Matthew 16:1-20
6 "Watch out!" Jesus warned them. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." ... 12 Then at last they understood that he wasn't speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
I am amazed at how easy it is to operate in empty religion instead of abundant life. Religion can be so comfortable and reassuring at first, but then it is constricting like a giant snake cutting off life. We grow up naturally thinking that the experiences we have had (especially those religious experiences) are normal. And we naturally think that we should keep doing things the way we have always done them. And we think that everyone else should do everything the way we are accustom to doing things. And we end up missing the whole point of loving God, loving people, "following Jesus into strange places."
Heavenly Father, please let me see how religious I am. Please help me recover from religion and live the abundant life of following Jesus that He promised. Lord, please deliver me from the stress and anxiety of work. Please help me see you and your Kingdom. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
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We talked about this a few weeks ago in our BLG in our discussion about the Leaven of the Law. I emphasized the point that the yeast isn't necessarily sin; but self-glorification, self indulgence, and selfish ambitions.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to put too much emphasis on ourselves when we "behave correctly" and put the blame elsewhere when we don't. Galatians 5 tells us that a little bit of leaven destroys the whole batch.
The Leaven of the Law put the focus on doing a checklist (I obeyed that, and that, and that, and that, look how righteous and holy I am)! Paul's argument (and Jesus' argument) was that the Law was never to bring salvation. The Law was to show us how we couldn't obtain it ourselves, and bring us to the altar of sacrifice, where the penalty of sin would be appeased by the spilling of blood.
What made the Pharisees and Sadducees (and us today) religious is the fact that they used the Law to show how holy they were; forgetting II Corinthians 5:21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." In the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His life and death are credited to our account. His holiness becomes our own at the moment of faith. Righteousness is the evidence of holiness, and is action oriented. Motives and actions are unquestioned when God’s holiness guides righteous living.
The tiniest amount of self-glorification, self indulgence, and selfish ambition destroys what Christ has done for us.
I agree. In the end, religion is about self, not God. True faith and worship begin with humility.
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