Matthew 3:10 Commentary and Bible Study

John spoke with such force. He saw through the Pharisees who regarded themselves as so important and so indispensable to the cause of religion in their country. From heaven’s point of view, they were irrelevant. They could not be dismissed with more disdain. The axe is laid to the root, which means that not only are dead branches to be cut off, but the tree is going to be destroyed. The owner has decided that he does not want it growing on his land anymore. He is therefore going to remove it by severing its roots so that there is no possibility that it can recover. There will be no trace of it left in the ground. Why is the tree to be treated in this way? Because it bears no fruit and has borne no fruit all its life. The owner is walking through his orchard, and picking out the unfruitful trees and marking them out for removal. The ground will be given to a new tree which is expected to bring some benefit to its owner. He has tried various things on the tree to coax it into fruitfulness, but none of them have been effective. The present tense, ‘every tree which brings not forth good fruit’, indicates what always happens to such trees, and therefore what is entirely reasonable to do to the Pharisees. At no point in their lives have they produced the fruit of love, joy, peace, mercy, honesty, to the Lord, their owner. Instead they have seen the Lord’s orchard as their own to do with what they like. They have served themselves not the Lord, and so they must go. This is entirely to be expected. They themselves would not deal with a tree growing on their land in any other way. The dead tree will be cast into the fire because it is no use for anything else. The Pharisees will be cast into hell, for they are rejected from the Lord’s vineyard. They have not come to see John in order to do what everyone else is doing: to confess their sins and repent. If that were the case, it would be different; there would be mercy even for them. Were the Pharisees not alarmed to hear this? Maybe some were, but others were so sure of their position that they could not see any way in which their roots could be disturbed. Now axe is laid to root of trees. God has tolerated for so long a people which included many who were not converted but at best, only followed the outward forms of worship. His patience with that situation has now come to an end and he will put up with it no longer. Each individual in Israel is to be examined as to their spiritual state. Many will not be allowed into the new kingdom which John and the Lord Jesus Christ have come to preach, because entry into that is not on the basis of the old criteria. That was only for a time, given in the hope that the people would look for something more real signified by their birth circumstances.