Albert Barnes Commentary Malachi 3:7

"From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?" — Malachi 3:7 (ASV)

Even from the days of your fathers - Back to those days and from them you have gone away from My ordinances. "I am not changed from good; you are not changed from evil. I am unchangeable in holiness; you are unchangeable in perversity."

Return to Me - The beginning of our return is from the preventing grace of God. Turn me, and I shall be turned, for You are the Lord my God (Jeremiah 31:18; Lamentations 5:21), is the voice of the soul to God, preparing for His grace; (Psalms 85:4) turn us, O God of our salvation. For, not in its own strength, but by His grace can the soul turn to God. Turn to Me, and I will return to you, is the Voice of God, acknowledging our free will, and promising His favor, if we accept His grace in return.

And you say, In what way shall we return? - Strange ignorance of the blinded soul, unconscious that God has anything against it! It is the Pharisaic spirit in the Gospel. It would doubtless acknowledge itself in general terms a sinner, but when called on, wholly to turn to God, as being wholly turned from Him, it asks, “In what? What would God have of me?” as if ready to do it.