Square Mile

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)  

What is the nature of evangelism? Frequently, this verse – the so-called great commission – is trotted out to provide the framework for our evangelistic endeavours. According to the standard interpretation, Christ's last instruction was that we go and convert the nations and so until our commanding officer issues some new directive that is what we must do. But is that what this verse is getting at? And is that the nature of evangelism? Let us look again more closely at these verses.  

One of the problems we have is that though these verses clearly state that our task is to make disciples who obey, we read them as if they encourage us to make converts who believe. In the process, we inappropriately restrict evangelism to merely the transfer of a set of cognitive attitudes. Before being evangelized, our would-be convert believes x, and after our evangelism, they believe y. By placing such an unscriptural emphasis on 'conversion' rather than 'discipleship', we have in practice at least considered the evangelist's job to be done when the new convert / disciple is able to assent to our prescribed list of doctrines. But such an approach is surely a travesty of the gospel, and certainly has nothing to do with the task laid upon us in these verses. The verb 'make disciples' in fact has three subordinate participles that fill out its meaning. The first of these occurs before the main imperative verb 'make disciples', and is the participle 'going', the second and third occur after the main verb and are 'baptizing' and 'teaching to obey'. The sense we get, then, is that disciple making involves going, baptizing and teaching to obey. What it does not involve is mere proclamation with a view to conversion. Commenting on these verses, Donald Hagner writes,

The word 'disciple' means above all 'learner' or 'pupil'. The emphasis in the commission thus falls not on the initial proclamation of the gospel but more on the arduous task of nurturing into the experience of discipleship, an emphasis that is strengthened and explained by the instruction "teaching them to keep all that I have commanded" in v. 20a. To be made a disciple in Matthew means above all to follow after righteousness as articulated in the teaching of Jesus.  

In addition, the phrase used in the great commission is a deliberate echo of Jesus' instruction in Matthew 5:19. "Whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Given all this, it may in some sense be the case that 'evangelism' is the practice of proclamation with a view to cognitive conversion, but that is categorically not what the great commission is calling us to do. These verses lay upon us the task of 'disciple making', which of course includes proclamation with a view to cognitive conversion, but also includes far more. In particular, it includes as Hagner puts it, "the arduous task of nurturing into the experience of discipleship". And at least one of the reasons that task is arduous is because, as Matthew 5:19 indicates, it involves our own obedience to the commands of Jesus, which is just one other reason why Evangelism, Life discipleship, Mercy and Influence can never be separated.

Written by Dr Justin Thacker, Head of Theology & Susannah Clark, Public Theology Researcher