I have struggled the past couple of weeks to understand The Commission of God. God’s Commission is simple in theory yet hard in practice. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all I have commanded you and behold, I am with you, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). This is the commission I have had memorized since I was a young child. It was one of those “memorize this verse and get a gold star next to your name” verses (for those of you who know what I am talking about).
To me, The Commission of God was important. Apparently too many pastors I had heard throughout my life, they also thought this passage were important. I can’t think of one situation where I attended a church that a pastor did not, at least once, teach on this verse. Their message basically went like this:
“Folks. Jesus told us to go. We need to go out and make disciples of all nations. We need to spread ourselves thin and reach the world for Jesus. This is after all, The Commission of God, is it not?”
Over the past couple of years, I have had the extreme joy and challenge to study biblical Greek at Lancaster Bible College and now at Biblical Theological Seminary. It was just a few weeks ago; I was challenged to write a paper for a class I am currently taking on the missional church. It was a broad assignment that left the door open for anything concerning the missional church and/or postmodernism. I began to consider what I would write on and thought a great idea would be to understand the differences in how we deduce positive growth in a Church in today’s culture. Still, as I considered the topic, I thought it was too broad of a thesis. It was then, in my Greek class, we began to look at participles. My mind went back to Matthew 28: 19-20 and asked how we should ultimately translate this passage in light the adverbial participles and the imperatives within the verse. Based on my understanding of the verbs listed within the passage, I would parse them this way:
Πορευθέντες
πορεύομαι: to go
verb, aorist, passive, participle, plural, nominative, masculine
μαθητεύσατε
μαθητεύω: to make a disciple
verb, aorist, active, imperative, second person, plural
βαπτίζοντες
βαπτίζω: to baptize
verb, present, active, participle, plural, nominative, masculine
διδάσκοντες
διδάσκω: to teach
verb, present, active, participle, plural, nominative, masculine
τηρεῖν
τηρέω: to obey
verb, present, active, infinitive
ἐνετειλάμην
ἐντέλλω: to command
verb, aorist, middle, indicative, first person, singular
In Greek, participles are verbal substantives (or verbal adjectives), meaning that participles can be used either as verbs or adjectives (The Basics of Biblical Greek, Mounce, 329).
As I have noted already, the aorist imperative of this verse is “μαθητεύσατε” (”make disciples”), making it the main verb. In many sermons I had heard before, the main thrust of the sentence seemed to fall on the “Go!” rather than “make disciples.” I have come to realize that the imparative is “make disciples” and therefore is the direct command Jesus is calling His disciples to do. The word “Go!” or “Πορευθέντες” fits into the “Attendant Circumstance” category of participles (Greek NT Insert, Chapman-shogren, 33). Attendant Circumstance participles normally are: aorist participles, aorist main verb, indicative or imperative main verb, and precede the main verb. Ultimately, it is impossible to make disciples if you are not going. Since the go is needed in order to make disciples, we need the participle “Go!” “Go!” is the driving force of the imperative. So, in essence, it would not be wrong to say, “Go make disciples of all nations.” This might seem like a small difference but it holds a great importance to the passage and ultimately The Commission of God.
Finally, we have to ask how we are to “make disciples.” Jesus tells us to do it through the means of baptizing and teaching these new disciples all that Jesus had taught them. The responsibility on those who accept The Commission of God is enormous. It is no small deal.
“Therefore, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you and behold! I am with you, even till the end of the age.”
Thanks to “Grasping the Cross” for the insight and parsing which has made this passage more meaningful to me. Thanks also to Scot McKnight for his quick response to an email I sent him regarding this verse. I totally agree with you, brother.
May 29, 2008 at 12:56 am
[...] some more information on the context and language of this verse: Site 1 Site 2 Site [...]
February 9, 2010 at 11:10 am
What I have been wrestling with is the “Who?”
Who is supposed to be making disciples?
1) Each believer under the authority of their local church
2) Each local church as a group (each person participating in some aspect of making disciples– going, baptizing, teaching)
3) The pastor(s) of each local church
The implications of each beleiver needing to go, baptize, and teach in order to be obedient to the command to make disciples are enormous. (Should my wife be teaching disciples to obey Christ’s commands? Should me or my children be baptizing those we are making disciples of?)
Bottom line, if the command is personal to each believer, how can each believer be obedient to this command? (I have never been in a church where I could reserve the baptismal so I could baptize people I was discipling.) It would seem the easiest, and most often applied, approach would be to say the command is not to the individual but to the church as a whole with the majority of the command to be performed by the pastor(s).
Part (maybe all) of the answer is in the Greek text. Can it be definitively shown that the command is to the individual (you singular) or to the group (you plural)? If to the individual, can it be shown that the command was a) only to those disciples present or 2) only to church leaders/pastors (ie- those called specifically to preach/teach/baptize?)
I look forward to hearing other people’s understanding of how this passage should be translated and applied.