Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
The Lord Jesus clearly told His disciples to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the upper ranks of the Jewish religion of that time. Why did the Lord Jesus teach His disciples to guard against them? I wondered: What did the Pharisees and the Sadducees do at that time?
When the Lord Jesus did His work, in order to enable people to better know Him and accept His salvation, He performed many signs and wonders—allowing the blind to see and the lame to walk, raising the dead and so on. Jews at that time all gained much grace and blessing from the Lord Jesus and saw many wondrous deeds of Him, and thus many of them followed the Lord Jesus. However, when the Pharisees and the Sadducees saw this, to protect their own positions and meal-tickets, they kept slandering and condemning the Lord Jesus, and also made up rumors about Him. After the foolish Jews heard the rumors, they were unable to stand their ground for lacking discernment. Therefore, they followed the Pharisees and the Sadducees in denying and judging the Lord Jesus, with the result that the whole Jewish religion was filled with the sounds of condemning the Lord Jesus. Under this circumstance, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6).
It can be seen that we should recognize God according to His work and words, but not according to man’s words or judgment. It also occurred to me that if now some people preach the gospel of the returned Lord to us, we should first seek and investigate whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit, and whether what they testify to are God’s words and work, instead of judging according to someone or some people’s words. Thank God for His enlightenment.
