Then came also publicans - He next instructs the tax-gatherers in the proper discharge of their duty: though it was an office detested by the Jews at large, yet the Baptist does not condemn it. It is only the abuse of it that he speaks against. If taxes be necessary for the support of a state, there must be collectors of them; and the collector, if he properly discharge his duty, is not only a useful, but also a respectable officer. But it seems the Jewish tax-gatherers exacted much more from the people than government authorized them to do, Luke 3:13, and the surplus they pocketed. See the conduct of many of our surveyors and assessors. They are oppressors of the people, and enrich themselves by unjust surcharges. This, I am inclined to think, is too common an evil; and the executive government is often the people's scape-goat, to bear the crimes of its officers, crimes in which it has no concern. For an account of the publicans, see the note on Matthew 5:46.

Exact.

Luke 19:8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor...

Psalm 18:23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.

Proverbs 28:13 He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.

Isaiah 1:16,17 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil...

Isaiah 55:6,7 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you on him while he is near...

Ezekiel 18:21,22,27,28 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right...

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy...

Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

1 Corinthians 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good...

Titus 2:11,12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men...

Hebrews 12:1 Why seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight...

John's Rebuke of Herod.
Preached May 15, 1853. JOHN'S REBUKE OF HEROD. "But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison,"--Luke iii. 19, 20. The life of John the Baptist divides itself into three distinct periods. Of the first we are told almost nothing, but we may conjecture much. We are told that he was in the deserts till his showing unto Israel. It was a period probably, in which, …
Frederick W. Robertson—Sermons Preached at Brighton

A New Age and New Standards
As the Kingdom Comes Ethical Standards Must Advance Every approximation to the Reign of God in humanity demands an advance in the social relations of men, that is, an advance in ethics. Every really epochal advance must have it or slip back. There must be, first, better obedience to the moral principles already recognized and accepted by society; second, an expansion of the sway of ethical duty to new fields and wider groups of humanity; and third, a recognition of new duties and the assimilation …
Walter Rauschenbusch—The Social Principles of Jesus

Luke.
Lucas, Evangelii el medicinae munera pandens; Artibus hinc, illinc religione, valet: Utilis ille labor, per quem vixere tot aegri; Utilior, per quem tot didicere mori!" Critical and Biographical Schleiermacher: Ueber die Schriften des Lukas. Berlin, 1817. Reprinted in the second vol. of his Sämmtliche Werke, Berlin, 1836 (pp. 1-220). Translated by Bishop Thirlwall, London, 1825. James Smith (of Jordanhill, d. 1867): Dissertation on the Life and Writings of St. Luke, prefixed to his Voyage and …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I