The Great Commission

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:16-20

LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS STARTS WITH LOVING JESUS

Our desire as we move through the mundane of our daily lives is that our serving would be an outpouring of Jesus’ command for us to love Him and love our neighbor as ourself. Literally, neighbors are the folks who live next door to us. Relationally, a neighbor is anyone God has placed next to us. Our friends, family, coworkers, and those we bump into as we move through our communities are some of our neighbors. The best way we can love them is to share who we love most with them through our words and actions. To do this well, it is important to look inward at our faith to ensure we are loving Jesus with all our heart, heart, soul, and mind before we step out and lovingly serve them.

LOVING NEIGHBORS SPREADS THE GOSPEL

The great commission gives us guidance on how loving our neighbors can help spread the gospel. It calls us to make disciples of all nations because we love Jesus.

God commands us to teach others who Jesus is by giving up ourselves and loving people because Jesus loves us so much, He gave up Himself on the cross.

It also addresses a road block we may encounter as we ‘travel’ to all our nations. In the great commission, the disciples meet Jesus on the mountain after He died. It’s clear they loved Him because their first response at seeing Jesus on the mountain was to worship Him. It’s clear Jesus loved them because He chose to call them to gather on the mountain and worship together as family!

But as the disciples worshipped Jesus on the mountain, some struggled with loving Him with ALL their heart. Some doubted.

They understandably felt skepticism that Jesus was really standing in front of them after watching Him die on the cross. Maybe they also questioned their ability to complete the next step Jesus was commanding them to do: to go and make disciples of all the nations. They followed Jesus and listened to His teachings about this mission for years while they walked with Him on earth. They witnessed Him loving their neighbors. But maybe after Jesus’ death, the disciples held reservations about the time and effort it would take to go to all nations and love people; who may or may not love them back. Maybe they felt uncertain their skills and talents would be enough to battle for The Kingdom and disciple now that Jesus was in heaven and no longer standing with them.

LOVING JESUS CASTS AWAY DOUBT

Because we love Jesus, we are qualified to disciple. But there is also truth in the doubt.

We are also unqualified because we will always fall short of loving Jesus and obeying His commands perfectly. Our human minds will never have all have all the answers. Our human bodies will never be strong enough to force someone to love Jesus or work our way into heaven. Our human hearts will never have enough grace to love our guests and family unconditionally.

But, Jesus will use us and our imperfect ways.

He is not concerned with the world loving us because we are flawless. His only concern is having the world choose to faithfully love and follow Him. Because we love Jesus and He washed our imperfections clean on the cross, we are fully qualified to share His love with others!

Our responsibility is to make sure we love Jesus well so when we meet the neighbors god places around us, we are ready to obey His command to love them so they might love Jesus more.

We can do this by regularly making time for:

PRAYER asking for the Holy Spirit to fill us up so His words flow from our mouths, His strength carries us through our days, and His grace is shared with our people.
READING THE BIBLE to learn as much as we can about who Jesus is so we can teach the world more of His commands.

NEXT STEPS

Spend some time thinking about what fills your time during the week. What is something you can do without to carve in more time to be with Jesus?

Is it giving up screen time to read scripture?
Is it turning off the radio and praying while you are driving to work?
Is it turning up the radio to worship while you are at home?
Is it pressing pause on a project at home to take a walk in your neighborhood?
Is it walking up early to listen to a friend’s story over breakfast?
Is it something else?

Love & Obey