So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

“Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance...

Luke 3:3-8(a), NASB

At the outset of Jesus' ministry, we find John the Baptist preparing the way. He told the people about many things, but one of his main tasks was to encourage the people to repent and be baptized. In the passage above, we find that many people were coming to him to be baptized, but John noticed a problem with some of them: Their repentance appeared to be lip service only. Now, how could John have known that. We know from the teaching of Jesus that men are not allowed to judge the hearts of their fellow man, so we must assume that John was not just engaging in some form of a forbidden speculation.

No, we find the answer to his conclusion in his very words to, "bear fruits in keeping with repentance." Now that is something that we all can do, is it not? I don't mean necessarily that we spend our time trying to see if others are truly repenting, I mean that we should be able to tell in our own lives if we are truly repenting based on the fruit we are producing. But, how can we do that?

Well, how can you tell if a tree is an apple tree or not? I suppose you could become an expert in apple trees, learning to recognize an apple tree at every season and every stage of its growth, but there is a much more simple way than that: You can see if it has apples! It's the same with repentance. If you have truly repented, you will have fruit to show for it. If you have been unkind in the past, you will now show fruits of kindness to those you encounter. If you have repented of lying, the fruit you will bear is the truth. If you have repented of selfishness, the fruit you will bear is unselfishness.

I think the point that John the Baptist was making was that just saying you have repented doesn't make it so, anymore than just saying a cactus is an apple tree makes it so... it is by their fruits that you shall know. Didn't somebody famous say that, once upon a time? What kind of fruit are you bearing?

Today's reading is Luke 3. It contains a lot of vital truths to ponder.