Watch Out for This Trap!

One of the hazards of being a Christian is other Christians, specifically the ones which Paul identifies as “false brethren”  in 2 Corinthians 11:26.  They pretend to love Christ, but inwardly they are exactly the opposite.  They love being loved. 

Our Lord warned the disciples, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”  (Luke 12:1). Leaven (yeast) is unseen when mixed with the flour, but it has a powerful ability to “puff up” the bread.  The entire motivation of the scribes and the Pharisees was to have the praise of men. They were “puffed up” with pride in themselves.  That’s why they wanted to kill our Lord when the multitudes followed Him instead of them. 

But the warning wasn’t so much against what hypocrites would do to them; it was a warning against becoming just like them.  The multitudes were following, Jesus was popular, the disciples were  the inner circle.  It was the perfect trap for becoming puffed up with pride. 

Jesus gives the antidote for hypocrisy in the next sentence: “But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.  Whatever you have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light.” Some day everyone will know what we really were, so why not be the real deal right now?