Matthew 16:5-12 ESV When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread .Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 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.
There is nothing we need that God can’t provide. In fact, God does provide all that His children need. Not what we think we need and definitely not all that we want, but God provides all we need to live holy lives and accomplish the work He has created in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
A problem is that we tend to spend much of our time worrying about the physical. We are concerned about what we will eat, what we will wear, where we will live, and our health. All of those things are important for physical life, and God has sustained each of us with those things for our entire lives.
What is much more important is our spiritual life. God is much more concerned about our spirit than our body because the spirit is eternal while the body is temporary. We will one day get another body (1 Corinthians 15:42-49) but our spirit will live forever. The question is, where that spirit will be for eternity. If we believe the truth of God, we will live with Him forever. However, if we believe lies, we will live forever in torment separated from God.
Therefore, in this passage, Jesus knows they lack food, but He isn’t concerned about that. He has seen God provide repeatedly and trusts that He will do so again. Jesus’ real concern is that the disciples will be deceived by the teachings of the religious leaders. After all, they grew up listening to those teaching and believing they were from God. Jesus is teaching them the truth and He wants to make sure that truth is what they believe.
As Christians, we need to believe what is true. It is our responsibility to make sure we know the truth and to obey it. The way to do this is read the Bible for ourselves. It is good to listen to or read good teaching from sound sources but we should never let other people be our sole source of spiritual input. Our main source should be the Bible itself and then allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate what we read in our hearts.
When Biblical truth is the foundation of our lives, then the teachings of sound teachers can build upon it. When the teaching of others is our foundation, we risk being led astray, even by well meaning teachers with good intentions who themselves are deceived.
Read the Bible for yourself everyday! Study the scriptures and ask God for divine wisdom and understanding. Then the “leaven” of incorrect teaching will not be a danger to us.
Lord God, thank You for Your Word. Guide my heart and mind as I read the Bible so that I will understand Your truth and incorporate it into my life.