Matthew 3:8 - Fruit of Repentance.

Mat.3:8; Fruit of Repentance.

Mat 3:8 (KJV)  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Mat 3:8 (EAB)  Bring forth fruit that is consistent with
repentance - let your lives prove your change of heart.

John the Baptist's mission was to call Israel to repent and be
changed at the level of the heart and character [New Bible Companion]

The fruit borne reveals the inner character. The test of
conversion is a transformation in the life. [SDA Commentary]

You need to be converted before you are baptized.  When one is
converted or born again there is a change in their life that shows they
are ready for baptism. [Gibbs]

Repentance is seated in the heart. There it is as a root; but in
vain do we pretend to have it there, if we do not bring forth the
fruits of it. (Matthew Henry's Commentary)

"Repentance is the sole, but inexorable, condition of God's
forgiveness and the restoration of his favour,... Repentance is a turning
away from evil and a turning towards God. ... the essence of
repentance lay in such a thorough change of mind that it issues in a change
of life ... Again and again the Bible speaks of this turning away
from sin, and this turning towards God. .. It is a turn from evil to
God, with a corresponding change in action. [Barclay Commentary]

Here is a word of terror to the careless and secure. Our corrupt
hearts cannot be made to produce good fruit, unless the regenerating
Spirit of Christ graft the good word of God upon them. And every tree,
however high in gifts and honours, however green in outward professions
and performances, if it bring not forth good fruit, the fruits meet
for repentance, is hewn down and cast into the fire of God's wrath,
the fittest place for barren trees: what else are they good for? If
not fit for fruit, they are fit for fuel. John shows the design and
intention of Christ's appearing, which they were now speedily to expect.
No outward forms can make us clean. No ordinances, by whomsoever
administered, or after whatever mode, can supply the want of the baptism of
the Holy Ghost and of fire. The purifying and cleansing power of the
Holy Spirit alone can produce that purity of heart, and those holy
affections, which accompany salvation. It is Christ who baptizes with the
Holy Ghost. This he did in the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit sent
upon the apostles, Acts 2:4. This he does in the graces and comforts
of the Spirit, given to those that ask him. (Matthew Henry's
Commentary)

"If a man has an unclean thing in his hands, he may wash them in
all the seas of the world, and he will never be clean; but if he
throws the unclean thing away, a little water will suffice." [Barclay
Commentary]

The true penitent is he who has the opportunity to do the same
sin again, in the same circumstances, and who does not do it."
[Barclay Commentary]

God looks beyond our words and religious activities to see if
our conduct backs up what we say, and he judges our words by the
actions that accompany them. Do your actions match your words? Just as a
fruit tree is expected to bear fruit, God's people should produce a
crop of good deeds. God has no use for people who call themselves
Christians but do nothing about it. Like many people in John's day who were
God's people in name only, we are of no value if we are Christians in
name only. If others can't see our faith in the way we treat them, we
may not be God's people at all. [Life Application SB]