Making disciples
Stay married, stay out of debt, and combine craft with your calling—and while doing all that, be making disciples. Do these things and you will be changing America.
I’ve put this one last not because it’s the least important but because it is the most obvious. If I had put it first, you might have thought there was nothing more to see here.
One of the things I’ve learned as a trial lawyer is the importance of primacy and recency. People are more likely to remember the first thing and the last thing you tell them. Should it surprise us then that this is the last thing Matthew records Jesus telling the disciples:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:18–20.
Changed people change the world
The Great Commission is the clearest expression of the mandate for every Christian to share the gospel and make disciples. It is how people become Christians and learn to obey Jesus—in other words, it is how they become self-governing.
Changed people change the world. They change the world because they change their own behavior and because they make themselves available to God to become a catalyst for change in other people’s lives.
This is why politics is often more expedient than it is truly effective. Politics changes the external constraints imposed on people to control their conduct. Once those constraints are removed, people go back to doing what they want.
The gospel changes a person from the inside out so that they voluntarily conform their behavior to what is good and right. It’s the difference between treating an infection with antibiotics and treating it with Advil.
Becoming a catalyst for change
I became a Christian because a football coach shared the gospel at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting I attended after school as a middle-school student. Then I really grew as a Christian when I was discipled by an older student in college. They were two of the most important people I ever met because God used them in my spiritual rebirth and growth.
You may have a similar story.
Changing the nation happens when you pay it forward by sharing the gospel and discipling others. It’s not that difficult to do, and there are few things more exhilarating than being the means by which God changes someone’s life.
Change on earth and rewards for eternity
I’ve lost track of the middle school coach but I’ve kept in touch with the one who discipled me in college. It’s hard to forget those the Lord has used to change our lives.
And that is the thing to remember—instead of being deterred by fear, we need to act in faith that carrying out the Great Commission will result in changed lives. After all, making disciples yields rewards that last for eternity, and it is what will make the most difference on the earth.
Changed people change the world, and God has entrusted us with the gospel that changes people. GS
