7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:7-12 KJV)
Thomas Haweis’ Commentary
Verses 7-12: The Pharisees and Sadducees were men of very different characters; the one pretended uncommon sanctity, and were rigid observers of the rituals of religion, deriving their name from that separation of themselves from other men, in which they gloried. The Sadducees, on the other hand, so denominated from their master, Sadok, were the very reverse; avowedly infidel in their principles, and it is to be feared, as licentious in their practice. Yet many of both these sects, either struck with John’s preaching, or more probably to gain the higher veneration with the people, who were strongly engaged in John’s favour, as a prophet sent from God, applied to him for baptism; and to them he here addresses his discourse.
1. He opens with a most severe reproof, and mortifying appellation. O generation of vipers, nice sounding, yet venomous as a serpent, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Either from their temporal calamities which were approaching, and their repentance might have averted; or from the eternal ruin they had provoked by their pride, hypocrisy, infidelity, and wickedness. Note, (1.) To flee from the wrath to come, is every sinner’s great concern: but none will take the warning till they see and feel the imminence of their danger. (2.) Ministers must deal plainly and freely with men’s consciences; nor must the self-righteous formalist be addressed with less severity than the abandoned sinner.
2. He admonishes them of their duty. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance; without which all the water in the river would never profit them any thing: for all who are baptized unto repentance, must see that in all humility and lowliness of mind, in all patience and perseverance in well-doing, in all holy conversation and godliness, they prove the truth of the grace which is in them; else shall the baptized sinner be as the heathen man and the publican.
3. He cautions them against trusting to their external privileges, on which he knew they depended for acceptance before God. Because they were Abraham’s children, they flattered themselves with safety, and thought repentance in their case unnecessary; but John will undeceive them; and pointing probably to those stones which Joshua set up in Jordan, Jos 4:20 assured them God could from these raise up children to Abraham, and needed not his descendants after the flesh to compose his church. Note, (1.) Many flatter themselves, that their being members of the visible church, and having partaken of baptism and the Lord’s supper, will stand them in stead in the day of God, who will find themselves woefully disappointed. (2.) Ministers must lay open those refuges of lies, to which the self-righteous and the sinner betake themselves, and rouse those to a sense of their danger who rock themselves asleep in vain imaginations. (3.) The nearer we are related to great and good men, so far from being a protection to us, it will but aggravate our guilt, if we degenerate from their piety.
4. He gives them fair warning. The time was short ere judgment would begin at the house of God; the axe was now laid to the root of the tree, by the preaching of the gospel; and the last moment of probation expiring. If they rejected the counsel of God, and refused to repent and amend their ways, then they were marked for ruin, as trees that bear no fruit, fit only for fuel. The temporal judgments of God shall consume them with their city; or, worse, the eternal wrath of God shall overwhelm them in hell. Note, The day of grace is a precious season, not to be trifled with; our eternity of happiness of misery depends on our neglect or improvement of it.
5. He directs them to that glorious personage, whose forerunner he was; acknowledging his pre-eminence in all things. He could indeed call them to repentance, and administer baptism to those who make profession of it; but a greater than himself must give the grace to repent; concerning whom, he owns he was not worthy to perform the humblest services to him, even to carry his shoes after him: so lowly are the saints of God in their own eyes. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire; either at the day of Pentecost, Ac 2:3 or his influences, like fire, should purify, warm and enliven their souls. Or, as some suggest, this baptism may refer to the judgments he would pour out on the impenitent; when, having, like the husbandman, separated the wheat, his people from the chaff of hypocrites and unfaithful professors, he would burn up the latter with unquenchable fire. Note, (1.) The operations of God’s Spirit in the believer’s heart, like fire, illuminate his understanding, consume his vile affections; and raise him, as the flame mounts upward, to high and heavenly things. (2.) The church is Christ’s floor; in it there is a mixed multitude of good and bad, faithful and hypocrites, as the chaff and wheat lying together; but the day is near when the separation shall be made; sometimes even here, by the divine word and providences; assuredly at Christ’s appearing, when the eternal state of men shall be determined. The redeemed then shall be gathered as the wheat into God’s garner in heaven, separated from all chaff forever, and not a grain lost; and the impenitent and reprobate be consigned to the everlasting burnings.