Jesus said it was GREAT

The Great Commission Preempts the Great Commandment

Keeping the main thing the main thing.  Focusing core values.  Teams do it.  Businesses exercise it.  Churches practice it.  What is important shows up stated or related in the ways people experience and live the Christian life.  

Something Jesus said stands out to me.  He said this was great.  

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”   Matthew 22:36-38 (NLT) 

Jesus said this was the first and greatest.  Jesus also lived in a way that reflected His love for God the Father.  His way of living, teaching, training and dying flowed from love and it began with the first and greatest.  

There is among Christian ministries another core value.  It has to do with mission.  

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Jesus words given in Matthew 28 have been referred to by many since about 1650 as the Great Commission.  It is as though what is called the Great Commission preempts what Jesus said was “the first and greatest commandment.”  

A perusal of denominational websites will help in discovering which GC is really greatest.  Come, take a look.  

A conservative and evangelical denomination now called Converge was formerly known as the Baptist General Conference.  This is their perspective.  

Although U.S. demographics changed, the BGC’s core values remained the same. As a missional movement, the BGC became a multiethnic, worldwide family of believers and churches: diverse, yet committed to the common mission of fulfilling Christ’s great commission (Matthew 28:16-20) for the church.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance includes this as they describe themselves.  

Because of who He is and what He’s done, we are compelled to “go!” Humbled by the open invitation He extends to us—what we call the Great Commission-we join Him in His work to restore and reconcile lost and broken people to Himself.

The largest of the Protestant denominations is the Southern Baptist Convention and they have no mention of the Great Commandment among their statements of purpose, vision, or core values.  This is the SBC Vision statement. 

As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.

The denomination with which I am associated is the Evangelical Free Church of America.  I discovered this statement on the website.  

Our churches aim to be communities of Christ-followers who treasure God above all else and create life-giving environments that multiply disciples.  

In this statement God is treasured above all else.  The motto of the EFCA is Multiplying transformational churches among all people.  

Well, that is a sampling of what is presented.  It isn’t fair to have an agenda and go searching for a specific item I have to admit.  But this exercise points to the wide array of Christians and churches and I have been included in this as well who have made what Jesus calls great not so hot.  And often what Jesus called the “greatest” isn’t acknowledged much although most will say it is assumed.   I am proposing that what Jesus said was the first and greatest commandment has some merit.  Loving God is worth pursuing.  Loving God is valuable.  Loving God is a whole life experience.  What of the Great Commission?  You are going to like this.

The Great Commission flows from the Great Commandment

“Make disciples,” Jesus says.  Show them life with God the way Jesus did.  Immerse them in the life of fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the way Jesus did.  Teach them the ways of God the way Jesus did.  Jesus’ way was to get close to the Father.  Often He was away from the crowds spending time with the Father in prayer.  Jesus said he did what He saw His Father doing.  Jesus loved the Father and the Father loved Him.  

Jesus gave pictures of what it is like to enter into this relationship.  Living water flowing from a person.  Living life in a new kingdom the kingdom of God.  Empowered to love others, bless instead of curse, able to touch the untouchable and lift up the broken.  Loving God based on God’s loving us first and bursting love out within our hearts brings about this Great Commandment living.  

Keeping the first and greatest commandment of loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength changes us.  We are followers of God.  Disciples of Christ.  

What of the Great Commission?  It flows from the loving relationship with God the Father and the Son and moves into our relationship with people around us.  We can love others and not with the limited love of a human being but with the unlimited love of God.  We can make disciples of Jesus because His love, His reality, His priorities, His love of the Father are in us and radiating through us in attitudes, words, and actions.  Of course, this is the enabling of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us in this relationship of divine love.  Incredible?  I think so.  

What if the Great Commission is the main thing and not the Great Commandment?  Something is lost.  Accomplishment can gain attention where relationship may not.  Jesus mentions in prayer don’t do big public things to gain attention, but go to the Father in private.  Loving the Father may include a lot of time away from what gets the most attention.  Should Christians do what Jesus said in making disciples?  Of course.  But making disciples without being disciples who are loving God with all they are is making something different than Jesus had in mind.  He will allow all sorts of Christian enterprises to go on.  Some will build elaborate churches and others global missions with only a nod at God while being very busy.  And Jesus’ words still stand: 

“You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.”