Jesus Christ, through direct instructions first to
eleven apostles, only gave the church one
job to do—not two, not three—just one job to do (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke
24:46-49; Acts 1:4-8).
We call that one job the Great Commission, a notable expansion of the target
audience characteristic of what we call the Limited Commission (to the house of
Israel,
Matthew 10:5-6). “And he said
unto them, Go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature”
(Mark 16:15 emphasis added).
Most cite a three-fold mission of the Lord’s church
(i.e., edification, 1 Corinthians 14:12;
evangelism, Matthew 28:19-20;
benevolence, Galatians 6:10).
Yet, forasmuch as the Lord’s church and the Christians who comprise it may have
responsibilities that include edification and benevolence, it remains a fact
that our Lord Jesus Christ only gave the church one job to do—to evangelize the
world with the Gospel.
Christians (the church) have the responsibility (and
privilege) to worship God in his own appointed way (John 4:23-24), but
Christians and the church only have one job to do—evangelize the world with the
Gospel of Christ. Likewsie, Christians have responsibilities respecting
Christian living (Titus 2:12) and Christian service (John 12:16; Hebrews.
12:28), but Christians still only have one job—take the Gospel to the world.
Parents have parental responsibilities toward their children (Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15),
but Christian parents still have only one job—tell others about the saving
Christ of the saving Gospel.
The Christian
vocation is to evangelize the world with the Gospel. Evangelism is the
lifeblood of the Lord’s church, without which the church of Christ
will not have a physical presence in any community tomorrow where the church of
today fails to tell others about the Gospel. Don’t the value of a single soul
(Matthew 16:26) and the command given by our Lord to proclaim the Gospel (Mark
16:15; 2 Timothy 2:2) far
outweigh many of things on which Christians and churches spend an inordinate
amount of time and money (e.g., buildings, entertainment, creature comforts)?
Noting that several individual Christians and a number of churches of Christ
have a keen interest in taking the Gospel to the billions of souls that inhabit
planet earth, how interested are the churches of Christ overall in doing the
only job that Jesus Christ left for the church to do?
Jesus Christ has given Christians and the Lord’s church
only one job to do, that is, our sole (soul) vocation is evangelism. It’s all
about saving souls (Hebrews 10:39; James 1:21; 1 Peter 1:9);
nothing on earth matters more than the salvation of souls. Christians and
congregations that exhibit no or little interest in taking the Gospel to the
lost, near and far, are in great jeopardy of missing the joyful eternity in
heaven with God, since one’s crown of life, in part, is dependent upon winning
souls (Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19).
No Christian or church (group of Christians) has fought a good fight, finished
its course or kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7) without giving due attention to
taking the Gospel to lost souls. Have you made taking the Gospel of Christ to
the lost world, directly or indirectly, your sole (soul) vocation, relegating
everything else in life to avocation status?
