The Great Commission

In Matthew 28:18-20 we find what is known as The Great Commission. I’ve been pondering that quite a bit lately and wondering if perhaps we have been overlooking one of the words we find in that passage. It’s the short three-letter word “all”, as in “teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

If we are going to teach new believers to obey all the commands Jesus gave us then that must mean we teach them to
1) go and peach,
2) help them become Christ-followers,
3) baptize them, and then
4) teach them to repeat that same process with someone else.

If we fail in any one of these points then doesn’t that mean we have failed to carry out the commands of our Lord?

When I stop and think about all that entails it’s pretty heavy because it means that if the person I pour my life into does not go pour their life into someone else then I’ve failed to get the main point across to my apprentice. Now I understand that may not always be the case, because even Jesus had one of his disciples fail. But if I don’t have any of those people I’m pouring my life into go pour their life into someone else, who pours their life into someone else, then somewhere along that process I’m failing.