Matthew 16:11-12
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.

How did the disciples not understand?  Did all of those miraculous moments that they had witnessed mean nothing to them?  Did those amazing things pass so quickly from their minds?  How did they fail to understand Jesus’ promise to provide for their needs?  How did they not recognize that the danger was not leavened bread, but false teaching by the religious leaders of their day?

But then, how do we not understand?  How is it possible that we’ve seen God work over and over and yet still have doubts ourselves?  How do we continue to get too caught up in the physical and lose sight of the dangers of false doctrine lurking around us?  How do we not see that Jesus is truly sufficient, that He is enough?  How do we so often take our eyes off of Him and get caught up in all of these other things?

Because there is something to be more concerned about than leavened bread.  It is those untruths that can creep in and infect the whole.  It is those small but wrong ideas that can spread if left unchecked.  It is wrong teachings that can contaminate what was once pure and righteous.  The danger is being misled and being drawn away by something that is not of God.  What would be much, much worse than the wrong kind of bread is the wrong kind of beliefs.

Jesus was trying to safeguard His disciples against the false doctrine that would taint what He was trying to teach them.  In a way, He had to undo a lot of the misleading things that were being taught to the people.  There is leaven all around that can fill us up with things that will lead us astray from the true path of God.  But let’s not allow things outside of the Word of God to have so much influence in our hearts and minds.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, so let us trust the bread that He gives.  May that be our meat and our portion, and may we be satisfied with His uncontaminated truth.