Matthew 3:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 3:7

Comments

‘O generation of vipers’ – John the Baptist was a direct preacher. Few preachers have ever in their lives called anyone a viper. Why does he? Is it just a nasty term? No, it is light on their behaviour exposing something that was very wicked but hidden from sight; it shows what they did. God’s light shines on everything and the day of judgment will bring every secret thing into the open. God meets great wickedness with great judgments, and as a prophet of the Lord, John was sent to reveal what they really were. There was so much hypocrisy in the Pharisees and Sadducees, and Christ strongest word of condemnation were aimed at them (Matthew 23). Hypocrisy is a form of violence directed at the truth, at God, and the he will treat it with equal force. Hypocrisy is brazen in its falsehood, and defies anyone to say that it is anything other than it appears to be. This is especially true of the hypocrisy of proud men like the Pharisees, because along with their hypocrisy went deep pride of life, which expected all to honour them for the lie they presented. They wanted to be known as outstanding moral examples, but they knew in their heart that they were something quite different. The mask had to be kept in place and must not slip, and therefore John rips it off with great force. They had slithered in to get the favour of the people. God had sent John to rebuke the establishment, for it was the establishment that had taken hold of the vineyard of the Lord and subverted it to serve their own ends. This approach to John is typical of their deceitfulness. John preached a baptism of repentance and so many of the people came to him. This in itself made the Pharisees jealous. They saw John as a threat to their authority and to their influence over the people on account of his popularity alone. But more than this, they could see that his whole approach undermined their position. By teaching a baptism of repentance he was saying that all the things they trusted in were inadequate: it was not enough to be born a Jew and live by the law of Moses; there needed to be repentance also; there was a kingdom to be entered into. There is potential trouble here; they must investigate this phenomenon. But the people are going to John in repentance. They must feign the same spirit. But John’s discerning eye knows that they are not genuine. ‘You have not come because you are repenting. You have come because you are troubled by envy and pride. Your whole approach is phoney.’ So he speaks very direct words to them, even using sarcasm. ‘Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ Nobody did, because that is not what they were doing. That is what they should have been doing but John’s sarcasm points out in very strong language that they were not doing so. The very idea that they needed to repent was anathema to them but they had to go along with the playact.

Application

The problem with the Pharisees is that they had no fear. They were not afraid of the consequences of their sin, because they did not see how great it was, and what they did see of it did not seem particularly serious to them. They did not fear death and coming into the hands of the Judge of all the earth. They had surrounded themselves with a cocoon of self-righteousness which shut out all qualms of conscience. There are modern approaches like the Alpha Course or like Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), which are not frightened of death. Conversion is all about a human decision. You cannot be converted unless there is a fear of the Lord, a fear of the consequences of what we have done, a fear of the power of sin within us from which we need to be delivered. We don’t frighten people into the kingdom, but those who seek God need to fear what will happen if they do not come to him.

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Matthew 3:7 Commentary and Bible Study