The Gospel of Luke 12:1 When God Says...I Say, AMEN!

When God Says …

“In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1 KJV).

This passage surrounds around the environment of the crowds gathering to hear the Lord Jesus speaks. When the Lord notices the magnitude of people building up, pressing and stepping on each other’s feet, He turns to His disciples and begins to address the issue of hypocrisy. The Lord Jesus warns against the yeast of the Pharisees (revealing hidden things), as a call to be authentic before God, not on performative self-efforts in religion. We just have to come before God as we are. It’s the primary theme of this verse, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. This is a group of religious leaders during the Lord’s time on this Earth who prided themselves on their outward piety and pretentious strict adherence to religious laws. However, the Lord Jesus chastises them often for their fake righteousness and their focus on external appearances, rather than matters of the heart, exposing what religion really is in essence.

Talking to the disciples in the presence of the gathering multitude, the Lord warns them of the "leaven of the Pharisees", which symbolically talks about the corrupting influence that can spread and permeate throughout a community. He cautions the disciples and us now, who have been reborn children of God by grace through faith in Him, to be aware of the insidious nature of hypocrisy and to guard against religious influence of sanitizing outward appearances instead of an inner transformation.

He wanted the disciples and us to understand that true righteousness is not about observance of the law and following external religious practices for the sake of appearances, but about having a sincere and authentic relationship with God, by grace through faith in Him. The Scriptures affirm: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:21-24 ESV).

And I say, AMEN!

Daily reflections by:
F. A. Frias
PFC Ministries

When God says... I say, AMEN! is a provocative reflection of the Lord's holy Word. It intends to challenge every seeker of truth to dig deep into the core of the Word of Life to point every being to Christ Jesus - the author and finisher of our faith, and to draw revelations for change, for nourishment and for strength of every soul.

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