Luke 3:7-14

7Crowds of people were going out into the wilderness. They wanted John to baptize them. He told them, ‘You are like dangerous snakes! God is angry. You are trying to run away from him. But he will soon punish people like you.

8You have to show that you are sorry. Change how you live. Stop doing things that God does not like. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We are in the family of Abraham. God will surely not punish us.” Listen! God can take these stones and make children for Abraham out of them!

9You are like trees that have bad fruit. God has an axe ready to use. He will cut down every tree that does not make good fruit. He will throw those trees into the fire.’

10‘So what should we do?’ the crowd asked.

11John answered, ‘If you have two shirts, give one away. Give it to someone who does not have even one shirt. If you have some food, give some of it away. Give some to someone who has no food.’

12In the crowd, there were men who took taxes from people. These men also wanted John to baptize them. They asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’

13John told them, ‘You must take the right amount of money from people. You must not take more money than the rules say you should take.’

14Then some soldiers asked John, ‘What about us? What should we do?’ John replied, ‘Do not rob people of their money. Do not say that a person is guilty if he has not done anything wrong. You must not take money for yourself in that way. You should be happy with the money that you receive for your work.’