3:1-2 During this time frame John was guided by God to begin his own mission with God.
3:3 John began to shepherd God's people. John went throughout the cities and began to teach the word of God, a word that would be taught by Jesus as well. John prepared people to hear the message that would come from Jesus. By baptizing others, he gave them an opportunity to proclaim their agreement with what John was teaching: honesty, compassion, truth. The most important way to proclaim your belief is to live a life of example, a life which correlates with your beliefs. We cannot just "talk" God, we must also "walk" God. What we say and believe must mirror what we do.
3:4 John was spoken of in the old testament, in The Book of Isaiah. It was written that John would come into the "wilderness" or the world which lived without the wisdom and kindness of God, and he would begin to teach the message. We can sometimes compare the world to the wilderness because the places where there is no wise or kind order are filled with chaos.
3:5 When God returns, He will fix and cleanse every human and place on Earth and universe. God wanted His children to hear the hopeful, optimistic message so that it could guide them toward light and love.
3:6 God's heart is open to all people and God makes that abundantly clear. Guidance, wisdom, kindness and protection are offered to all people, no matter what mistakes they have made or how lost they might be. Jesus came to the people who were lost and who had made mistakes and He opened His heart to them.
3:7 John is preaching to people who are not living kind lives. Instead they are arrogant and greedy, we can better understand this in the next verse...
3:8 ... Jump ahead briefly to John 8:39-40. John is asking the people why they claim to be of faithful ancestry when they reject and deny all of God's wisdom and kindness? Abraham from the Old Testament was faithful indeed and kind and when John was speaking to a group of evil people claiming to be like Abraham it frustrated him.
3:9 John is explaining that the same circumstances which existed for Abraham existed for them (and us!) and that God will eliminate any and every person who is not compassionate. Humans are often referred to metaphorically as trees and the "works" our actions are the "fruit" we produce. Any person who does not produce "good fruit" or "compassionate actions" is eliminated. Why? Because they hurt others. God loves us and protects us from unkindness -- we must also choose not to be unkind.
3:10 These people were absorbing the message, the asked for advice on how they could be better people. We should always be so humble as this. We should always try to be our best and we should always be open to good, wise advice. John was kind and reliable, ensure that any advice given to you is also kind and reliable and given selflessly. You can always find a true guiding source in the Bible.
3:11 John's first bit of advice: when you have excess, give to those who have nothing. There are people in the world who have had difficult lives and they could use our support. God wants us to help those who need it especially if we have the capacity to help. God will always supply us with the materials to help others when that is our objective -- to help others.
Do not let anybody take advantage of you. Use your discernment from God to decide who needs your help. There are many innocent children and families around the world who need kindness. There are also people who are not kind and are selfish... with God you will always be able to differentiate them.
You can give more than money or material as well. Your friendship. Your kindness. Your empathy. Your shoulder. Your ear. Your fairness. Your experience. Your help.
3:12-13 John's message even reached into the government. He taught the government officials to be fair in tax collection. You want to be fair in whatever business, friendship or relationship you are involved in. We should only expect from others what they are capable of giving. We must not be greedy -- we cannot be greedy people or nations.
3:14 John's message even reaching into the military. He taught the soldiers to be just and respectful. John taught them not to abuse their positions of power in the social system. He taught them to perform their jobs fairly.
3:15 John's message was truly reaching people's understanding. They saw the wisdom in his advice and it cleared up a lot of the chaos they were facing at the time (and much of which we face even today). The message was so powerful that people even wondered if John were more than a man.
3:16 John made it very clear for them: that he was there to establish a path for Jesus to come and truly save them.
John is extremely humble: John is aware of the perfect beauty and love of Jesus and explains to them that Jesus' compassion is so much greater and truer than anything they have experienced before.
John explains that the true "baptism" is God looking into our hearts and soaking the kind hearts in love and evil hearts in a fire which eliminates them. Poof! Gone! God does not eternally punish anybody, he eliminates them. God is the God of love, not punishment. He protects love by removing evil, not by keeping evil to the side in pain. God's heart is too kind for "eternal damnation" as some believe!
3:17 God will discern, through and with Jesus, who is good and who is bad and He will separate them. The good will be welcomed into His "barn", His home and the bad shall leave it.
3:18 John continued to teach. We must also continue to teach throughout our lives -- how do we teach? We live honest and kind lives.
3:19 Herod did not like to hear John's message because he found fault in himself. He was guilty of many of the things John taught against.
3:20 Herod used his power to imprison John, who was innocent... guilty only of stating truth.
3:21 Jesus experiences what we experience. He was born on Earth into the same type of body we have (his and our souls inside as the beacon of the vessel). Likewise Jesus continues His humility by being baptized. Jesus declares His love for God both during His baptism and throughout His entire life --- spiritual and earthly.
3:22 God was/is with Him. Jesus' life fills God with love because of the amount of compassion and love Jesus has within Himself. God remains with all of us who are compassionate. He's guiding us, walking beside us and cheering us on.
It's so beautiful that Jesus came not to rule and punish...but instead to love and guide. Jesus is humble and so modest. He allows Himself to be baptized because He loves God so much He will express it in every possible way He can.
3:23 Jesus reached maturity and began to teach throughout the world He could reach during His time. Jesus would ensure that during His life He prepared many others to teach after He was crucified so that the word would continue on throughout different countries and generations of people.
3:24-30 We know that Jesus was adopted (in a way) by Joseph and Mary and so this genealogy belongs to Mary. It's not so important that we memorize the particulars of different people's genealogies in the Bible. The message is important. God's message is what we should extract from the Bible and insert into our lives and our hearts. This genealogy explains that Mary is a descendant of Adam and Adam's faithful ancestors. She was from a line of compassionate, God-loving people.
