God’s Word Translation
Matthew 3:8
8Do those things that prove you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act.
Matthew 3:8 in other versions
Context of Matthew 3:8
6As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 7But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he said to them, “You poisonous snakes! Who showed you how to flee from God’s coming anger? Do those things that prove you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act. 9Don’t think you can say, ‘Abraham is our ancestor.’ I can guarantee that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones. 10The ax is now ready to cut the roots of the trees. Any tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a 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 about this? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go to work in the vineyard today.’
- Isaiah 1:16“Wash yourselves! Become clean! Get your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing evil.
- Luke 3:8Do those things that prove that you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act. Don’t say, ‘Abraham is our ancestor.’ I guarantee that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones.
- Acts 26:20Instead, I spread the message that I first told to the ⌞Jewish⌟ people in Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea. I spread the same message to non-Jewish people. Both groups were expected to change the way they thought and acted and to turn to God. I told them to do things that prove they had changed their lives.
- Romans 2:4Do you have contempt for God, who is very kind to you, puts up with you, and deals patiently with you? Don’t you realize that it is God’s kindness that is trying to lead you to him and change the way you think and act?
- 2 Corinthians 7:10In fact, to be distressed in a godly way causes people to change the way they think and act and leads them to be saved. No one can regret that. But the distress that the world causes brings only death.
- 2 Peter 1:4Through his glory and integrity he has given us his promises that are of the highest value. Through these promises you will share in the divine nature because you have escaped the corruption that sinful desires cause in the world.
- Galatians 5:22But the spiritual nature produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Ephesians 5:9Light produces everything that is good, that has God’s approval, and that is true.
- Philippians 1:11Jesus Christ will fill your lives with everything that God’s approval produces. Your lives will then bring glory and praise to God.
- Jeremiah 7:3This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you live and act, and I will let you live in this place.
- Jeremiah 26:13Now, change your ways and what you are doing, and listen to the Lord your God. Then the Lord will change his plan about the disaster that he intends to bring on you.
- Jeremiah 36:3Maybe the nation of Judah will hear about all the disasters that I plan to bring on them, and they will turn from their wicked ways. Then I will forgive their wickedness and their sins.”
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
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