The Leaven of Herod (Part II)

Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Mark 8: 15

Jesus warned his disciples of the leaven of Herod. The leaven of Herod is an analogy to a political spirit. This spirit enters an environment and tries to cause division, form loyalties, and destroy churches. Political spirit uses manipulation, intimidation, and alliances as its method in achieving success. 

The political spirit uses believers and church members to accomplish its goal. Some believers may have selfish ambitions that causes them to align themselves with those in power to ensure that they get a special treatment. Others may become political over the course of time because they get hurt and disappointed by those in authority. This leads them to seek out others who are discontent, and they develop an alliance against those in authority. There are also times that those in authority become political because they are intimidated by any type of opposition, so they intimidate others and seek out loyalists to defend their position.

Unfortunately, division is a commonplace in the body of Christ. There are churches that wind up splitting due to disagreements, and in other churches a mass exodus occurs when people are hurt, frustrated, or misunderstood.

In the current season, there is also a great danger for the church to get divided over who will be the next president. We need to be careful not to stir division in the body over the next presidential election. Our allegiance to Christ should overrule our differences in politics.

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Exodus 18: 21

The best solution to the current drama is to pray for our nation. Many of us are stressed about voting at the next election because we’ve had lack of Godly leadership for quite sometime. The current election exposes how low we have come in our standard of leadership.

Since neither of the candidates portray God’s standard, arguing who is the better candidate seems futile. In my opinion, we should discuss issues rather than the candidates.  We can differ on solutions to some issues, but that’s ok.  The beauty of the American democracy is that it gives us freedom to disagree without throwing rocks at each other.

While we should do our part and vote, we cannot forget that this too shall pass. We are closer to the end times than ever before. We are moving toward more tumultuous times. We need to strengthen our faith for tough days ahead and help others get established, so they won’t fall away when tough times come.