Luke iii. 10, 11. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
IN order to understand the true meaning of any part of Scripture, the strictest attention must be paid to the context. If this rule be not observed, there is scarcely any thing which may not be sanctioned by the inspired volume ; and the most contradictory positions may appear to stand on equal authority. Suppose, for instance, the question in our text be taken, as other apparently similar questions must be taken, namely, as an inquiry into the way of salva- tion ; we shall make John the Baptist return an answer directly contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel. When the gaoler asked Paul and Silas, "What he must do to be saved?" they answered,
" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved a." This is the only true answer that can be given to that question ; for " there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved," but the name of Jesus Christb. But if we look into the context, we find that John the Baptist had been " preaching the baptism of repentance for the remis- sion of sinsc;" or, in other words, had been preach- ing salvation by Jesus Christ, exactly as the Apostle Peter, and indeed all the Apostles, did on the day of Pentecost d. Then, seeing multitudes coming to him for baptism, and apprehending that the great majority of them were taking up a profession of religion upon very light and erroneous grounds, he cautioned them strongly against a presumptuous confidence on the one hand, or an unproductive and hypocritical pro- fession on the other ; and exhorted them, if they would not experience the fate of a barren tree, to "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance6." In reply to this, the people ask, " What shall we do ?" That is, What fruits shall we bring forth, in order to evince our sincerityf? And the direction which John gives them, is an answer exactly suited to the occasion : it is to this effect ; ' If you would approve yourselves sincere and upright in your profession of faith in the promised Messiah, shew forth your faith by your works, and, above all, by an abounding exercise of love/
Having thus prepared our way by a view of the context, and having ascertained what the Baptist's design was in giving the people the direction in our text, we shall proceed to the more distinct consider- ation of his answer, and shall open to you,
I. Its import —
It is manifest that the direction given by him is figurative, and therefore not to be taken in its strict and literal sense. But we must not therefore imagine,
a Acts xvi. 30, ,31. b Acts iv. 12. c ver. 3.
d See the people's inquiry, and Peter's answer, Acts ii. 37, 38. e ver. 7 — 9.
f See the Greek, ver. 8 — 10, This will remove all doubt: for they adopt the very same term as John had used.