TUESDAY, JANUARY 16
Luke 3:7-14
2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature…”

FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE

John preached that man was like a viper full of poison, fatal and deceitful. He addressed the Pharisees and Sadducees directly, but at the same time it was a warning to all. They were cautioned that true repentance must not be hypocritical. They had miserably corrupted the worship of God, wasted the church, and overturned the whole religion. In other words, they had extinguished the light of God by their corruption, and infected everything with their crimes. They should have instead borne fruits worthy of their repentance that stemmed from true affections of their hearts. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature…” (2 Cor 5:17).

John argued that it is not by oral profession alone that a man becomes a child of God. An accompanying change of nature is to happen in his life. He illustrated it by a tree without good fruit or any fruit which God would hew down and cast into fire. James 2:17-18 likewise says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

John taught the people: “he who has two coats, let him impart to him that hath none.” He was referring to a change of heart that would move them to love their neighbour out of their love for God. A change from self-centredness to loving others, for a repentant heart is a loving heart. Knowing that much has been forgiven, they were to love much.

A genuinely repentant heart is accompanied always by a change of lifestyle -- from worldly to heavenly. He is now looking upward, not sideways. Do no violence and be content with your wages was John’s admonition to the soldiers. The changes in the heart will eventually result in a change in lifestyle. John meant that when a person repents of his sins there is a change in the way he thinks. He now minds heavenly things rather than the earthly.

THOUGHT: Am I bearing fruits meet for repentance?
PRAYER: O Lord, show us the way of true repentance that will change our lives, not just to be noticed by men but by Thee.