What is your job as a Christian? For many of us, this is an easy answer. We are to be like Jesus; help people, teach them about God’s word, set a good example and forgive. But this is complicated when we introduce the mission of the Gospel. I do think the Bible teaches we are to share that Good News, but I think the way we have been taught it is not always helpful.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
That “go therefore and teach every nation” message was not spoken to you. It was spoken to the Apostles, a term which means “ones sent out”. Some of us are indeed missionaries who walk a similar path, but others have a much more fixed location on our visit here on Earth.
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.
1 John 2:3-6
We are to walk as Jesus walked and we are to spread the Good News. This is our mission. But that news is delivered in our own lives far differently than it is in other places, and it is heard differently by a neighbor than it is a stranger.
And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13
You might not have the “go ye” mission but you do have the same message. Since all of us were saved, how can we hold back from saving others? So yes, you are being sent out. You just don’t have as far to go.
Ethan Kirl
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