And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
The charge to take heed and beware was given in Galilee at the time when Pharisees and Sadducees combined together in opposition to Christ, showing how evil influences can unite to destroy what is good. Leaven pictures a spreading influence that works quietly to permeate and change character and life, and it serves as a type of sin. The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is their crafty, deceptive reasoning, which could spread unbelief among the disciples and lead them to think lightly of Christ's works.
The Pharisees concealed the real tendency of their doctrines and used them to make people less able to receive Christ's words. The Pharisees' leaven is self-seeking hypocrisy, the desire to glorify self; this subtle spirit corrupts the soul, distorts and misapplies Scripture, and makes people slow to understand Christ's self-sacrificing mission. The disciples themselves were in danger of cherishing this same spirit, as shown by their desire for greatness.
The warning applies to explaining God's law by speculative theories that undermine its principles and weaken its force, and to replacing God's commands with human theories and traditions. It applies also to secret self-exaltation and craving human approval. It applies further to unbelief about the teachings of the Spirit of God, an influence that had spread through the church until most rejected the testimony.
The charge to take heed and beware was given in Galilee at the time when Pharisees and Sadducees combined together in opposition to Christ, showing how evil influences can unite to destroy what is good.
Leaven pictures a spreading influence that works quietly to permeate and change character and life, and it serves as a type of sin.
The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is their crafty, deceptive reasoning, which could spread unbelief among the disciples and lead them to think lightly of Christ's works.
The Pharisees concealed the real tendency of their doctrines and used them to make people less able to receive Christ's words.
The Pharisees' leaven is self-seeking hypocrisy, the desire to glorify self; this subtle spirit corrupts the soul, distorts and misapplies Scripture, and makes people slow to understand Christ's self-sacrificing mission.
The disciples themselves were in danger of cherishing this same spirit, as shown by their desire for greatness.
The warning applies to explaining God's law by speculative theories that undermine its principles and weaken its force, and to replacing God's commands with human theories and traditions.
It applies also to secret self-exaltation and craving human approval.
It applies further to unbelief about the teachings of the Spirit of God, an influence that had spread through the church until most rejected the testimony.