Luke 3:7-14
"John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him... 'Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father."... 'What should we do then?' the crowd asked. John answered, 'The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.' Tax collectors also came to be baptized. 'Teacher,' they asked, 'what should we do?' 'Don't collect any more than you are required to,' he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, 'And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely--be content with your pay.'"
John was preaching the message of repentance. There are two types of repentance in this passage:
First, it is the repentance in the heart. Repentance must begin with the heart. Back then, people didn't think they needed to repent, because they believed that they were descendents of Abraham, so God would always have special favor for them. Gentiles might need to repent, but not the Jews. The attitude of thinking repentance is not necessary is the greatest obstacle for repentance. Therefore, John severely rebuked those who were listening to him, for they were afraid of the judgment in the future but not understanding that they needed to repent immediately. Christians often fall into the same situation, thinking that only non-believers need to repent, but forgetting that our action and behavior often make us enemies of Jesus Christ. When we are partaking the Holy Communion, we treat it as a routine task. When we are holding the cup and bread, and we can't really think of what we need to repent for. That is a truly miserable situation! We must repent from our heart with understanding that we fall short many times over and we have often sinned against God in the dark. We need to once again repent for our sins before God.
Second, it is the repentance in deed. The word "repent" has the meaning of turning around; in other word, repenting must bring about change in behavior. John said that we must "produce fruit in keeping with repentance." This is not only his message, but the message of the entire New Testament. James said that if our faith doesn't produce action, then it's a dead faith. The Bible teaches us to bear the fruit of repentance, as Ephesians 4:1-3 says "keep the unity of the Spirit," and live our life with deeds that matches our heart of repentance.
After hearing John's message, the crowd asked the same question: "What should we do?" John used three distinct answers to address the same question. He didn't use any fancy theological terms, but rather brought up the most basic and simplest actions to repent for and change. Let us be filled with God mercy, and turn back to God from our sins. Ask God to help us to not just repent in our heart, but also repent in our deeds.
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