Sincerity and Truth

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. –– 1 Corinthians 5:8

One of the strict regulations for the Passover when Israel left Egypt concerned leaven: “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Exodus 12:15). Additionally, “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters” (Exodus 13:7).

The most common leaven is yeast, a one-celled fungus that converts sugar and starch into carbon dioxide and alcohol. According to The Cook’s Thesaurus, “You should never eat raw active yeast since it will continue to grow in your intestine and rob your body of valuable nutrients.”

Leaven corrupts and adds no nutrients to food; it simply changes its texture and makes it appear more appetizing. Leaven, therefore, is an apt representation of sin. It and honey were not permitted in meal offerings: “No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt” (Leviticus 2:11-13).

Sin, like leaven, must be totally expunged from the Christian character. This cannot be done completely since we are imperfect, but we must try to purge it to the best of our ability.

Six Types of Leaven

As there are various types of yeast so the New Testament mentions at least six types of leaven which a Christian must purge from his character. These are the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Sadducees, the leaven of Herod, the old leaven, the leaven of malice, and the leaven of wickedness.

The Leaven of the Pharisees

The Leaven of the Pharisees is mentioned by Jesus: “In the meantime, 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).

Jesus identifies this type of leaven as hypocrisy. In his commentary, William Barclay notes: “The word hypocrite began by meaning someone who answers, and hypocrisy originally meant answering. First, the words were used in the ordinary flow of question and answer in any talk or any dialogue; then they began to relate to question and answer in a play. From that, they went on to relate to acting a part. The hypocrite is never genuine; he is always play-acting. The basis of hypocrisy is insincerity. God would rather have a blunt, honest sinner, than someone who puts on an act of goodness.”

Acting comes naturally to the human race. We all want to look good in front of others, yet we all know the weaknesses and unworthiness of our fallen nature. Therefore, we tend to put on a mask of what we would like to be rather than what we are. This causes us to act and assume a role that does not represent who we really are.

In “The Morning Resolve,” Pastor Russell advises us to “be simple and sincere toward all.” Transparency, to a great extent, is a virtue to be desired and acquired.

The Pharisees were self-righteous. As one has humorously observed, they said they were “Fair I See.” They were condemned by Jesus for flaunting their righteousness publicly, for giving their alms to be seen, for saying their prayers before men, and for taking pride in their presumed righteousness. The Christian must be careful not to boast of regularly attending meetings, distributing literature, or any other good acts. These works should be done to the glory of God, not to the glory of the one doing them (Matthew 6:1-8).

As servants we are not to look upon our deeds as praiseworthy, but simply as doing what God expects of us. Jesus says, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). It is not by our works that we are saved, but by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8,9).

The Leaven of the Sadducees

The Leaven of the Sadducees is brought to our attention in Matthew: “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:11,12).

This leaven was false doctrine and compromise. The Sadducees lacked faith in the doctrine of the resurrection. In fact, it was not just the doctrine of resurrection they disbelieved; they lacked faith in all of God’s promises.

Doubts can be profitable. They are the seed of the growth of truth, but only when they are thoroughly examined and answered. Errors deserve to be doubted; scripturally proven truth does not. Such doubts exhibit the Sadducean tendency to take all validity out of truth. (See Reprints, p. 2835.)

As a result of their lack of faith in the Old Testament prophecies, the Sadducees became more of a ritualistic, secular, and political party than a truly religious one. After the return from Babylonian captivity, the high priest of Israel became recognized by the neighboring nations as the King of Israel. Thus, the religious element took the honor and responsibilities associated with the secular. After the Maccabean revolt, this condition of things became the basis for the split with the Pharisees, who maintained a legal and religious profession for the Law and the priesthood; the Sadducees assumed more of a political role. As a result, the Sadducees became the main party that worked with the Greeks and the Romans to establish a modus operandi with their conquerors. They adopted a pragmatic position that called for many compromises. Thus, the leaven of the Sadducees includes the attitude of compromise.

Compromise can be productive, but only when it concerns matters of preference and not matters of principle. Principles should never be compromised; the problem is that what is a principle to one may only be a preference to another. Daniel refused to compromise principle when he would not bow down to the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar nor stop praying for the deliverance of Israel.

Christians today must never compromise principles. However, they must be sure they are, in fact, principles. A principle is that which can be completely supported by a scriptural “Thus saith the Lord.” That is true doctrine; all else is interpretation. As much as this applies to the intellectual concepts in God’s Word, it applies even more to the principles of Christian living and Godlikeness.

The Leaven of Herod

Jesus also speaks of the Leaven of Herod: “And he charged them, saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15). This is political activism — the leaven of the state rather than the leaven of the church. There are many situations today that strongly affect moral principles. Issues such as gay rights, abortion, and the removal of religion from the public forum, plus other concerns, correctly offend a Christian’s sensibilities.

It is an ever-present temptation to join, at least in spirit, with the cries of protest against these moral improprieties. However, such activism diverts a Christian from the main responsibility of changing his own character from one patterned after the world to true godliness in preparation for the great future work of the Kingdom in righting all human injustices.

“The coming struggle between the aristocracy and the masses of every civilized land will be so peculiar, so unlike any former experience, that moderate, conservative, religiously inclined people, fearing the utter wreck of society in chaos and anarchy, will naturally prefer monarchy, oppression, and bondage to anything certain to be worse. Hence such will affiliate with church and empire, with wealth and aristocracy, in the general effort to repress and prevent that irrepressible conflict — ‘The battle of the great day of God Almighty.’ Eventually, probably the only exceptions to this course, among the lovers of peace and true religion, will be those to whom the King of kings is pleased, through his Word, to reveal his plans (John 16:13), and who have full confidence in his wisdom and love, as well as in his power to make all things work out according to his promises. Only such, among the conservative, order-loving people, as see the part which the coming social revolution must play in God’s plan, in removing effete systems whose day is past, and in preparing the world, by a great leveling process, for the Millennial reign of righteousness, will be able to comprehend the situation and to act accordingly.”— Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 2, p. 262 (written in 1889).

It takes great patience to wait on the Lord for the rectification of the many inequities of present society. But such patience is necessary because solutions to today’s problems will be only partial and imperfect. Only God’s kingdom has the answers. It not only can but will completely change earth’s society to a righteous one. As the prophet puts it, “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).

Another aspect of the leaven of Herod was his hedonistic selfishness. This was exhibited not only in his illicit marriage to Herodias but also in his lust for Salome and honoring her request to behead John the Baptist. A Christian in contrast needs to carefully follow the Lord’s regulations in all affairs of life and not succumb to the lusts of the flesh.

Old Leaven, The Leaven of Malice, The Leaven of Wickedness

 The Apostle Paul introduces three other leavens: old leaven, the leaven of malice, and the leaven of wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:8). Purging old leaven has at least two meanings: the purging of sinners (note verse 13) and the purging of sin.

“Old” leaven suggests long-standing leaven. The longest-standing leaven is the leaven of Adamic sin. As a result of the fall, human nature not only inherits sin but also a sinful environment. David acknowledged these two elements of nature and nurture: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity [shaped by environment]; and in sin [inherited sin] did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

We are not responsible for the sin in which we were born, but we are responsible for purging ourselves from its influences. In his Notes on the Bible, John Meggison wrote: “We are to purge out the last remaining influences on our characters, put away all the desires, and sinful habits and thoughts of the old nature, which are corrupt.”

The Apostle Paul admonished us to “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Paul listed ten kinds of old leaven: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices” (Colossians 3:5- 9, NIV).

Verse 5 has five selfish desires: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which he likens to idolatry.

Verses 8 and 9 list five sins of the emotions and the tongue: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language, which are identified as lying to one another.

Commenting on this verse, C.F.D. Moule wrote: “The Christian must kill self-centeredness and regard as dead all private desires and ambitions. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the center. Everything which would keep him from fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be surgically excised … idolatry is an attempt to use God for man’s purposes, rather than to give oneself to God’s service.”

The man whose life is dominated by the desire to get things has set up things in the place of God, and that is a precise definition of idolatry.

Three of the sins Paul mentioned are anger, wrath, and malice. These are three progressive stages of the same ailment. Anger is exhibited by nurturing resentments; wrath by outbursts of temper; malice by planned revenge.

The sin of lying is separated into two categories: blasphemy (lying against God) and filthy communication (lying against fellow man). These are the antidotes for these leavens. Instead of blasphemy, Christian speech must be kind; instead of filthy communication, Christian speech must be pure; instead of lying, Christian speech must be true.

The next two leavens — those of malice and wickedness — are scripturally linked. Robertson, in his New Testament Word Studies, identified malice (Greek: kakia) as “a vicious disposition,” and wickedness (Greek: poneria) as “evil deeds.”

As malice is the basis of wickedness, so in contrast sincerity is the basis of truth. On the one hand, the malice of an evil disposition produces the wickedness of evil deeds. On the other hand, the sincerity of a good disposition produces truth and good deeds.

Sincerity

 It is interesting to note the difference between the Latin and the Greek for the word “sincere.” The Latin word for sincere is sinceros which is a combination of sin (meaning without) and ceros (meaning wax). To be sincere means to be without wax. The idiom is taken from the ancient marketplace where merchants of pottery would conceal flaws in a vessel by covering it with wax. The only way a wise shopper could detect the flaw was to hold the vessel up to the sun so that the covered crack would become obvious. The Greek word for sincerity, helionkrinos, is also derived from two words: helios (the sun), and krinos (to judge). In other words, “judged by the sun.” The sun reveals the covering wax.

Thus, to be sincere is to not hide our faults and imperfections. This attitude in the study of God’s word will produce an integrity that looks honestly and openly upon what his word really says with the least interpretation necessary. A good question to ask when studying the Bible is, “What did the audience understand by the words that were spoken?” Such an open and honest look at the word of God leads to accurate truth.

It behooves all of us to diligently purge out all leaven and replace it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

–– The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom
2008/2