Luke 3:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 3:12

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Another identifiable group that came to John were the tax collectors, many of them. These three groups had responded to John’s preaching and were wanting to put into practice his exhortation to repent and to show their repentance in a practical way. Perhaps they wondered if they should give up their work altogether. They knew how unpopular they were with the common people, because they were regarded as lackeys of the Romans, buying the right from them to collect taxes on their behalf, and then frequently collecting more than they were entitled to collect and keeping the difference for themselves. They seem to be ready to do whatever John tells them to do, and to give up their work completely if required. They are happy to leave it to his judgment. They call him master in a sign of willingness to be his disciples. They want to be baptized and they know it is a baptism of repentance, and they must confess their sins before him, and their work is uppermost in their minds.But John does not tell them to give up their jobs. The entitlement of governments to collect taxes is endorsed by the word of God (Romans 13:1-7). It necessarily follows from God’s having ordained earthly government for the maintaining of law and order. Governments cannot carry out their functions without money to do so, and they are in theory serving the people and so their payment should come from taxes. The problem with the publicans or tax collectors was not the job itself, but their abuse of the job. In collecting more than they should, they were exploiting their own people, and they were sinning against God who had commanded Israel to be a just and fair society, in which one person does not make himself rich at the expense of others.

Application

There are some jobs which a believer cannot do. He cannot do anything that, as part of the job, involves him in sin, in breaking God’s commandments, or in encouraging others to break God’s commandments. In some cases this is a necessary part of the job, while in other cases it can be avoided while still carrying out the work. In the first case it is part of our separation from the world to have nothing to do with those activities. There may be pressure on us to do our work dishonestly, or in such a way that others are harmed, but that is not an essential part of the work. That could be either because we see some gain for ourselves, some extra earthly reward, or because we have pressure put on us to work in that way. This was the case with the tax collectors among the Jews. The tax collectors were wealthy enough to purchase the right to collect taxes from the Romans, but having acquired this right, they found themselves with an opportunity to make a considerable profit for themselves by extorting their fellow countrymen.

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Luke 3:12 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of Luke 3:12