Luke 3:17
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
John arose as the forerunner of Christ from among the faithful who had long waited for the Messiah, speaking to the people of his day of One mightier than himself whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose. His words are a call to conversion and fruitful living, requiring fruits of repentance shown in sharing with the needy and in honest and just dealing, with warning of the terrible consequence of continuing to disappoint Christ. Christ is presented with authority and power to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire and to purge His threshing floor, gathering the faithful as wheat into His garner or storehouse and burning the unfaithful who bear no good fruit as chaff with unquenchable fire. The wheat are the subjects of His kingdom who give evidence of faith and repentance and of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in kindness, honesty, mercy, love of God and ministry to the needy, while mere profession cannot save those who lack justice, benevolence, mercy and love for God. The fan in His hand is testing by truth and rebuke that begins in the heart and thoroughly purges His people, pointing to an approaching purification and sifting of the church in the final crisis when deceiving miracles set up Satan's power as supreme, in which sinners in Zion are sifted out as chaff yet the church does not fall and only those overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony remain loyal and true without spot.
Context and Meaning
The declaration belongs to the ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ, who arose from among the faithful in Israel who had long waited for the coming of the Messiah. It was spoken to the people of John's day and is to be studied to advantage by present workers. In it John declares that One mightier than he comes after him, the latchet of whose shoes he is not worthy to unloose.
It is a call to conversion and fruitful living, warning of the terrible consequence of continuing to disappoint Christ. It follows John's call to bear fruits of repentance, with practical instruction to share with the needy and to act honestly and justly in dealing with others. The underlying teaching is that good works show the character of the tree, so that lives bearing no good fruit face judgment.
The coming One is presented as mightier than John, with authority and power to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire and to purge His threshing floor. Like a farmer separating grain, He will gather the wheat, the faithful, into His garner or storehouse. The chaff, the unfaithful who bear no good fruit, He will burn with unquenchable fire, with separation made according to fruit.
Wheat, Chaff and Sifting
The verse divides people by character and life, not by outward standing. The wheat are the subjects of Christ's kingdom who give evidence of faith and repentance and of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. That evidence appears in daily life as kindness, honesty, fidelity, justice, mercy and love of God, in ministering to the needy, bringing offerings to God, shielding the defenseless, and giving an example of virtue and compassion. Mere profession of belonging to God cannot save those whose lives bear no good fruit, and those who lack the fruits of justice, benevolence, mercy and love for God are the chaff destined for the fire of destruction.
The verse shows the Lord testing and trying His people and thoroughly purging them in order to separate the faithful wheat and gather them into His storehouse. That purging begins in the heart and brings reform and improvement of character, and sacred things are to be kept sacred. The fan in His hand is testing by truth and by rebuke for lives not in harmony with truth and righteousness. The cleansing of the threshing floor and the storing of the wheat is fulfilled when souls are tested and tried by the Word.
Those who reject the divine Teacher when so tested and turn from the Saviour are sifted out from those who remain. The same fulfillment seen when offended disciples forsook Christ and walked no more with Him is seen today when souls pass over the same ground, reject correction, leave Christ, and never reverse their decision to walk no more with Him. The image of the Lord holding the fan and thoroughly purging His floor points to an approaching purification and sifting of the church, in which God separates the faithful from those whose profession is not genuine, and the signs show that time is near. When unfaithful teachers weaken the faith of the church, God acts to purge His people and separate the faithful from the unfaithful, and the tried and true are lifted up.
The separation of chaff from wheat distinguishes what is common and self-centered from what is sacred. At Battle Creek these had become so intermingled that people struggled to tell them apart. The verse shows a sifting inside the church in the final crisis when Satan works deceiving miracles and sets up his power as supreme. This terrible ordeal must take place, in which the sinners in Zion are sifted out as chaff from the precious wheat, yet the church appears as about to fall but does not fall and remains. Only those overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony are left with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin and without guile, divested of self-righteousness and arrayed in Christ's righteousness, and the remnant that purifies the soul by obeying the truth gathers strength from the trying process and exhibits the beauty of holiness amid surrounding apostasy.