What shall we do?

I moved to Southern California early in the summer of 1984 — the year the Olympics were held in Los Angeles.  Virtually as soon as we arrived, we noted that there was a barrage of information about what to do to prepare for the traffic nightmare that was anticipated to ensue as soon as the Games began.  Traffic was already difficult in that congested corner of the United States, and everyone was wondering, “what should we do?”

A couple of millennia earlier, another group of people in a different corner of another country were asking similar questions.  A prophet named John the Baptist had begun preaching with a most unexpected message — bear fruit in keeping with repentance, because judgment is coming (Lk. 3:8-9, 17).

That message stimulated people to ask the most pertinent question:  “what shall we do?  If judgment really is coming, how shall we prepare?”

The crowds — the common people — asked this common question.  And he responded by saying, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise” (Lk. 3:11).

The tax collectors — men who were hated for their treasonous collection of money and their wealth — asked this question.  And to them John said, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (Lk. 3:13).

Soldiers — likely Roman citizens (and Gentiles) and abusers of power — asked the same question, too.  And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages” (Lk. 3:14)

So what was John saying to them?  Were they to give away personal possessions and be honest in their financial dealings and not abuse their positions, and then they would be spared the coming wrath of God?  No.  But they were to be so broken and repentant over their sin(s) that their lives would be transformed.  John offered these examples of acts of repentance not as means for getting into God’s good grace, but as evidence that God’s good grace had been received.  “Good works are the inevitable result of repentance,” one writer has noted. Escape from God’s judgment is not based on one’s own self-righteous deeds but on hearts that are repentant to the point that the sinner flees from his sin.

“What shall we do?” they asked.

“Flee from your sin and embrace God and His righteousness,” John answered.

We might well ask the same question that is asked repetitiously in this passage.  Where am I most tempted to sin?  By my station in life and by my personal disposition, what are the sins that are most enticing to me?  [A pause for genuine reflection here will be helpful.]  I will give evidence of repentance when I run from those sins and love Christ by beginning to act and live in ways that are in contrast to my sinful nature and desires.