Day 301

What Shall We Do?

Read: Luke 3-4

John the Baptist preached repentance. Repent means literally, “change your mind.” By nature we think our sin is not so serious; we are to change our mind and realize it is. By nature our lives revolve around ourselves; we are to change our mind and realize our entire life should revolve around God. At about this time, baptism was used as a sign that a pagan was spiritually dirty, and must be washed before he could become one of God’s people. To accept baptism involved the humbling admission for a Jew that he was also by nature spiritually dirty in God’s sight.

The preaching of John the Baptist led to a question to which all good preaching should lead: what does God want us to do in response to his truth? The multitudes asked and were told that they should share with those less fortunate. The tax collectors asked and were told that they should be honest. The soldiers asked and were told they should not use their power to take advantage of people and should be content with their pay. If you want to know what you should do, the answer is all of the above and more.

John then points the people to the Christ who was to come and Luke in summary said, “So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.” I exhort you to respond in faith and obedience to the gospel of Christ.

PRAYER
Father, help us to apply your word to our specific situations. In Jesus’ name. Amen.