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Great Command and Great Commission



It seems to me that sometimes we over emphasize great commission over great commandment of Jesus. The great and first commandment of Jesus: Mark 12:29-31  says 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (ESV). One thing that should precede great commission is to love God and love people. This is the foundation of everything. Abiding in love means we abide in God (John 15). We need a deep revelation and experience of love of God. If we are not touched and filled with depth of God’s love (cf.Rom. 5.4), then we will not be able to love others. Let us pray that the love of God may increase in us, so that our love for God and people around us may increase.


The very foundation of Gospel or the great commission is God’s love (John 3.16). Many people try to share gospel with so much enthusiasm but their motive is not love. I have seen people sharing gospel to get recognition, get good feeling, get reward in heaven, get name, get tag that s/he shared to 10, 100, etc. people, just to please leaders, out of responsibility, get feeling of accomplishment and so on. This actually makes believers tired and frustrated many times. These are wrong motives which make gospel preachers sometimes very rude and insensitive to the feelings of people who are hearing gospel. They make more damage to the Kingdom of God. The right motive behind sharing gospel should be love – love of God in our heart that inspire us to love God and others. Heaven moved with love for human beings and which manifested in sending Christ. Love is the very foundation of gospel. Love filled heart is the foundation of gospel sharing (cf. Rom. 5.4). When this happens in our heart, we will move with compassion and concern for people around us who are heading to hell without Jesus. Otherwise, we will not feel any concern to share gospel to them. When love moves in our heart, we will have burden for perishing souls and we will cry and intercede for people around us. We move with compassion and find ways to share gospel which ends in definite results.

Let us check our heart today the depth of love of God. Let us check our motives in which we share gospel. Let us pray that God may experience deeply God’s love in our heart. Let us pray that our love for God and people may increase.

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