Luke 12:1–3: In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Jesus compared it to leaven (yeast), something that every Jew would associate with evil. Paul also used leaven to symbolize sin. Like yeast, hypocrisy begins very small but grows quickly and quietly. As it grows, it infects the whole person. Hypocrisy does to the ego what yeast does to bread dough: it puffs it up. Soon pride takes over and the person’s character deteriorates rapidly. If we want to keep hypocrisy out of our lives, we must avoid that first bit of “leaven.” Once we start to pretend, the process goes on quickly; and the longer we wait, the worse it gets. Sir Walter Scott wrote:
O what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive. 1
Your Word is Truth
Ask God to search your heart for leaven. Just a little unconfessed sin can mature rather quickly into a major sin crisis in your life. Read Psalm 139:23-24, then pray for His grace to bring all your sin into His purifying light.
And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. –1 Corinthians 5:2
You Alone are God
Your secrets are never kept secret from God. – TWEET IT
Your Will be Done
Lord, teach me to open my heart up fully to You and always to confess my sin.
1. Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
