Luke 3:10-14
Biblical and authoritative instruction is a priceless
blessing in our lives. We are greatly
blessed to have access to the Scriptures as they keep us from wandering aimlessly
through a life of disobedience and rebellion against God. John had just finished confronting the
Scribes and Pharisees with harsh and sobering words of judgment. That natural reaction of all of those who
were observing this scene was to think: that if these religious leaders were
under the wrath of God how much more were they?
Their question was simple: “What should we do?” This is the question that all of us should
ask every time we open God’s Word and every time we hear God’s Word being
taught. It is a blessing to receive instruction
and John blessed them with very clear instructions about what it was that they
should do. John had told them that they
needed to demonstrate the fruits of true repentance and now he is describing to
them exactly what that fruit looks like.
In a word repentance looks like change and transformation.
HAVE SENSITIVITY AND BE GENEROUS: The crowd of people who
were mostly Jews asked John what they should do. His answer was simple and straight
forward. He told them to look out for
the needs of other people and do all that they could to meet those needs. Extra clothing and extra food should be given
to those who are in need. We are all, by
nature, selfish. Our first concern is
naturally about ourselves. It is not
natural for us to be sensitive to the needs of others and it is not natural for
us to give sacrificially to help others.
Repentance is not a natural thing.
It is the super-natural work of God in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is all about transforming the
hearts of selfish men into sensitive and generous hearts that take pleasure in
helping others. We must be very careful
with the things God provides. They can
easily become idols in our lives. When
this happens, our possessions become a curse to us instead of a blessing. Prosperity and comfort are common goals for
most men but God calls us to a different type of life. He calls us to be willing to sacrifice of
comfort and offer our possessions as a means of blessing others. God calls us to repent of our greed and self-centeredness
and demonstrate that repentance through generosity.
HAVE INTEGRITY AND BE GENUINE: Tax collectors were also in
the crowd and desperately wanted to know what they should do to demonstrate
repentance. These were some of the most
despised people in all of Israel. They
were usually Jews who had been employed by Rome to collect taxes from their
fellow citizens. It was a dirty job but
someone had to do it. There was nothing
sinful about being a tax-collector in and of itself. The IRS has many believers in its
employ. The problem was that the tax
collectors were infamous for charging extra “taxes” that they were permitted to
keep in order to augment their income.
It had become a sort of mafia that made these tax collectors rich but
even more despicable to the majority of the citizens of Israel. John’s instruction was simple: “stop it!” He simply said that they should be satisfied
with the salary they were paid by Rome and only charge the taxes that they were
required to charge and deliver to the government. Bribes and abuse of power are detestable
before God and are activities from which we must repent. The Bible teaches that those in authority are
supposed to serve, not take advantage of the people that are under their
care. God calls us to demonstrate
integrity in all that we do even when it is a part of the culture to take
advantage of our position or power.
HAVE HUMILITY AND BE GENTLE: Roman soldiers were also in the
crowd and must have felt that they were completely without hope. They were there to enforce the law and keep
the peace but they too took advantage of their power to exploit the people. They would threaten people with violence or
even death in order to get money from people.
They would make false accusations in order to get bribes from people as
well as receive rewards from the government.
They were representative of the Roman Empire and had all of the power
over the people. It was easy for them to
become full of pride and calloused to the fear that the inflicted on the people
who were under their domination. Right
now they had all of the power but John was warning them that one day they would
stand before a God of wrath. They
desperately wanted to know what to do in order to escape from this
judgment. John’s instruction is once
again very straight forward. He tells
them to stop exploiting the people with their power and be content with their
wages. Their violent tempers must be
transformed into gentleness by the power of the Spirit. Of course there are times when a soldier must
use violence in order to curb the actions of sinful and rebellious men. However, these soldiers were using their
power to promote their own wealth at the expense of others. Contentment, humility and gentleness are the
works of the Spirit in the hearts of those who truly repent.
APPLICATION: Look for opportunities to give generously to
those who are in need. Be honest in
whatever line of work God has provided.
Use power and authority to serve others instead of exploiting them. Examine our hearts for sins from which we
must repent and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts so that we can
produce the true fruit of repentance.
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