“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” Luke 3:10-14
“John’s message…began by demanding that people should share with one another. It was a social gospel which laid it down that God would never absolve anyone who is content to have too much while others have too little. It [also] ordered people, not to leave their jobs, but to work out their salvation by doing those jobs as they should be done. Let the tax-collector be a good tax-collector; let the soldier be a good soldier. People had a duty to serve God where God had set them…it was John’s conviction that there is nowhere we can serve God better than in our daily work.”
William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke (NDSB; Louisville: WJKP, 2001) 40-41.
The gospel calls us to care for others and to do our work with care. Today I have a phone conference with administrators of the Kern Foundation, which helps servants of Christ connect their faith, work, and economics through a series of initiatives for pastors. Their work echoes the aim of John’s exhortations: Let’s show God’s love today through our sharing with those in need and do our jobs in a manner that reflects John’s instructions and the very heart of Jesus.