Beware of the leaven of the Scribes and the Pharisees

[TheStarswillFall]

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt 16:5-12)

5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? oBeware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

In Matt 23 Jesus exposes hypocrisy as the essential marker of their teaching.

Those who followed the Pharisees and scribes were being kept from following God.

[bearbear]

Satan was the ultimate hypocrite. Satan hated Eve, but he pretended to be her friend in the Garden and sweet talked her into disobeying God. Scripture also says Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:4) while being evil in nature to the core.

So when Jesus said that the Pharisees were of their Father the Devil (John 8:44) he could have been referring to how they were hypocrites just like Satan. It is sobering because the implication could mean religious people who look good on the outside and whose hearts are not aligned the same way could be classified in the same category.

Matthew 24:50-51
The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 23:25
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.