Fulfilling the Great Commission

Keith Green sang:

Jesus commands us to go,
But we go the other way.
So he carries the burden alone,
While his children are busy at play,
Feeling so called to stay.

The words are emotive and challenging.  The command referred to is the Great Commission, and the understanding is that each believer is individually so commanded. Is this correct?

Here is the Commission: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

This Great Commission wasn’t given to Peter, or to Andrew, or to James, or to John.

It was given to the Eleven, together.  They were not just to fulfil it, but also to pass it on, as part of “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”.  Today the mandate has come to us. But it’s not come to any individual; neither has it come to “each disciple”.  The Commission has come to the Church.

Now the Church is the Body of Christ, where there are many parts but one body. The various parts are different each from another, serving different functions—some more visible, some more voluble, but each equally important—in harmony rather than in unison, in unity rather than in uniformity.  And in that multifaceted way, the whole Body fulfils its purpose as each part does its work.

The Commission is to “go and make disciples of all nations”.  It’s easiest to see that the missionaries are those who go, relocating in foreign cultures for the sake of love and obedience to the call.  Yet they are not isolated and alone, nor are they the only ones taking the Great Commission seriously.  For each visible missionary, behind the scenes is the missions sending agency, the home church and its leaders, those giving support in prayer and encouragement, those giving financial support, those giving relational support.  As all these individuals fulfil their various God-given callings in all of these areas—in the supporting and in the going—the whole Church is involved in missionary endeavour.

Not all actually go.  The missionaries do go.  And as the missionaries go, the Church is fulfilling the Great Commission.

George Alexander
Director of Artios Ministries

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