Relations

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

RELATIONS

Luke 3:9-14

9 The ax 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." 10 "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." 12 Tax 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. 14 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."

NIV

We have started with the last statement of John which we already dealt with so this narrative would have a context. The people understand what John had told them about the ax and the production of good fruit in order to avoid that ax and the fire. They asked, “What should we do then?” What good fruit can we produce? Rather than reciting the fruit of the Spirit, which had not yet been given, John tells them in laymen terms, the result of love. Those who have should share with those who do not have. This is rather subjective in some sense, for everyone has more than someone, which could become a real debacle in that no matter how much we have and give, someone has more than us and should be giving to us, and someone has more than them and should be giving to them and so on it goes, as well as the one we give to might well have more than someone who they should be giving to. If we all are being in compliance with what John told them it would be a real mess. Yet the truth here is about our relationships with our fellow man, and how it should be based on love, which is selfless. John’s response to the tax collectors and the soldiers is based on that same kind of love. It would seem our human nature is to be self-centered rather than selfless. This does not only apply in the material sense, but also in the spiritual or emotional or mental sense. This self-centered condition drives us to want to be right about everything. Selflessness would not insist on being right and thus would be more in tune with the attitude of loving our neighbor as ourselves. This whole discourse by John is all about that very idea. How we relate to each other, and how that should be with the attitude of love.