The Flow

The Forerunner of Jesus: John the Baptist (1-22)

The Forefathers of Jesus: From the Last Adam to the First Adam (23-38)

Our Focus

3:8 – “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

I think James the half-brother of Jesus and author of the epistle bearing his name probably liked Luke 3:10-14. The heart of the matter is true faith will reveal itself in simple obedience. Or as James says it, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17,26).

After John explains himself in verses 7-9, the question asked by three different groups of people is “What then shall we do?” This question is asked a number of times in Luke and Acts which shows its importance (Luke 3:10,12,14; 10:25; Acts 2:37; 22:10). John’s response simple, do what you know to be true. To the crowds he said, “consider others more important than yourself” by sharing your material goods. To the tax collectors he said, “be subject to the governing authorities” by collecting what is authorized and no more. To the soldiers he said, do not use force to get your way and “be content with what you have.” I have a tendency to complicate my life, when I should seek to simply obey. God’s commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). The battle is in our belief that following God’s commands will result in true joy and freedom. Paul says our daily battle is to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). Put another way, battle unbelief. You can learn about how to battle the unbelief which is at the root all sin and these specific ones: misplaced shamed, covetousness, lust, envy, bitterness, impatience, and pride here.

We must also realize that God enables us to do what He commands us to do. The often-overlooked verse in Ephesians 2 is verse 10. It explains why we have been saved by grace – “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for (not by) good works (and get this), which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Thus with great confidence in God, let’s bear the fruits of the Spirit today.

As Augustine once prayed, “Command what you will and grant what you command.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 11:41 am and is filed under Reading Plan 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.