English Standard Version
Matthew 3:8
8Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Matthew 3:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
- New International Version (NIV)Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
- New Living Translation (NLT)Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.
Context of Matthew 3:8
6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Read all of Matthew 3Matthew 3:8 word by word
ποιήσατε οὖν καρπὸν ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Matthew 3:8
- Matthew 21:28"What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'
- Isaiah 1:16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
- Luke 3:8Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
- Acts 26:20but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
- Romans 2:4Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
- 2 Corinthians 7:10For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
- 2 Peter 1:4by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
- Galatians 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Ephesians 5:9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
- Philippians 1:11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- Jeremiah 7:3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
- Jeremiah 26:13Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.
- Jeremiah 36:3It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."
Commentaries on Matthew 3:8
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8Bring forth therefore fruits - That is, the proper fruits of reformation; the proper evidence that you are sincere. Do not bring your cunning and dissimulation to this work; do not carry your hypocrisy into your professed repentance, but evince your sincerity by forsaking sin, and thus give evidence that this coming to Jordan to be baptized is not an act of dissimulation. No discourse could have been more appropriate or more cutting. Fruits - Conduct…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-12Verses 7-12 To make application to the souls of the hearers, is the life of preaching; so it was of John's preaching. The Pharisees laid their chief stress on outward observances, neglecting the weightier matters of the moral law, and the spiritual meaning of their legal ceremonies. Others of them were detestable hypocrites, making their pretences to holiness a cloak for iniquity. The Sadducees ran into the opposite extreme, denying the existence of…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance: John calls for action and real ethical change. Only talking about it is not enough (see Luke 3:10–14; compare Matthew 5:19–20, 46; 7:21; 23:3).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. Bring forth therefore fruits--the true reading clearly is "fruit"; meet for repentance--that is, such fruit as befits a true penitent. John now being gifted with a knowledge of the human heart, like a true minister of righteousness and lover of souls here directs them how to evidence and carry out their repentance, supposing it genuine; and in the following verses warns them of their danger in case it were not.Read the comment
Topics related to Matthew 3:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Matthew 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries