Monday, August 8, 2011

Revisiting the Great Commission

Matthew 28:19-20
 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 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 28:19-20
19 Go therefore and make disciples ofall the nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo,I am with youalways, even tothe end of the age.

It is generally accepted that the above verse is the great commission that Jesus gives to all who come to him.  Since this is a command of Jesus it is very important that we seek to understand the fulness of this statement so that we can claim compliance with it's tenets.  There are several components to this statement:

1-Go and make disciple from out of every nation on the earth,
2-Baptize these disciples in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
3- Teach these disciples to observe all that I commanded you.

These three components make up the great commission, but I humbly submit that the church has taken upon itself to ADD a fourth tenet to this list.  The fourth tenet we add is:

4-Teach the WORLD to observe all that I commanded you.

This may seem a harmless addition but I assure you it is not.  The progression of the commission is to first make disciples OUT OF every nation, and it was to THESE disciples that we were to TEACH TO OBSERVE all that Jesus commanded.  I tell you today that MOST of the church's efforts are towards teaching the WORLD to observe the commands of Jesus.  This is what we do when we lobby governments to MAKE LAWS to stop gambling, or to outlaw homosexuality, or to INSTILL CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN THE CONSTITUTION.  Jesus told us to make disciples out of every nation and he NEVER promised us that we would be able to establish Christian nations.  How therefore have we taken it upon or self to seek to please God by doing something he NEVR told us to do.  We are ONLY to teach the disciples to observe, NOT the world.  The world has the gospel preached to it AS A TESTIMONY, but the disciples of Christ are to be taught to observe them.

We must stop this utter nonsense of trying to get UNSAVED people to live like RIGHTEOUS people.  TEACH THE DISCIPLES TO OBSERVE ALL THAT HE HAS TAUGHT but preach the gospel to the world.

So again Jesus' command is simple:

Go all over the world preaching the gospel, SOME who hear the word of the gospel will believe and be saved.  Now those who believe AND ONLY those who believe teach THEM to observe all that I commanded you.

NO promise of a Christian nation here!

THIS SHOULD BE MILK BUT O SOME IT WIL BE MEAT.

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