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From Heaven With Love
the crafty reasoning of the Pharisees and Sadducees would leaven
His disciples with unbelief.
The disciples were inclined to think that their Master should
have granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. He was able to
do this, and such a sign would put His enemies to silence. They
did not discern the hypocrisy of the cavilers. Months afterward,
Jesus repeated the same teaching. “Beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Luke 12:1
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Self-Deception of Egocentric Motivation
Leaven works imperceptibly, changing the meal to its own nature.
So if hypocrisy is allowed in the heart, it permeates the character
and life. A striking example was the practice of Corban, by which a
neglect of filial duty was concealed under a pretense of liberality to
the temple. The scribes and Pharisees concealed the real tendency of
their doctrines, instilling them artfully into the minds of their hearers.
This deceptive teaching made it hard for the people to receive the
words of Christ.
The same influences are working through those who try to ex-
plain the law of God to make it conform to their practices. This class
do not attack the law openly, but put forward speculative theories
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that undermine its principles. They explain it so as to destroy its
force.
The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self-seeking.
This led them to pervert and misapply the Scriptures. This subtle
evil even the disciples of Christ were in danger of cherishing. The
followers of Jesus were influenced in a great degree by the reason-
ing of the Pharisees, often vacillating between faith and unbelief.
Even the disciples had not in heart ceased to seek great things for
themselves. This spirit prompted the strife as to who should be
greatest. This made them so little in sympathy with Christ’s mission
of self-sacrifice. As leaven will cause corruption, so the self-seeking
spirit, cherished, works the defilement and ruin of the soul.
Today, as of old, how widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin!
How often our service to Christ is marred by the secret desire to
exalt self! How ready the thought of self-gratulation and the longing
for human approval! The love of self, the desire for an easier way