Luke 3:10-14 - What should we do then?

3:10,11

Jesus said we shall know a tree by its fruit, so John’s demand for positive evidence of a person’s repentance is entirely consistent with Jesus’ approach. Here the crowd respond by asking what they should do. People need to know how to respond to God’s word. John gives very practical advice, with different instructions for different sets of people. The way that God works in our lives varies from person to person.

The first instruction is a general one. We are to share with the poor.  The Bible shows again and again that God is concerned for the poor and the oppressed. So if we turn to God then evidence of that is practical concern for the poor. Now someone might say that given that there is so much poverty in the world God’s supposed concern does not seem to be very effective or active, but think for a moment. What is God’s purpose and primary means of acting? He created us to have dominion over the earth and to subdue it. It is because of our rebellion against God that there is so much suffering, and the solution to suffering, and poverty in particular, is for God’s people to do something about it. God has created us in His image.

3:12-14

We now get two particular people groups: tax collectors and soldiers. Both these groups were despised by the general population. Tax collectors were infamous for being dishonest and would regularly extort money from people. Soldiers were usually paid the bare minimum, so they would frequently seek to supplement their income by extortion from the people. There are several lessons that can be learned from John’s response. The first is that despised peoples can come into the kingdom. All of us need to repent. So in that sense there is no difference. Secondly, he does not tell them to stop being tax collectors or soldiers. Working for the Roman government was not morally wrong. The Roman government was no paragon of virtue, and most of us actually work for organisations, public or private, that can be criticised in various ways. Instead we are instructed to act uprightly in what we do. Also taxes do need to be collected, but they do not need to be collected dishonestly. We do need soldiers, but they do not need to act brutally, or to abuse their position.