Luke 3 (NIV)
Hey everyone,
I apologize for posting this devo this late. I didn't got home from church until 4 pm and spent some time on the road with God.
Repentance and action
John in verse 8 addressed the crowd, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourself, "We have Abraham as our father." For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."
Often when we share Christ with others..we asked them to pray to Jesus to repent their sins. In this chapter, it seems repentance is more than a word of prayer. John made it cleared that unless there is fruit (action) from the repentance, it is meaningless.
From verse 10 to 14 on, John was asked on what fruits (actions) to produce.
Share and giving (v 10-11)
10"What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
John gave a very simple answer. The fruits is to share and give to those who do not have.
Fairness (v 12-13)
12Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them
The tax collectors are known for their corruption actions. John simply told them to be fair.
Contentment (v14)
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."
It appears that the soldiers have been extorting money from others (or else John wouldn't tell them don't do it). Why are they extorting money? We can find this in the second advice John give them. They are probably not happy with their pay. John told them to be content no matter what their pay is.
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In this passage, John stated clearly that true repentance will produce fruits. Those who don't, he calls them harsh names like "brood of vipers (v. 3.). He even warns them, that Jesus is coming to "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (v. 16-18)
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In this passage, we also see another important event: Jesus baptized and starting His ministry. In the previous chapters, Luke described Jesus as a miracle birth and his experience in the temple. Now, Jesus is about to begin His ministry as the Messiah and the Christ.
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After reading this passage, I have two questions in mind:
i) am I (or are you) producing any fruits?
ii) And if so, what type of fruits am I (or are you) producing?
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For myself, lately I've been convicted of all the blessings that I have. A few weeks ago I
was throwing some food away because it was turning bad. It dawned on me that such act is a
blessing! Most of the people around the world are starving and do not have the luxury to
throw food out. Yet I am provided with all the food to keep me alive.
With more than adequate blessings, I wonder how much of these blessings am I sharing it with others? Where's my role in sharing the 'tunic' with those who had done? Where's my part in
giving food to others who do not have?
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7 comments:
Today, one sentence really stuck from Dr TV Thomas' message: "Only disciples can make disciples." We never stop becoming disciples, we never stop learning, and we should never stop striving to learn about our God.
In order to produce fruit, and to produce disciples, we need to know God and be disciples ourselves. Just take a look at Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, took 30 years on earth to prepare before he started his full-time ministry! (Luke 3:23) If Jesus took that long to prepare, just think of how much we still have to learn!
Of course, that doesn't mean we wait until we're 50 before we start producing fruit, but we definitely can't neglect our own spiritual growth. You can only be a good a teacher as you are a student right?
for me the most convicting question continues to be "what fruit am I bearing?" ... or as a friend puts it bluntly..."when is the last time I have sat down and witnessed to someone?"
hey everyone..
good sharing..
Ginny, for me it is having the constant desire to seek Christ (attitude). If the attitude is there, the action will follow.
After all, as a follower of Christ, we will imitate what He do (Phillipians 2) and what He command.
Regardless of where our Christian walk is, whether we are new or mature Christians, we are to have the same attitude as Christ.
Cheers,
Cliff
Cliff I really enjoyed your mini analysis of the passages from Share and Giving, Fairness and Contentment.
I think the fairness is really jumping out at me. I have a heart for those who get ripped off. I do understand people may need to make somewhat of a profit to stay in business, but this Biblical approach to fairness is really good.
I also like your sharing on Contentment and being content with their pay. I think in general, we usually tell people to take the job with more pay and higher promotion, but I don't always see that as the case.
I think some of the fruits may come later on, I can't really put a number to it, but I hope I'm producing good fruit.
Cliff,
I don't think I agree with you that having a desire to seek Christ is enough. I do agree that having that attitude is very important, and is definitely the first step. But desire does not automatically translate into action. For example, I could really want to be a world class pianist, but if I don't actively go and take lessons, practice, constantly put in the work, I'll never be able to fulfill my desire.
Likewise, in order to be good disciples, we have to be active in pursuing it. Jesus was also not a passive learner, he actively sought after opportunities to learn about the Father (like in Luke 2 when he was twelve and went to the temple on his own). So if we are to imitate him, we need to be active.
Ginny, what you say is true. But I guess the opposite extreme is all actions without any desire, which quickly turns to legalism, which is not good either.
Sam, that's also definitely true. If I were to continue with the world class pianist analogy, I would say that no matter how hard you worked, you could never become a top pianist if you didn't have any God given talent to begin with. So as Christians, all our effort is nothing if we don't have the Holy Spirit working in us.
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