Leaven
A Commentary on Leaven.
It is a very popular opinion that wherever leaven is mentioned in the Scriptures it always stands for evil, sin, or some moral corruptness. However, in Leviticus 23:17 (The Wave Offering) and Amos 4:5—the sacrifice of thanksgiving of a person’s peace offering was to be with leavened bread. So this absolute usage of leaven being evil does not appear to be consistent. Nothing unclean or corrupt was to be offered to the Lord or placed upon His altar.
This question needs to be asked, if, in God’s mind, leaven is always evil, then why did He command that it be offered to Him in Leviticus and in Amos? Again, if leaven is always evil then it must always be unclean. But there are no laws prohibiting the touching, preparing, or eating of leavened bread or cakes. It is clear that at times leaven is considered unclean, such as during the Passover Feast. The houses were to be searched and thoroughly cleansed from all leaven during that feast. This command presupposes that leaven would be in the home and it was legally allowed in the house at other times. It was not consistently considered an evil thing.
Using leaven or having leavened bread in the normal day-to-day custom is not condemned in Scripture. It cannot be said that the use of leaven is either consistently acceptable or condemned. It depended upon circumstances and holydays.
Both Christ and Paul gave warnings using leaven figuratively of something to be aware of and avoid. Jesus warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees and of Herod. Paul warned of the leaven of unchecked, allowed, known fornication within the Corinthian Church. Paul also warned of the leaven of substituting law bondage for faith in the Christian life. The leaven of the Pharisees was that of their doctrines and their practice of teaching for the commandments of God the traditions of men. The leaven of the Sadducees was also that of their doctrines and of not knowing the Scriptures, or the power of God. They denied the power of God in the resurrection. The leaven of Herod is considered as the love of material wealth, riches, avarice, and self-importance, the glory of this world.
The one thing that all the above have in common in their usage of leaven is that of harmful, corrupt, and sinful influence. It is not necessarily the sins themselves but the influence they exert which we are to carefully avoid.
We may have very little weakness for the actual doctrines of the Pharisees but the influence of their kind of doctrines can be and very often is a very powerful persuasive influence. Any time the commandments of men gain a foothold within a church they bring to bear influences to hold to those commandments in spite of Scriptural testimony against them, and they weaken the church to withstand any further substitution of the traditions of men against the commands of God.
The influence of the Pharisees and Sadducees are closed mindedness and not having a love of the truth. People constantly deny the power of God and that kind of thinking can influence our attitudes. This leads to doubting God and a destruction of faith.
The influence of substituting man’s theology for God’s is that of degrading the importance of the study of God’s Word. This gives the message that the individual is discouraged from, and in some cases forbidden, his freedom to access the Bible. Many “Christian” denominations rely on such a practice to sustain their hearsays. Whenever the doctrine is put forth that individuals are not capable of understanding the scriptures without the authoritative direction of their superiors results in a bondage to the institution.
As an illustration of influence, it would be hoped, and expected, that because one case of fornication within a church the entire church membership would not be led to engage in fornication. But the fact that if such a gross sin is tolerated in a church it is very influential on all and can likely cause many to give up their vigilance against sin in other areas of life. The open sins of other Christians is an influence on the weak, causing them to stumble (be offended).
Whenever a church generates its own laws or policies they end up either ignoring them or they slavishly keep them and destructively hurt people. This is the influence (the leaven) against love and compassion.
The influence of the world is probably the greatest danger above all others. The leaven of the preference of material wealth, riches, self-importance, and the glory of this world, appeals powerfully to our carnal nature. This influence breeds envy, greed, covetousness, dissatisfaction and discontent with the Goodness and Providence of God. The precise cause of the fall of man!
The warning – do not to be influenced by any of these things in your beliefs or in your church!
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