of a believer is a dangerous thing! The only way to escape the leaven of sin is not to permit any compromise of sin to remain in our lives. God wants us pure and undefiled!
The leaven of sin is much like the sowing of iniquity—we reap more than we sow, and that’s why we must get it out of our lives!
So, I leave you with this question today: How is your lump? Does it need work, and do you need to get some “leaven” out of your life?
Consider – Ga 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
