A Possible Command

Twice in the Scriptures we see the Lord Jesus Christ telling people to “sin no more” (John 5:14 & John 8:11). According to my understanding, as long as we live our lives in this present flesh, this is an impossible command to obey. In John’s first epistle he write these words inspired by the Holy Ghost, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). So we know that no matter who we are, we will battle a life-long struggle with sin until the Lord returns and changes “our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). This, therefore, is my understanding of the Lord’s command to “sin no more”: it is a command that we will never be able to completely obey, but we are to do our very best.

There is another command in Scripture that I used to believe was similar in the sense that we will never be able to completely obey it in this lifetime, but we were supposed to give our very best effort. Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” I thought, “Every creature? That’s impossible, but I’m going to try my best.”

I was wrong, though. It is not impossible.

1. Biblical example shows us it can be done.

In Paul’s ministry there was a time when he spent three years in Ephesus. There he labored and as a result every creature that dwelt in what was then called Asia heard the gospel. Acts 19:10 says, “And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” An example of a group of believers that dwelt in Asia and who did not live in the place where Paul was would be the Colossians. They lived about 100 miles inland from Ephesus and the believers there had never seen Paul’s face (Colossians 2:1). Yet there was a church! Most likely Paul had reached Epaphras, who was himself a Colossian, trained him, and then he was sent to plant a church in Colossae (Colossians 1:7 & Colossians 4:12). The point here though is the fact that due to Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, every inhabitant of a specific region heard the gospel. Look at what it says happened during Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas in Acts 13:49, “And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.” How about the example of Philip the evangelist after he won and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch? It says in Acts 8:40, “But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.”

If these biblical examples are not enough to prove that getting the gospel to every creature is possible, then surely what we read in Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers seals the deal, “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Colossians 1:23; see also Colossians 1:6)

2. History shows us it can be done.

Take the example of the great Missionary Charles Cowman in the orient. Charles Cowman left the comforts of home to preach the gospel to the Japanese over one hundred years ago. The heartcry of Cowman and every great missionary has been, “The evangelization of every creature in our generation.” At the time he left for Japan there were a total of 10,376,700 homes in that country. Having led a successful ministry in Tokyo, Cowman became increasingly burdened for the rural populations of Japan. He devised a plan that developed into what he called, “The Great Village Campaign”. The goal was to systematically take the gospel to every home in Japan. Their great team was successful in that they sent personal workers to every home in the country; these workers left a portion of Scripture and preached the gospel to everyone they met. One would think this daunting task must have taken a lifetime, but that is not true. Charles Cowman and his team of workers managed to get the gospel to over ten million homes in just six years. This man proved it can be done.

God did not mean for the great commission to be done little by little over 2,000 years so that by the time He comes back the gospel would have gotten to every part of the earth. The thrust of the great commission is individuals and it is something that must be actively accomplished during every generation. Each generation of believers is responsible for the evangelization of every creature during their generation. We can’t trust the generation before us because they had a generation of their own and now they are dead. We cannot trust the generation to come because they will have their own generation to reach and ours will have died. We have a window of opportunity during our short lives to get the gospel to every creature in our generation.

How can it be done?

Every church must have a ministry that constantly works to get the gospel to every creature in their region. That church also must consistently support missionaries who are doing the same work (getting the gospel to every creature in their region) through prayers and financial support. The philosophy of every missionary should be, “To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you” (2 Corinthians 10:16). Those missionaries in turn must go to the regions beyond and start churches that will continue the cycle of evangelizing and discipling while dedicating themselves to the evangelization of every creature in their region and supporting missionaries who are doing the work in regions beyond them.

Not only is “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” something that we can do, but it is something that we must do. We will do our part in our region, and we will support those in the regions beyond us; what will you do?

[This article was originally written by myself as a guest blogger on a friend's blog: http://pastorstrother.com/]