EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/25/2026 6:47 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “True Repenters Reveal
Spiritual Transformation”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
3:8a-14
Message of the verses: “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with
repentance…Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds were questioning him, saying,
“Then what shall we do?” And he would
answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who
has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” And some tax collectors also
came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than
what you have been ordered to.” Some
soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from
anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
I continue to look at this section that I began this
morning, and will see how far I can get this evening.
Picking up from where I left off
this morning I can see that the judgement pictured here is on individuals, as
the singular every tree suggests. However if enough individuals fail to repent,
it becomes a national issue, and that is what is happening here in Israel at
this time period when both John and Jesus began their ministries. Most of the people during this time period of
their preaching did not follow the message of salvation, and the reason was, at
least one of the reasons is that they thought that they were ok because they
were born Jews. What happened after the
Lord was crucified sometime around 30 A.D. was that the church age began, but
because the Jewish people had rejected the Lord, and also rejected being a part
of the church so much that they were persecuting the church, that the Lord
brought the Romans into their country and they defeated them and tore their
temple down and slaughtered thousands of Jewish people, who were cast into the
fire of eternal damnation. The same axe
of divine judgment will fall on all who fail to repent, both Jew and Gentiles
alike (cf. Joel 3:1-2, 12-14; Zeph. 3:8).
John had a sobering message and it
prompted at least some in the crowd to reflect on their sinful lives. Wanting to know what specific actions they
needed to take to manifest genuine repentance, they began questing him,
saying, “Then what shall we do?” John
would habitually, and MacArthur then adds the following (as the
imperfect tense of the verb translated say indicates) answer them
by giving practical advice. He told the
crowds in general, ‘The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has
none; and he who has food is to do likewise.’
Though seemingly trivial, sharing such basic necessities as clothing
and food with those in need fulfills the command to love one’s neighbor (10:27;
cf. Lev. 19:18; Romans 13:8-10; Gal.
5:14; James 2:8)—which is second in importance only to the command to love God
(Matt. 22:37-38).
“Luke then recorded the questions of
two specific groups. When some tax
collectors also came to be baptized and asked him, ‘Teacher, what shall
we do? John said to them, ‘Collect
no more than what you have been ordered to.’
Tax collectors were hated vilified, and scorned because they
collected taxes for the Roman oppressors.
Despised as traitors and robbers, they were cut off from Jewish
religious life and forbidden to testify in court. John did not order them to give up their
jobs, since it is not wrong for a government to collect taxes (Matt. 22:17-21;
Rom. 13:7). But he did tell them not to collect
any more than what they had been ordered to collect. Tax collectors normally increased their profits
by extorting exorbitant tools beyond what was mandated by Rome (Luke 19:8), and
demanding kickbacks and bribes. They
could manifest true repentance by treating people fairly and honestly and not
abusing their authority. Some of the tax
collectors took John’s message to heart and repented (Matt. 21:31-32; Luke
19:1-10).
Soldiers were another group
prone to abusing their authority for selfish gain. These soldiers could have been under
the authority of Herod Antipas or Rome and may also have included some members
of the Judean police. John gave them
three ways to manifest genuine repentance.
First, they were not to take money from anyone by force. The verb translated take money by force literally
means ‘to shake violently.’ The soldiers were not, to use contemporary idiom,
to shake people down for money through intimidation or force. Nor were they to accuse anyone
falsely. They were not to abuse
their authority to twist and pervert the evidence in any attempt to extort
money from the innocent. Finally, John
charged the soldiers to be content with their wages, since
failing to do so might motivate them to abuse their power.”
MacArthur concludes this section by
writing “By selecting tax collectors and soldiers as examples of those who
repented, John was making the general point that true repentance produces a
life that is transformed from being characterized by sin to being benchmarked
by virtue.”
4/25/2026
7:17 PM
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