Teaching them to observe all things

teaching them to observe ALL that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:20

Teaching them to observe all things,…. All ordinances, not only baptism, but the Lord’s supper; all positive institutions, and moral duties; all obligations, both to God and men; all relative duties that respect the world, or one another, those that are without, and those that are within; and these are to be taught them, and therefore to be insisted on in the ministry of the word; and not merely in order that they may know them, and have the theory of them, but that they may put them into practice.

Our primary responsibility is summed up in one verb here in this passage in Matthew 28:19, “make disciples,” and then the breadth of it, “of all the nations.” That is the primary reason the church is here. If we were saved for fellowship, then we would be taken to heaven, where fellowship is perfect. If we were saved for praise and worship, we would be taken to heaven, where praise and worship is unhindered and perfect. If we were saved for the sake of teaching and training and knowledge and wisdom, we should be taken to heaven, where knowledge is perfect.

The reason we are left here is in order that we might make disciples of all the nations. That is our God-given priority as a church. Jesus came, the Bible says, to seek and save the lost, and we have the same task, to seek and bring salvation to the lost. This is what it means to make disciples. The verb is mathēteusate. It simply means to make a disciple, to make a learner, to make a follower of Jesus Christ. That’s what we are to do.

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