New International Version
Matthew 3:8
8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Matthew 3:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
- English Standard Version (ESV)Bear 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
6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be 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? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
- Isaiah 1:16Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
- Luke 3:8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
- Acts 26:20First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.
- Romans 2:4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
- 2 Corinthians 7:10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
- 2 Peter 1:4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
- Galatians 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Ephesians 5:9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
- Philippians 1:11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
- Jeremiah 7:3This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
- Jeremiah 26:13Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.
- Jeremiah 36:3Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness 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
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