Mission
A missionary is a man with a mission. He is under a higher authority than himself and goes and does his duty as one authorized to act for another, higher authority. He acts, carries out the commands he receives from that agency.
Consistent Christians see themselves as God’s missionaries, individuals that live and act as agents of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. They bring the message of salvation to as many as possible, and give help to all others as well. All God’s people should be missionaries to the extent they can. The gospel message should flow from their lips at every opportunity.
God’s people are also responsible to “teach the nations” (Matthew 28: 19,20). This goes a step further; it requires action; teaching a nation is not a trivial task. It easily becomes a life-long effort. Yes, God does ask us to dedicate our lives to His service! His people are all to be His missionary-teachers in a world that has gone far astray.
The kind of teaching God requires is teaching that produces more teachers. We are to rapidly increase the number of, not just believers, but believers that will go on to teach yet others. The world was to rapidly become a Christian world.
Our predecessors did not do this too well and here we are two millennia later with a largely unconverted world on our hands. All Christians should be missionaries but how many actually feel this calling? How many teach new believers to teach? How many don’t even bother to teach anything?
This year we are feeling God’s wake-up call. It comes in the form of an attempt by Satan’s people to take control of the world. In the face of this serious threat, the great majority of God’s people continue to sleep. They, instead of acting as God commands, just wait for Jesus’ supposed soon return. One would think that a century later they would see that they’ve been told a lie. He’s not about to come anytime soon. He has given us a task that must be completed before He returns:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19,20)