The Great Commission, Golden Rule, & Love One Another – Part XI
….. because every believer is special, gifted, and equipped through Jesus to do the Great Commission, the Golden Rule, and to love one another.
The Great Commission: (Matthew 28:19) 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.
The Golden Rule: (Luke 6:31) Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Love One Another: (John 13:34-35) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Ephesians 4:8,11-13 states “8 When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” Jesus is in the gift giving business. He gives the gift of salvation, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the five fold giftings, etc. for the purpose of equipping His saints to fulfill the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.” If Jesus is going to release us, to be sent by Him, He will first prepare and equip you, then send you. “11 Christ himself gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
The five fold is all about the Golden Rule. You are to “serve” others, sacrificially, as Jesus did even to the point of giving your life. Each of the five is to give their passion and desire, that which drives them to others in support and to fulfill the calling of the Great Commission. They must also be reciprocal in receiving back the diverse giftings of the other four to bring nurture, care, and accountability to their lives.
Of course all this is done out of love: God’s agape love and man’s philo or brotherly love. As disciples of Jesus Christ we are commanded to “love one another,” no matter if our brethren are different or diverse . We are commanded to ACCEPT them as PEERS. IF WE DO, “everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
As Christians we do not have a good track record of loving fellow brethren outside our spiritual camps. This caterpillar mentality must cease, for it has never brought good fruit, only division, hurt, and dissention. We need to go through a cocoon transition so we emerge as a butterfly, fully accepting one another in love. The fruit will be maturity in Christ-likeness for individual believers and unity in the corporate Body of Christ. That is what the five fold is all about.
Today’s Church needs the five fold to birth, nurture, develop, care, teach, and to draw us, the Priesthood of Believers in Jesus Christ, near to Jesus, by making disciples by equipping each one for service, then being released, “sent out”, the Great Commission. Jesus “invests” in each believer by equipping them, giving them gifts for service, so we, the Church, must also invest in each other through service.
So “go” and “do” through ‘love”, then you have fulfilled all three of these verses.