Our second commandment response does not end at those within our immediate community or even within the Church, but extends out as our response to the people of the world. Loving our neighbor includes loving the lost, and reaching out to them through authentic caring relationships. This is demonstrated in absolute inclusiveness, a recognition that the Church is for all people and that no human barriers of race, gender or social status exist to keep anyone from coming to God. It is also demonstrated in an approach which acknowledges the wholism of the human person: body, soul and spirit and ministers to all needs.
It is in this second commandment response that we understand the great commission, expressed in Matthew 28:18-20, "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”
As expressed here, the great commission is not simply a command to go and preach or teach. It begins with the foundation of authority, the authority of Jesus. His commission, given to His apostles continues to us as his apostles in this day and age as well. Such apostolic authority allows Jesus ministry to continue on through his people. This spiritual authority was granted to the apostles with the coming of the Holy Spirit, and therefore we recognize today that our own ability to minister in response to the great commission is contingent on our being filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. The result of such apostolic authority is ministry with power, accompanied by signs and wonders to demonstrate the reality of the presence of God. It is also accompanied by a keen understanding of the grace of God and a commitment to a life of holiness before God.
Further, the great commission calls us to make disciples…, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." The call of radical discipleship in our own lives, of devotion to him, and our commitment to follow him and obey his wills impels us to also call others to such radical and transformational discipleship. We are not simply spreading a religious belief or teaching wisdom and truth, we are calling people to turn away from their old life and enter a new, leaving behind their worldly desires and making Jesus their only desire.
This commission extends into all the world, all nations, and we recognize that until this task is complete, until the people of God have succeeded on God's terms in making disciples of all the nations of the world, our commission remains steadfast. We look forward to the day when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14), and we therefore labor so that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Toward that end, we commit ourselves to follow Jesus with wholehearted devotion, to loving God and our neighbor and to the making of disciples among all nations, both personally and by raising up a new generation of disciples committed to Christ's mission. We commit ourselves also to work diligently and purposefully, laboring while it is still day, and holding ourselves to high standards of righteousness so that we stand individually and as a community of God’s people without reproach in the midst of a watching world.
