Knowing The Word in Luke 3:7-14, The Preaching of John

John preaches that repentance must be shown by the appropriate fruit and that we stand as individuals before God. Luke alone tells us how John replied to questioners anxious about the way repentance affected their particular callings. John’s answers reveal a recognition that each calling in life has its own temptations and that it is the mark of the truly penitent to resist them. Notice that John does not call either group to leave their jobs but to act uprightly in them.

7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Prayer: Father, in the depths of personal isolation and loneliness, when we question who we are, give us the eternal light of your love, reassuring us that we are indeed your beloved children. Amen.