Even tax collectors came to John to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”
If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that.
“The tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even look up to heaven. But he beat on his chest because he was so sad. He said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
The people asked John, “Then what should we do?”
John said to them, “Don’t take more taxes from people than you have been ordered to take.”
(When the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they all agreed that God’s teaching was good, because they had been baptized by John.
When the people heard this, they felt guilty and asked Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do?”