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The Great Commission contains two commands and three action words. The first command is simply to “make disciples.” This single activity was the driving focus of Jesus’ life. Jesus poured His life into a few disciples and taught them to make other disciples. Seventeen times we find Jesus with the masses, but 46 times we see Him with His disciples. These few disciples, within two years after the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, went out and “filled Jerusalem” with Jesus’ teaching (Acts 5:28).
Within four and a half years they had planted multiplying churches and equipped multiplying disciples (Acts 9:31). Within 18 years it was said of them that they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 ESV). And in 28 years it was said that “the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world” (Colossians 1:6). For four years Jesus lived out the values He championed in His Everyday Commission. He made disciples who could make disciples!
The commission continues with three verb forms that modify the first command. These three verbs—go, baptize and teach to obey—give us the three priorities of disciple-making.1 Although the Great Commission is usually translated, “Go and make disciples,” the verb for “go” is better translated “going” or “as you go.”
In other words, the “going” Jesus is talking about is not a special event, such as a mission trip. Instead, we are to make disciples as we go to work, as we go to school, as we go out into our neighborhood. As you go, walk as Jesus walked! This truly is an everyday command you are to live every day as you go—wherever you go.
“Baptizing” is a critical element of disciple-making. It indicates identifying publicly with the work and cause of Christ. When a person comes to faith in Christ, they must then be baptized to identify externally with a change that has taken place internally. Baptism is an important external expression of an internal identity as a Christian.
Teaching others to obey “everything I have commanded you” involves a lifetime of following and learning from Christ. Jesus gives more than 400 commands in the Gospels and more than half of them are disciple-making commands. Becoming a disciple of Jesus does not mean completing a curriculum or attending a church activity. It is a lifestyle of becoming more like Jesus. As we learn to live a lifestyle of obedience we bear fruit, more fruit, and then much fruit (John 15:1–8). God multiplies our lives and our effectiveness to the ends of the earth, so that we can make disciples of all nations.
We can do what Jesus did if we walk as Jesus walked. In fact, we can even do greater things than Jesus did. Jesus had only four years to make disciples. By God’s grace we can have 40 years or more to make disciples. But we must do what He did and walk as He walked. The place to begin is to recognize that we share the same mission that Jesus had: making disciples who can make disciples.
But before we move on, let’s give attention to one more little detail in Matthew 28:18–20. For years I taught that there was only one command in this everyday commission. But upon further study and the help of a studious businessman, I realized that there is a second command in this text that most people miss.
One reason we miss this second command is because of how it is often translated in English. It is the little Greek word idou, which is translated in many Bibles as “surely” or “lo,” as in, “Surely I am with you always.”
In the Greek language, idou is a command (in the imperative mood in Greek). The New Living Translation captures this second and powerful command: “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20 NLT).
In essence Jesus is saying, As you make disciples you must keep focused on Me. As you commit to this type of lifestyle, don’t you forget that I will be with you and I will show you how to do this! I will make you disciple-makers!
The Great Commandment
While the Great Commission deals with our mission, the Great Commandment speaks to our motives. The Great Commission establishes our priorities. The Great Commandment clarifies our passion.
Jesus summarized all the Law and the Prophets, all the teaching of the Old Testament with profound simplicity: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37–40). Love is the greatest Christian motive. To commit to making disciples without love makes all our efforts sound to God like a resounding gong or a clanging symbol (1 Corinthians 13:1). Without love we are nothing and can gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2–3).
Walking as Jesus walked means walking in love. This love includes a deep love for God emblazoned upon our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. This love also includes loving people. Loving people involves both tenderness and toughness, both graciousness and truthfulness at the same time. Moreover, loving God means loving people and loving people means loving God. You cannot separate the two. God is love and love comes from God. Loving God results in loving people. First John 4:20–21 tells us plainly, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen…. whoever loves God must also love his brother” (ESV).
It is natural to wonder which people we are supposed to love. In Luke 10, an expert in religious law questioned Jesus about how to live out this Great Commandment. He wanted to know who Jesus meant, exactly, when He commanded us to “love your neighbor.” “Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asked.
Jesus answered by sharing the parable of the Good Samaritan, which teaches that anyone who crosses your path and has needs is your neighbor. Then Jesus changed the question. The key question according to Jesus is not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Who is a good neighbor?”
In the parable, it was the Samaritan who reached out and helped. It was the Samaritan who saw the need and moved toward the needy person. It was the Samaritan who gave what he had to help the person in need. He approached and embraced the person in need, whereas the other characters in the story retreated. Love was the difference—a love that manifested itself in compassion and mercy.
The Great Commission and the Great Commandment must be held together in one thought. Because we love God, we love people. Because we love people, we make disciples. To try to make disciples without love gains nothing. And if we say we love people but never try to make disciples, then our love is a lie. As we love God, we will love people. As we love people the way God loves us, we will be engaged in making disciples. The two go together and make the journey simple, not complicated.
Our motive drives our mission. Our passion fuels our priorities. Our heart energizes our hands. Loving God and loving people is our motive. Making disciples who can make disciples is our mission. Throughout His ministry, Jesus modeled what it means to love God and love people and through His priorities He made disciples who made disciples. Then, in His final words to His disciples—including you and me—He summarized His mission and handed it off to us to complete.
This post is excerpted from 4 Chair Discipling © 2019 by Dann Spader. Used by permission from Moody Publishers.
Photo source: istock
 | Dann Spader has dedicated his life to disciple-making and teaching others how to take someone from a seeker to a reproducing disciple themselves, all by following the pattern Jesus laid out for us in scripture. More than 750,000 people in 90 plus countries have been trained to make disciples emulating the life of Christ through organizations and initiatives he has led. He is the Founder of Sonlife Ministries and currently serves as Founder and President of Global Youth Initiative (an alliance of organizations in 95 countries committed to "equipping leaders for movements of multiplication”). Learn More » |
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