The Great Commission

It is common for churches to make "mission" and/or "vision" statements nowadays. And almost all somehow embed a reworking of the instruction of Jesus known as "The Great Commission" into these statements.

Interesting, though, that the Great Commission is somehow, some way, commonly mistranslated.

In the Greek Matthew 28:19-20 reads poreuqenteV oun maqhteusate panta ta eqnh baptizonteV autouV eiV to onoma tou patroV kai tou uiou kai tou agiou pneumatoV didaskonteV autouV threin panta osa eneteilamhn umin kai idou egw meq umwn eimi pasaV taV hmeraV ewV thV sunteleiaV tou aiwnoV

(letters transliterated as best can be done -- not sure how to create Greek fonts here -- see http://www.greeknewtestament.com/B40C028.htm#V18 for better Greek).

A purely literal translation, as best I can tell (I took a bit of classical Greek in college, studying a period of the language from about 4th century BC): "having gone, then, teach (or train) all the nations, baptizing them -- to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all, whatever I did command you, and lo, I am with you all the days -- till the full end of the age."

We see two distinctions. Where most translations say "Go", as in "Go!", the Greek could be translated, perhaps more accurately "as you go", or "as you live your lives". Less debatable than that, however, is that the Greek does not say "make disciples", but rather, "teach the nations", or "train others" in a more modern-speak.

Why does this matter?

I let the reader decide on the distinction of "Go" and "as you live your lives", for the sake of brevity. But let's focus on the latter. The biggest difference is one of responsibility and burden. The more literal "teach the nations" are simple instructions for our actions. "Make disciples" however, puts a production burden on us. One that is not in the source Greek!

So, our burden should be to instruct and train others. Numbers are not ours to worry about, which "make disciples" implies. The impact on churches and communities, I believe, is that we wouldn't worry about measuring ourselves in terms of numbers, but rather simply teach. The depth of the disciple development, I believe, would be much fuller.

One final note. Churches need to realize the Great Commission was not given to them, but to disciples. Churches often try to measure how the body is doing from a corporate sense, rather than how the disciples within are doing. I've known not a few pastors who encourage their congregations to bring others so they can teach them. The teaching is instructions to disciples, not the "staff of the church". Ephesians 4 shows us that those gifted at being apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors, etc are for the "equipping of the church", not doing the work of the church.