"THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES."
By W. N. Glenn
In the first verse of the twelfth chapter of Luke we find a caution from our Lord to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." The fact that it is hypocrisy is most assuredly a good and sufficient reason for the caution. Therefore it is fitting to inquire further as to what is this leaven against which we are so plainly warned by the Lord himself. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, where this same caution is again recorded, there is an explanation by which the disciples understood that he meant that they should beware "of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then in the seventh chapter of Mark the Lord says of these Pharisees, "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Verse 7. By the commandments of men he referred to the traditions of the elders, concerning which he further said, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." Verse 9. Again, in verse 13, they are charged with "making the word of God of none effect" through their traditions. From these testimonies it is seen that by the "leaven of the Pharisees" is meant the commandments or traditions of men. From the fact that such teaching is hypocrisy, it must have been presented to the people in a false light. And the further fact that these traditions were taught as doctrine, shows that they were represented to be the commandments of God. Then the leaven, the hypocrisy, against which we are warned is that of representing the commandments of men to be the word of God. This leaven had been silently, stealthily working among the Jewish people until it had permeated and corrupted the whole nation. Its deceptive influence had become so deep seated that when the Messiah came, for whom the people were looking, they were so blinded that they could not recognize him. Although he did the will of God, manifesting in his life the perfect law of his Father, they utterly rejected him, and even put him to death because he would not observe their hypocritical traditions. The deleterious effect of such teaching is thus summed up in Matt. 23:13: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." But the "leaven of the Pharisees" has not ceased to work. From the Jewish Church the hypocrisy of teaching for doctrine the commandments of men soon passed over and took root in the Christian church. In Paul's day he could say, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." All along men have been teaching the old "Thou shalt not surely die" falsehood first iterated in Eden. The leaven of man's inherent immortality has corrupted almost the entire church. Ministers and other teachers are presenting it as a doctrine of the Bible, notwithstanding the uniform teaching that eternal life and immortality are obtained only in Christ. On the tradition that man has eternal life in himself has been reared all the fabulous structure of Spiritualism, with its seductive delusions luring men to death. Its advocates most effectually "shut up the kingdom of heaven" against their deluded adherents. Another tradition of men which has leavened a large portion of the church is the institution of sprinkling. In this the votaries of the commandment of men also "transgress the commandment of God" in regard to baptism (immersion), which is a memorial of the burial and resurrection of Christ. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Col. 2:12. To memorialize a burial by sprinkling a little water on the forehead is verily a travesty upon the example of our Lord, who "was baptized of John in Jordan," going down into the water. See Mark 1:9, 10; Matt. 3:16. But in no respect is the "leaven of the Pharisees" so pointedly manifest as in the tradition of Sunday observance. Herein is a marked parallel between the time of Christ's sojourn on earth and our time. Because the rulers of that time could find no other fault in the faithful Preacher of the word, they made special attacks upon him because he kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, and not according to their traditions.581The question of the day of the Sabbath was not in issue then, but men insisted upon the enforcement of their commandments regarding the Sabbath; and their zeal, their bigotry, and their hypocrisy would willingly have put to death the transgressor of their traditions. The same principle is involved in the matter of setting up a day by the sole authority of men, the observance of which is to "make the commandment of God of none effect." The first-day sabbath tradition worked its way into the church gradually, silently, insidiously, as the leaven works, until it became strong enough to assert its claims upon the whole body. At first "a little leaven," making no pretension to sacredness, in course of time, and incidentally by force of secular law, it "leavened the whole lump," until, at the Council of Laodicea, about A.D. 364, the traditional day was declared to be sacred, and the day designated in the commandment of God openly rejected. Like the Pharisees of old, the council anathematized all who ignored the commandment of men and adhered to the law of God. And this "leaven" is still working. The first-day sabbath is still urged upon the people as the law of God. The anathemas of the rulers, who assume to be the conservators of the oracles, are still hurled at all who dissent from their tradition. The power of the civil law is still invoked to enforce the tradition upon all, and is especially employed against those whose consciences impel them to obey the commandment of God. The injunction, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," is as applicable to our day as it was when first uttered by our Lord; and it will be so as long as men are disposed to have their own unscriptural doctrines usurp the place of the word of God.