Leavin' Out the Leaven

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Khen Lim



Image source: randolphcofc.org

Although I could already cook my own meals by the time I was in university, I knew very little about baking though. But sharing a flat with another uni-mate opened my eyes to a wholly different experience altogether. I remember observing my friend preparing to make bread in the old oven that the flat came with.

I wanted to give her a hand so that I could learn along the way. So I asked if I could mix in the yeast while she was kneading the dough. Unfortunately she said no because yeast was so volatile particularly if too much of it was used in the dough. Of course back then when I wasn’t a Christian, I didn’t think much of the response. To many of us, it was as insignificant and ‘harmless’ as a white lie was.

When I received Pastor Simon’s proposed sermon entitled, ‘Leaving the Leaven Behind,’ I had come across that part of the Gospels where Jesus cautioned His disciples to come away from the leaven of the Pharisees. 

“Watch out!” Jesus warned. 

“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Mt 16:6). 

Had I read that in my pre-Christian years, its meaning would have been lost on me. Today I might not know all its details in a very instance but every word of God is important enough to understand and if He wanted us to really know what it is about, then it would be in the Bible (2 Tim 3:16).

Many of us already understand that in the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees, we can reveal their hypocrisies and pride and perhaps, more importantly, it is the Pharisees’ focus on knowledge over revelation that ultimately led to their undoing. Their blatant disregard for God’s voice was what led to Jesus’ harshest responses using words like ‘dead tombs’ or ‘brood of vipers.’ 

These can be seen in the context that for people whom God had entrusted with His very word, they failed shamefully in recognising the coming of the Messiah. The Gospels indicate that neither the Pharisees nor the Sadducees had the foggiest of idea what God had wanted for His people because they were more absorbed in proving their worth with their vaunted grasp of the Old Testament. 

They cared little of their spirituality and hence missed out on God’s most important ‘tactical’ plot involving the Messiah. As the term ‘dead tombs’ suggests, they had no vision to save themselves and hence, they were leading God’s people to their destruction (Prov 29:18).

Just like the Pharisees, we too are guilty of neglecting the revelation of our very existence just to swap for some new – but often worthless – knowledge. 

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens but you ignore the more important aspects of the law-justice, mercy and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Lk 11:42). 

In other words, don’t be like the Pharisees and major only in the minors. Don’t focus on the wrong things and ignore our need to be spiritually grounded.

God seeks very much to transform us from ‘head people’ to ‘spiritual people’ where we are elevated to a more rewarding spiritual level in which we are better able to understand His revelation. 

In Eph 1:17, Paul prayed, saying, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.” 

Indeed even John says that the ultimate revelation remains the revelation of the risen Son of God in all His glorious presence.  However we must be reminded that this is no overnight transformation. We’re nowhere near there yet and we must remain patient and studious, mindful that we must keep proceeding in the right direction and striving for the very same thing that Peter had when he replied Jesus, saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Mt 16:16).

So long as we entrap ourselves within the toxifying influence of the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ and therefore cling to the stultifying values of knowledge, we might never be able to experience what God has in store for the Body of Christ. In fact He has invited us with open arms to savour the very Bread of Life, one that has no leaven because He has since left that behind.