By Jonathan Brenneman
Jesus’ Warning About the Leaven of the Pharisees
When Jesus warned His disciples about leaven, He was using imagery deeply rooted in Scripture. The Jews were commanded to eat the Passover meal—which represented Jesus’ sacrifice—without leaven. They were required to search their houses carefully and remove every trace of it.
Matthew 16:6 (ESV) “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Later, Jesus explained exactly what He meant:
Matthew 16:12 (ESV) “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
As we know, leaven puffs up the dough. It makes the end product feel softer and look bigger, but it adds no real substance. It creates an appearance of fullness while changing the nature of what it touches.
So if Jesus said the leaven was the teaching of the Pharisees, the question becomes unavoidable:
What teaching was He referring to, and how does that same leaven operate in the church today?
The Teaching Jesus Rebuked
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they taught human commands and traditions as doctrine, while at the same time breaking the commands of God for the sake of those traditions.
Matthew 15:6 (ESV) “So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.”
In Matthew 23, Jesus exposes the fruit of this teaching in devastating detail. They boasted in outward appearances. They did everything to be seen by others. They loved places of honor and being greeted with respect.
They appeared righteous on the outside while being full of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy, and lawlessness within. Like whitewashed tombs, they looked clean on the outside but were full of death within.
They meticulously tithed spices, yet neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They loaded people with heavy religious burdens and refused to lift a finger to help them.
Not only did they fail to enter God’s kingdom themselves, but they also actively shut the door in the faces of those who wanted to enter.
Matthew 23:13 (ESV) “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.”
This is the heart of what Jesus condemned: not devotion, not discipline, not structure—but the replacement of God’s commands with human religious systems.
Why We Often Misidentify “Religious” Christianity
When many Christians think of “religious” people today, they imagine old-timers enforcing outdated dress codes.
Have you ever encountered someone convinced a young girl wasn’t saved if she wore jeans, because “Christian girls wear skirts”?
As a man, I once met an elderly woman in Rio de Janeiro who commended me for wearing long pants instead of shorts so as not to “tempt” the sisters. Yet I wasn’t wearing long pants for any religious reason whatsoever.
We recognize standards like these as ridiculous—and rightly so. They are clearly man-made rules with no biblical foundation.
Because of this, many modern Christians who have rejected previous generations’ religious traditions assume that they themselves could never be “religious.”
The Modern, Unrecognized Religious Spirit
I live in a Latin American city filled with massive churches. It is one of the most evangelical cities in Brazil. Many of these churches began in genuine revivals. They are full of zealous young people. They dress casually, wear jeans, and intentionally market themselves as modern and “cutting edge.”
Yet many of these churches—and many of their young people—manifest just as much of a religious spirit in the church as the person who believes Christian girls must wear skirts.
The difference is not substance, but packaging.
They do not realize it, but their assumptions and judgments about what church is, how church must function, the role of leadership, authority, commitment, legitimacy, and obedience are just as rooted in human tradition as the dress codes they reject.
This religious spirit in the modern church is harder to recognize precisely because it does not look old or rigid. It wears modern clothes. It speaks the language of relevance. But it still replaces obedience to Jesus with human commands.
When Human Traditions Define What “Church” Is
One of the clearest ways a religious spirit manifests today is in how Christians define what “church” is supposed to be. Many believers assume—without ever questioning it—that a church must have a dedicated building in order to be legitimate.
Yet history and Scripture tell a very different story.
The early church met primarily in homes. That is why hospitality is listed as a qualification for an elder in Titus 1:8. The New Testament repeatedly describes believers gathering “from house to house.”
The first known church building was constructed hundreds of years after Christ. Even today, some of the strongest and fastest-growing Christian movements in the world meet in homes.
Acts 2:46 (ESV) “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.”
Yet many modern Christians consider house-to-house gatherings to be inferior, optional, or even illegitimate. Those who gather this way—but do not attend institutional programs—are often viewed as “uncommitted,” “out of fellowship,” or “rebellious.”
This is despite the fact that such gatherings actually allow believers to obey the Bible’s instructions for Christian fellowship, while the typical spectator “church service” does not.
They also define “Church” by other unbiblical paradigms that involve institutional business-like organization with financial and hierarchical control rather than the Biblical plurality of elders and the organic functioning of every member of Christ’s body.
The Misuse of “Temple” Language
Another example of religious tradition replacing Scripture is the widespread practice of calling a church building “the temple.” This language is not harmless—it directly contradicts the clear teaching of the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Acts 7:48 (ESV) “The Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.”
Calling a building “the temple” subtly shifts people’s understanding away from Christ dwelling in His people and back toward a location-centred religion—precisely the mindset Jesus dismantled.
You cannot believe a church building is God’s temple and truly believe that you are God’s temple while acting accordingly. One belief inevitably undermines the other.
The belief that a “temple” built by human hands is necessary for a church reinforces the mindset that a large budget is needed to even have a church. This is then used as a justification for teaching tithing when they can’t defend it biblically.
Churches regularly break God’s commands for the sake of their tithing tradition. Tithing, in the form taught today, didn’t even exist in the Old Testament. It did not exist in the church until hundreds of years after Christ, and was nearly non-existent for much of the history of evangelicalism.
Tithing and large buildings, in turn, support the unbiblical leadership paradigms, a denial of the priesthood of all believers, and spectator events, which hinder the church from functioning as the body of Christ. Tithing then supplants Spirit-led giving and diverts from Jesus’ priority of caring for the poor.
Do you see how the religious spirit inflates things, laying heavy burdens on God’s people, and teaching traditions as doctrines? Religious traditions and burdens consume Christians’ time and energy until not much is left for Jesus.
The religious spirit leaves Christians tired and burdened rather than producing joy and empowerment through God’s grace. It keeps them doing things that God neither commands nor gives them grace to do. Many get exhausted and give up on church altogether instead of finding and embracing the better way found in God’s word.
Church as God intended it doesn’t exhaust people. It edifies them. We are learning how to help people who have left church by bringing the church to them rather than attempting to drive them back into unbiblical paradigms.
Hierarchy, Control, and the Myth of the Singular “Pastor”
Another manifestation of a religious spirit is the assumption that every Christian must have a singular individual they call “my pastor.” In practice, this often has little to do with function and everything to do with hierarchy and control.
In the New Testament, leadership was plural. Churches were overseen by elders, not a single authority figure. Yet when believers relate to the body of Christ in a healthy, New Testament way—with a plurality of elders—they are often accused of being rebellious or unsubmitted.
This replaces obedience to Christ with human control and fosters dependency rather than maturity. In many cases, devotion to a single leader subtly supplants devotion to Jesus Himself.
Institutional Labels vs. Relational Reality
Many Christians insist that every believer must have a “church,” defined not by relationships but by an institutional label. Yet such thinking would have been absurd in the first century.
Can you imagine Paul referring to “First Corinthian Baptist,” “New Life Corinth,” or “Corinth City Church”?
Instead, Paul rebuked sectarian thinking outright.
1 Corinthians 3:4 (ESV) “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?”
Scripture speaks of the church in a city, even when believers met in multiple locations. Yet today, many fashionable young Christians consider those who meet from house to house—just as the New Testament describes—to be “out of fellowship” if they do not also attend institutional events.
They consider loud spectator gatherings that do not facilitate obedience to the Bible’s “one-another” commands—or the instructions of 1 Corinthians 11–14—to be legitimate church.
Meanwhile, gatherings that actually fulfill biblical instructions for Christian fellowship are treated as optional, secondary, or even suspicious.
They consider what is essential to be optional, and what does not fulfill Scripture to be essential.
Human traditions are prioritized over God’s commands. Religion replaces relationships.
That is backwards.
It is a religious spirit.
How Does a Religious Spirit Operate in the Church Today?
When Programs Replace Biblical Fellowship
Here, we begin to see the strategy of the religious spirit clearly. It uses human tradition to replace obedience to God’s commands.
Scripture commands that Christian gatherings must be participatory. Believers are meant to speak, share, pray, exhort, and build one another up.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV) “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”
Take some time to go back to scripture. Review the one-another commands of scripture and the Bible’s instructions for a weekly meeting in 1st Corinthians chapters 11-14. As you read each command and instruction for Christian fellowship, ask yourself honestly, “Do we obey this in our primary weekly Christian meeting?”
Are you following the Bible’s instructions? Or has the leaven of human commands and traditions replaced them?
Why Monologue-Based Meetings Produce Dependency
Yet in many churches, listening to a monologue and receiving information is called “discipleship.” This replaces real discipleship, where believers learn to obey Jesus by doing what He commanded.
1 Corinthians 8:1 (ESV) “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Knowledge inflates like leaven. Love builds up. The religious spirit prefers knowledge because it produces the appearance of maturity without transformation. It maintains dependence and keeps people serving an institution’s vision rather than obeying Jesus.
Why Biblical Love Requires Participation
Jesus said if we love him, we will obey his commands. Love builds up, and the edifying activity described in the Bible’s instructions for a Christian meeting in 1st Corinthians chapters 11-14 requires that all be allowed to speak.
The love chapter of 1st Corinthians 13 is right between two chapters that require allowing every member of Christ’s body to function together, which requires speaking. Spectator events and endless monologues promote the kind of knowledge that puffs up, rather than love, which builds up.
God’s love is manifest in power through the nine manifestations of God’s grace listed in 1st Corinthians 12, through every member of the body of Christ. God’s love is manifest when we obey the one-another commands, which require conversation, not monologue. This is how the body builds itself up in love, as scripture declares
The religious spirit prioritizes programs and information over edification and Biblical love, expressed in word and deed through each of us.
Community is important—but it must be formed around obedience to Jesus’ vision: the Great Commission. A religious spirit makes community the end in itself, prioritized over obedience to Christ.
Follow Jesus, and community happens naturally. Building the church is God’s job. Our job is to make disciples.
Replacing Jesus’ Vision with “The Vision of the House”
Why Submitting to “The Vision of the House” Replaces Submitting to Christ
Another hallmark of a religious spirit is devotion to “the vision of the house” or “submitting to another man’s vision.” It talks about “this body” and “that body” and says, “you need to belong to a body of believers.”
Loyalty to an institution replaces obedience to Christ. Serving the organization subtly replaces serving Jesus.
I have news for you! I AM God’s house, and I submit to the vision Jesus Christ has for his church, which is laid out in God’s word! I belong to the ONE body of believers with Jesus Christ as the only head.
The Religious Spirit Undermines Biblical Roles and Functions In The Church
I have seen countless situations in my city where evangelistic ministries—groups actively obeying Jesus’ commands—are labelled “parachurch,” as though they exist outside the church.
This directly contradicts Scripture, which includes evangelists and missionaries (a translation of apostles) as functions within the church itself.
Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV) “And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.”
Young people involved in evangelism or missions are often told, “This ministry is not your church,” and are pressured to prioritize institutional events that do not fulfill Jesus’ commands over the very contexts where they are being discipled—just as Jesus discipled His followers—by going and doing.
Ironically, the gatherings in which believers are obeying Jesus, maturing, and walking in power are dismissed as “not church,” while programs that do not allow obedience to Jesus’ commission or the Bible’s instructions for Christian fellowship are elevated as essential.
God does not give His vision for the church to a single leader. First, God gives us His vision for the church in Scripture. Then He gives missionaries, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—plural—to help advance different aspects of that vision.
He gives us a plurality of elders. Whenever it becomes about one man’s vision, it is unbalanced and conflicts with God’s vision for His church.
Evangelism and Participatory Discipleship Are Not “Parachurch”
The Great Commission is not an optional ministry of the church—it is the church’s mission.
Yet one of the clearest manifestations of a religious spirit is treating biblical evangelism, participatory fellowship, and biblical disciple-making as secondary activities, while institutional maintenance is deemed essential.
Matthew 28:19 (ESV) “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”
I have repeatedly seen ministries that are actively obeying Jesus—preaching the gospel, discipling believers, and demonstrating the kingdom of God—labelled as “parachurch.” The term subtly implies that such work exists outside the church, or at best on its margins.
This is a direct contradiction of Scripture. Evangelists and missionaries are part of the church. Making disciples is not optional—it is the command of Christ.
Yet young people involved in evangelism are often told they must prioritize the events of their “local church” before participating in outreach. In practice, this means they are discouraged from participating in the very environments where they are learning to obey Jesus.
I have seen young people experience God’s power, pray for the sick, and walk in authority on outreach—only to slowly fall away as endless programs and devotion to an institution leave little time, energy, or resources to keep following Jesus.
A religious spirit lays heavy burdens on people, hindering their obedience to Christ.
You cannot give your all for Jesus and submit to human religious demands.
Discipleship Versus Dependency
The religious spirit thrives on redefining discipleship. In many churches, “discipleship” has become synonymous with receiving information rather than learning obedience.
Jesus did not make disciples in classrooms. He made disciples on the road. His followers learned by preaching the gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, and exercising authority in His name.
You are not making disciples unless you are raising up people who do what Jesus did.
Encouraging dependency is incompatible with biblical discipleship. After three and a half years with His disciples, Jesus said something astonishing:
John 16:7 (ESV) “It is to your advantage that I go away.”
If a church never reaches the point where its leaders can say something similar—where believers are empowered rather than dependent—it is not making disciples.
When Obedience Is Labelled Rebellion
Another hallmark of a religious spirit is that obedience to Jesus is labelled “rebellion” when that obedience does not align with institutional priorities. The religious spirit snares people in the fear of man rather than promoting the fear of the Lord.
Believers are told they must prioritize spectator meetings that look nothing like first-century Christian gatherings and that do not allow the body of Christ to function according to Scripture.
Romans 12:4–5 (ESV) “For as in one body we have many members… so we, though many, are one body in Christ.”
Religious tradition insists that meetings which do not obey the Bible’s instructions are mandatory, while gatherings that do obey Scripture are considered optional, secondary, or even rebellious.
When Evangelism Is Separated from Discipleship: A Real-World Example
One church allowed an “evangelism and outreach” group to exist. However, they insisted that all “discipleship” activities belonged exclusively to their official discipleship groups—groups that mostly involved being loaded with information rather than learning to obey Jesus.
Those who wanted to participate in evangelism were required to be in these discipleship groups, yet the evangelism group was not allowed to disciple people.
This framework fundamentally misunderstood what biblical discipleship is and how Jesus actually made disciples.
Jesus did not separate evangelism from discipleship. He discipled His followers as they went. They learned the gospel by proclaiming it. They learned authority by exercising it. They learned obedience by obeying.
The evangelism leader was placed in an impossible situation. How could he take people to evangelize if they did not understand the gospel? How could he separate evangelism from discipleship?
After repeated attempts to explain this and find a resolution, the evangelism leader was forced to resign.
Evangelism—obedience to Jesus’ explicit command—was treated as optional, while institutional “discipleship” programs that failed to produce obedience were deemed essential.
This is not biblical discipleship. It produces dependency, not maturity, and it actively hinders believers from ever becoming disciples of Jesus.
Suppressing the Work of the Holy Spirit
I was recently in a home meeting with a couple whose young son was nearly blind in one eye. From five feet away, he could not tell how many fingers were being held up.
We prayed three times. Each time, no visible improvement was apparent.
The third time, I asked the boy if he felt anything. He said no. I asked if his vision had improved. He said no.
As he was saying “no,” his father-in-law held up his fingers—two, three, five, four. The boy identified every number correctly.
The child had been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease and was expected to need surgery. After that moment, his parents cancelled having glasses made for him.
The Religious Spirit Shuts Down Biblical Christian Fellowship
We have such experiences regularly in home meetings and informal contexts that allow conversation and participation. We have seen people healed of chronic pain and filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet I’ve repeatedly seen religious institutions suppress or even shut down such meetings.
Christian fellowship requires conversation. The Holy Spirit’s move requires participation. Meetings that do not allow believers to speak, pray, exhort, and minister to one another cannot be considered biblical fellowship.
Some meetings where we see the Holy Spirit move in power have been relegated to biweekly or even less frequent gatherings because religious tradition prioritizes institutional programs. Christians believe they should only attend such Biblical meetings as a secondary supplement to unbiblical religious programs.
Institutional leaders sometimes even totally shut down gatherings that are full of life, facilitating real discipleship and Biblical fellowship, because they “do not support the vision of the church.” Christians are told they need their leader’s permission to hold such meetings.
Christians should not need a leader’s permission to obey Jesus. Groups where believers are actually obeying Christ get shut down because they do not serve institutional priorities.
Those involved are told they must “submit to leaders,” even when those leaders refuse to submit to Christ’s commands. This is not biblical leadership. Biblical leaders are submitted to Jesus Christ and His agenda—not their own.
Carnival and the Tragedy of Replaced Priorities
I once commented to a friend that it is a sad fact that I saw more miracles on last year’s Carnival outreach than I see in most church services.
Carnival is not an easy outreach. There is loud music, heavy drinking, and people walking around in not much more than their underwear.
Yet Carnival is still more conducive to talking with people—and therefore more conducive to the Holy Spirit’s work—than many Christian meetings.
It is tragic that a pagan party can be more conducive to the Holy Spirit’s work than a Christian “church service.”
One of the greatest difficulties I have faced in my city is seeing people encounter the Holy Spirit and learn to heal the sick on missions and in informal gatherings. But then they fall away from obeying Jesus and experiencing God’s glory because devotion to a religious institution consumes their time, energy, and resources. They are no longer sharing the gospel or healing the sick because they’re “in church” all the time.
They saw miracles. But they were told their “local church” must be the priority—despite the fact that it did not share Jesus’ priorities.
When Real Church Is Called “Not Church”
We recently had a meeting with about 20 people from different churches gathering to prepare for a Carnival outreach.
Everyone spoke. We prayed for one another. We encouraged one another. We fulfilled biblical “one-another” commands that religious church services do not facilitate.
We laid hands on missionaries—something Scripture calls foundational, yet something often absent from Sunday morning programs.
Young men and women wept, sobbed with compassion for the lost, cried aloud, and trembled as God empowered them for evangelism.
Yet because this meeting included people from different institutional labels, many would say this was “not church.”
Meanwhile, attendance at institutional services where none of this happens is considered essential.
This is what happens when religious tradition defines church instead of Scripture. It exposes the difference between the biblical church and the institutional church that religious systems have normalized.
When we let go of religious traditions and believe the biblical truth that there is one body, we understand that such gatherings are church.
One Body, One Head
Ephesians 4:4–5 (ESV) “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
The religious spirit presents many bodies, each with its own head, vision, and “spiritual father”—none of whom are Christ.
Institutional churches have become “bodies” with priorities, values, and visions that differ from Jesus’ vision for His body. This carnal, sectarian attitude promoted by a religious spirit hinders Christians from receiving from a Biblical multiplicity of elders. It hinders a healthy connection with other members of the body of Christ by failing to recognize the body’s unity.
The Spread of Religious Leaven
This religious leaven has spread so thoroughly throughout the modern church that many Christians have no idea how much of the “Christianity” they know is inferior to real, powerful, pure, supernatural biblical Christianity. This is why serious biblical church reform must begin not with strategy, but with repentance and a return to obedience to Christ.
In fact, what many today call “revival” is simply the biblical Christianity they have never experienced—because religious leaven has replaced God’s commands with human systems. You only really see it when you start living what should have been normal all along.
The religious spirit in the church today uses programs and human traditions to shut down life and hinder people from following Jesus. It replaces:
- Participatory fellowship with programs
- Jesus’ agenda with human agendas
- Spirit-led giving with tithing and human commands
- The joy of generosity with reduced well-being (see documented research on pressure-based giving)
- Discipleship with dependency
- Jesus’ headship with control
- Pleasing God with pleasing people
- Honouring the body of Christ by honouring those who desire preeminence.
The religious spirit demands loyalty to leaders over loyalty to Christ. It does not recognize or receive Jesus when he comes. It has resisted every true revival in history, and it continues to do the same today.
Stephen’s Rebuke and the Invitation to Freedom
Acts 7:51 (ESV) “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.”
God is a generous Father. He delights to pour out His Spirit.
Revival is available. But it requires repentance—turning away from human commands that replace obedience to Christ—and aligning our priorities with Jesus’ priorities.
Breaking free from a religious spirit means rejecting religious leaven and embracing biblical fellowship, biblical discipleship, Spirit-led obedience, and the reality that there is one body with one head—Jesus Christ.
A few years ago, God spoke to me, “You can’t give your all for Jesus and give your all for religion.” I let go of trying to satisfy human religious demands. I stopped feeling obligated to attend a weekly spectator event that does not allow obedience to Christ. I’m in Christian fellowship several times a week, but only in contexts that allow me to operate as a member of the body of Christ.
This blog is filled with testimonies of miracles, signs, wonders, deliverance, and evangelistic adventures. I would not be living this life if I were trying to satisfy the demands of religiosity. I wouldn’t have so much time or energy to live my Christianity on the street and house to house if it were consumed with religious programs.
If you want revival, you can have it. But it will require choosing obedience to Jesus over every other agenda. You’ll never experience all God has for you until you break free of the religious spirit, along with its false accusations and human commands, and choose God’s word over religious traditions.
That path is narrow—but it is free. And it is full of life.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Religious Spirit in the Church
What is a religious spirit in the church?
A religious spirit in the church is teaching and tradition that replace obedience to Jesus with human systems and traditions. Jesus called this “the leaven of the Pharisees.” It produces outward activity while neglecting justice, mercy, faithfulness, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
How does a religious spirit operate in the modern church?
A religious spirit operates by prioritizing programs, hierarchy, and institutional loyalty over participatory fellowship and obedience to the Great Commission. It often suppresses evangelism, replaces discipleship with dependency, and elevates human vision above Christ’s headship.
What did Jesus mean by the leaven of the Pharisees?
Jesus explained that the leaven of the Pharisees was their teaching. Like leaven in bread, it spreads quietly and inflates outward appearance without adding substance. It represents human tradition that nullifies God’s Word.
Is every structured church system religious?
Not necessarily. Some structure is needed when we collaborate as the body of Christ. However, the religious spirit redefines “church” by structures that go beyond scriptural criteria. Those structures are often inflated into burdens that hinder obedience to Christ rather than facilitating life.
Problems arise when traditions are taught as doctrines or conflict with obedience to Scripture, suppress the functioning of the body of Christ, or demand loyalty to leaders over loyalty to Jesus.
How can believers break free from a religious spirit?
Breaking free begins with repentance and a return to Scripture. You can’t give your all for Jesus and give your all for religion. Believers must realign their priorities with Jesus’ commands, embrace participatory fellowship, pursue Spirit-led obedience, and recognize that there is one body with one head—Christ.