I Already Told You What To Do, Guys!
Why teaching the Bible isn't the goal of the Great Commission
“God Said it. I believe it. That settles it.”
You’ve heard that before, right?
I call it Bumper Sticker Theology. It’s the kind of statement that packs a punch but fits on a Bumper Sticker.
And wow, have I been punched in the gut by that statement once or twice!
You probably call it bullying—using words to bully, in this case—and that’s bad, of course, but using God’s words to bully, well, that’s REALLY bad.
You never want to be a Bible bully, but they do exist. You’ll meet them… usually in churches, on social media, and sometimes even in your family.
Their words hurt.
God’s word isn’t really supposed to hurt, at least in my professional opinion.
But we like to fight.
It takes a lot of courage for a Christian to avoid using the Bible to bully.
Growing up, we kind of wanted to beat God’s word into people. So we would use the Bible to try and bully others into belief.
We’d pull out the Bible if someone was drinking something we didn’t like, point to a verse, and say, see, right there. Stop that.
If someone said something we didn’t quite like, well, we’d pull out that big ol’ reference Bible, point to a verse or two, and try to bully them back into line.
For us, the Bible was the final arbiter, the final judge, the dealbreaker, the Grand Poobah.
It was a judge, jury, and executioner.
Here’s the thing, though, and this is important:
Jesus didn’t tell his followers to treat others like bullies or use sacred texts in this way.
In fact, he made it completely clear what his followers were supposed to be doing in his absence.
In his final words, what we often call the Great Commission, he says:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” — MATTHEW 28:19-20
I can remember pastors teaching this text from those huge wooden pulpits with an enormous cross on the front.
Men today have big trucks. Pastors back then had big pulpits. (There is a lot of correlation there.)
So they would get to that line, “Teach them to obey all the commands that I have given you,” and the preacher would get to that line, and pause, for dramatic effect, of course.
Sometimes, they’d pull out their handkerchief to wipe their brow, to let us know something really important was coming.
A smile would slip across his face, and he’d pick up that huge old worn bible he was using, hold it out in front of himself, and he would shout, “teach them to obey all of the commands.”
But only a few people in the audience would shout, so he’d say it again: “Teach them to obey all of the commands” he’d bellow even louder, and they would, of course, respond even louder.
This went back and forth a few times until everyone was whipped into a frenzy.
We, of course, knew what he meant.
Whenever he held the Bible out in front of him like Rafiki holding out baby Simba in the Lion King’s Circle of Life, we knew that he was saying that the Bible was the answer to the question.
“Teach them to obey all of the commands I have given you” meant “Teach them everything that this book contains… that it commands.”
“Jesus was talking about the Bible here!,” the preacher would shout.
“Teach them the Bible! To obey it.”
Except… Jesus wasn’t talking about the Bible here in the Great Commission. I hate to be Debbie Downer here… but he just wasn’t.
The Bible wouldn’t be compiled for a few more centuries. Nothing in the New Testament was written yet, and it wouldn’t be written for decades.
And no, Jesus wasn’t looking into the future and prophesying the Bible would come into existence.
First of all, every single one of these dudes listening to him would be dead and gone by the time we had anything close to resembling a Bible.
Second, don’t be an idiot.
If they didn’t understand what he meant, we KNOW that Thomas’ hand would have shot up from the back of the group. “Jesus, got a question over here. We honestly have no earthly idea what you are going on about.”
They knew what he meant, and it wasn’t the Bible; but my preacher didn’t seem to know this. He would have known it, though, had he started reading one verse earlier in the texts.
Just. One. Verse.
“Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.” — MATTHEW 28:18
Notice what Jesus says here: All authority on this earth and in the next one has been given to me. This is an authoritative statement, and look who holds all of the authority.
Jesus.
Unequivocally, unquestionably Jesus.
He did NOT say, all authority on heaven and earth is given to the books which you are about to write.
So when my preacher is shouting about the Bible as though that is what Jesus means when he says to teach them to obey my commands, he’s wrong.
And since Thomas didn’t interrupt with a “We don’t know what commands you want us to teach them,” they must have known what Jesus meant. And since Thomas didn’t say, “There is no way we can teach all of that.” It must not have been a Bible’s worth of commands.
The fact is, I think that Jesus is being funny here. Remember that time an expert in religious law tried to trap Jesus by asking him what the most important commandment was? And there were a lot. More than 600 laws, sublaws, and attached rabbinical explanations, and it was insane. And if Jesus answers, then he’s busted, because they treated them all equally.
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. — MATTHEW 22:36-40
So Jesus says, “all of them are important… but really they all can be lived out and fulfilled in just doing these two.”
Brilliant. That was easy.
Jesus doubles down on this with his disciples at the Last Supper, telling them: “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” — JOHN 13:34-35
So here we have it again. Jesus said all of the commands could be wrapped up in: Love God, Love others. And now he reiterates that by saying that this love they show to each other will prove they are his followers. Not their adherence to the Bible, but their love for each other.
And he calls it a new commandment. So he is commanding them.
Recognize that language from the great commission?
“Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” — MATTHEW 28:20
Aaaaaaall the commands.
Y’all, Jesus is being funny, cheeky.
Thomas doesn’t raise his hand, because he knows that Jesus isn’t saying to teach all of the OT Law, or else. He isn’t saying you must memorize the Sermon of the Mount or be able to perfectly follow all of the rules.
Thomas knows that when Jesus says “obey all of the commands that I have given you” he doesn’t mean that huge sweaty Bible the preacher is spittin’ on as he shouts. Thomas knows that Jesus means a very short list of commands: Love God. Love others. And if two commands are too tough—if it’s one too many—Jesus says: Just love one another.
Love each other, and when you do that., you are proving that you love God.
It couldn’t be any simpler.
It’s why Jesus said:
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” — MATTHEW 11:28-30
It's so amazing, so exciting, and so deeply encouraging to read these words. To see you move from the superficial (sorry!), control-based, authoritarian views of the average North American Christian to the more ancient, authentic, correct view that was given to us directly by Jesus. It gives me so much hope. It took me somewhere in the neighbourhood of five years to make the same journey, so I know how much had to happen in your spirit. But brother, it's beautiful to see. Thank you for sharing it.
I am a former Hospital Chaplain and minister. For 2 decades now my own health has caused me to be outside the institution of “the Church Universal” and because of that, being just One on One with my Heavenly Father, I have seen deception after deception. Looking from the outside has been the place that God intended me to be, in order to hear Him clearly.
I have a lifetime of experience in the Body of Christ and my heart grieves at the lack of Love that is being spewed from pulpits around the World.
For a year the Holy Spirit wouldn’t stop saying “Love God, Love Others”! So simple but so difficult. “though I speak with tongues of men and of Angels, if I have not LOVE I am resounding gong and a clanging cymbal!” So many Gongs and Cymbals.
I quit saying I’m a Christian, I am a Christ Follower. God has allowed me more opportunities for genuine ministry, through my health community, etc. than I ever experienced inside the buildings. People who would never set foot in a church or be welcomed in many to begin with.
What you have written has spoken to my heart. I have studied eschatology since I was a child actually. I came to Christ as a 5 year old in Southern California during the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s, back when Greg Laurie’s church was so small that we had home groups and everyone knew each other well. That was the last true revival, where I saw the genuine love of Jesus expressed by His people.
I have felt that there was another revival coming but that it would not be inside the buildings but inside the individual hearts of people. For years, in the study of eschatology, there was one prophecy that I could never comprehend coming to pass, and that was, how would the world turn against Christianity when the predominant religion around the world was Christianity.
About a decade ago I woke up with the answer and it wasn’t anything that my friends in ministry wanted to hear.
It was that Christians would cause the world to turn against Christians. Unfortunately every Christ Follower will be lumped in together but the deceptions inside the institution would cause love to be lost for the Others we’re commanded to love. I’ve watched it become truer and truer since getting that word.
I know that “even the very elect will be deceived” and so I pray daily for God to keep me humble and not be deceived. Unfortunately, I don’t too many ministers who pray that daily prayer as well.
One great example and teaching that God showed me about us judging others came from me being a Mom. When my son or daughter would try to “parent” each other, it never ended well. It wasn’t their role. It only made matters worse and showed the heart of the sibling! Jealousy, trying to be the boss, etc. Parenting was MY job, as mom.
Now, if one of them came to me because they were truly concerned for their brother or sister, I would listen to them and with my wisdom as Mom, would decide how to deal with it.
We are Brothers in Sisters in Christ. If I am truly concerned about my sibling, my job is to go to the Father and pray for them! Then I should simply love them. IF I’m living the kind of life that they see that they want, and IF they know that they can trust my love for them, then they may ask me for my help with something, but that only comes AFTER I’ve shown them that they can trust their hearts with me!
I don’t know if you and I have the same theology on everything but I love that I’ve found SOMEONE who sees the basics that God has commanded for me! I don’t need to agree with everything but as long as there’s genuine LOVE that Christ commanded, I’m okay with that! I just found you today, so I’m doing some homework! 😂😂😂