And he charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15)
Jesus warned his disciples of three different kinds of leaven: the leaven of the Pharisees(hypocrisy), the leaven of the Sadducees(liberalism), and the leaven of Herod(worldliness).
Herod’s followers, “The Herodians,”tried to trap Jesus by asking Him, “Is it lawful to give unto Caesar?”(Mark 12:14). This secular and modern group was not interested in the eternal, but only in the secular power of Rome, Greek culture, and King Herod the Great, the master builder of Palestine.
Jesus knew that His disciples of every generation would be enticed by “this present evil world.” He knew we would all be tempted to forsake the eternal and to live for the temporal. This is why He prayed this prayer to His Heavenly Father for us:
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15)
As Christians, we are instructed to be in the world but not “of the world”(John 15:19), nor “conformed” to it (Romans 12:1-2), or “in love with it”(I John 2:15).
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,” (II Timothy 4:10)
Demas, Apostle Paul’s hand-picked preacher boy, fell prey to Herod’s leaven. At the beginning of his ministry, Demas’s Christianity most likely would have outshined ours by a long shot. However, the little leaven of worldliness snuck in and that“little leaven leavened the whole lump.” (Gal. 5:9)
Seventeen times in the New Testament, leaven is used to illustrate sin. “…Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened…” (I Corinthians 5:6-7). The “leaven” of sin is like a little gangrene or a little cancer — it’s very dangerous because it quickly spreads and destroys. (2 Tim. 2:17)
Let’s run to the Lord Jesus singing: “The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back!”