Bible Reading

Matthew Chapter 23 - Leaven & Sin

"Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." This was Jesus' warning to His disciples.

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Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

"Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." This was Jesus' warning to His disciples a few chapters earlier, in (Matt 16:6). In this chapter, after yet another round of attempts from the Pharisees to undermine Jesus, He describes at length what exactly was the leaven, or sins, of the religious elite of those times. Let us take some time today to examine our own thoughts and how we practice our faith, by asking ourselves these few questions:

Do we neglect the weightier matters of the law?

The Pharisees kept their religion to receive praise from men - thus they paid very close attention to the visible form of worship - making long prayers (Matthew 23:14), carefully tithing even small herbs like mint (Matthew 23:23) and cleaning their cups and dishes (Matthew 23:25). But they neglected to practice their faith before God - having justice, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). 

Why do we practice our religion? We may not be attending service or participating in fellowships or praying for others to see, but could we be doing it to tell ourselves we are already practicing our religion, and there is nothing else we need to do?

Our prayers, Bible reading and fellowships are not our faith in themselves, but a means to an end - spiritually nurturing ourselves, putting to death the old man of sin, and allowing ourselves to be transformed into Christ’s image. This is what God really wants us to actively work on in our lives today. Let us not stop at the external form of worship, and progress on to these weightier matters as well.

Are we blind to our own faults?

In Matthew 23:29-30, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of being hypocrites, because they mourn for the prophets of the Old Testament who were killed by the rebellious Israelites, not realising they were doing the exact same thing to Jesus. 

Paul reminds us in (1 Corinthians 10:11), that the Old Testament stories were written as a warning to us. In this very chapter, Jesus’ comments on the Pharisees were recorded for our admonition as well. As we read the chapter, did it prompt us to reflect on ourselves, whether we exhibit the same flaws as the Pharisees?

Do we heed and obey the truth objectively, regardless of the messenger?

Despite all the flaws of the Pharisees, Jesus still told the people to observe whatever the Pharisees taught sitting on Moses' seat (Matthew 23:2), but to discern between what they teach and what they actually do. Oftentimes, we judge a message based on the messenger. If we dislike or look down on someone, we may disregard what they say altogether. This is what the Pharisees themselves were guilty of - disbelieving Jesus because of His lowly status. Jesus does not want us to be like them. 

When we hear an unpalatable message, for example when we receive some criticism in an argument, usually it is not that we cannot recognise the truth in what the other person says, but our pride gets in the way. But is our pride only resisting against the other person, or is it causing us to resist the truth as well? Let us remind ourselves to always humble ourselves to obey the truth, and not be blind like the Pharisees.

See Also

Colossians Chapter 2 - Spiritual Scams

Colossians Chapter 2 - Spiritual Scams

Scams. They’ve been on the forefront of the news for the past couple of years. We’ve seen the headlines - an elderly lady loses her retirement money to an online love scam, people get their accounts hacked when they click on links claiming that they can claim some vouchers.  In the spiritual realm, the devil has always been looking for opportunities to scam God’s people - from the time he deceived Eve to eat the fruit and sin against God, to the time of Paul writing Colossians, and even till today.  While physical scams can cause us loss of money or security, spiritual scams can cheat us of our very lives! Let us therefore take heed from Paul’s warnings in this chapter today.  One of the most common tactics used by scammers is to sway their victims by their emotions. Scammers leverage our affection, our pity, our fear of missing out, to persuade us to help them or buy something from them. Likewise, in our faith, our emotions are often harnessed to deceive us. “If God is love, how can the way of salvation be so narrow that so few people in this world of billions can be saved?” Such emotional arguments can sway us to compromise on the truth. We must remind ourselves that our emotions do not override the righteousness and wisdom of God. Let us always strive to attain the full assurance of understanding and knowledge of the mystery of God (Col 2:2-3), so that we will not be persuaded away from what we have received (Col 2:6-7). Another tactic scammers employ is to exploit our own confirmation biases. We humans have a tendency to easily believe things that seem aligned with our own prior knowledge and beliefs. This leads us to believe the scammer more easily, because it isn’t just what they told us - it’s what we know ourselves! Paul tells us to beware of philosophies that are according to the “basic principles of the world” (Col 2:8). Such arguments appeal to our own rational thinking - it makes logical sense to us intuitively - and thus we like to believe these things.  In Colosse, these heretical philosophies may have been trying to reason about the nature of Christ. Today, there are also many deceitful philosophies that can cheat us of our salvation. For example, the devil may tempt us to think that it is ok to do something - as long as we don’t “cross the line”. This seems to make a lot of rational sense - as long as we haven’t committed the act of sin, aren’t we technically still innocent before God? Let us remind ourselves - God is not mocked (Gal 6:7). As followers of Christ, we have to submit everything to Christ - even our own human wisdom. The message of the cross is foolishness to the world, but it is in fact the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:20-25). We must learn to put down our own logic and arguments, to submit in fear to the will of God, lest we be deceived. The third way scammers deceive us is by presenting something that appeals to our desires. That magical weight-loss pill that requires no diet or exercise, and has no side effects. That investment scheme which has no risk and promises the best returns. All the benefits, none of the hard work required. In other words, the easy way out.  God’s people always suffered from this problem as well. They focused on the form of worship (sacrifices and festivals), rather than practicing true religion - justice, mercy and humility (Micah 6:7-8). Even in the times of Jesus, He rebuked the Pharisees for doing the same (Matt 23:23).  In Colosse, there were people who preached that one had to practice various religious rites - keeping certain festivals, abstaining from various things (Col 2:16,18,20). Have you considered why the believers could be swayed by such teachings? Wasn’t the liberty in Christ that they originally received much easier to practice?  Perhaps it was due to this same reason - that practicing these things made them feel like they were being religious and allowed them to feel good about themselves. All the while ignoring what Christ truly called them to do - put to death the old man and be transformed into a new man (Col 2:11). The easy way out.  Today, there are many things we can busy ourselves with in our church life - various duties, services and fellowships. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that these things can replace our need to do the will of God, to spiritually nurture ourselves, and to bear fruits.  May we always examine ourselves as to whether we have fallen for any of these spiritual scams today.

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