Focus 2020 – The Great Commission: Perspectives from LeadersSample

Blessing All People: The Original Great Commission 

Bible passage: 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1–3, NRSV) 

Devotional: 

When we learned that Latino families connected to our domestic church plants were losing work due to the coronavirus pandemic, we quickly launched a relief fund. We didn’t stop to ask, “Are we a relief agency or a mission agency?” We had the means of mobilizing donors to help those in need, so we acted. We organized a distribution team and put out the word in less than 48 hours. As of this writing, we’ve received over $28,000 and helped 39 families. 

In expressing their gratitude, these families often use the word blessing. “Thank you for making this blessing possible,” wrote María, a single mother of two who had lost her job. “This money will help me buy food for my children.” The Montoya family, whose father was laid off, stated, “We are deeply grateful for this help. We pray that God may multiply his blessings to all of you.” Their responses remind me that blessing all the families of the earth is the original Great Commission. 

The first 11 chapters of the Bible narrate the tragic fall of humanity from a state of harmony with God, one another, and creation to one of estrangement and death. It climaxes with the ultimate human attempt to prosper apart from God, the tower of Babel. God graciously intervenes, confusing the builders’ language and scattering them over the face of earth. 

Then God launched a rescue plan only he could craft, calling an aging, barren couple to leave everything they knew and head to an unknown land (Genesis 12:1–3). Through Abraham and Sarah, God promises to produce a great nation that will become a blessing to all the families of the earth. It is the original Great Commission. Their obedience kicks off a chain of events, sometimes glorious, other times heartbreaking, but ultimately salvific. Centuries later, the heir of this immigrant couple, Jesus Christ, undoes the curse of sin and makes the blessing of peace with God, one another, and creation possible through his death and resurrection. Paul calls this promise of blessing to all people through Abraham’s heir “the gospel” (Galatians 3:8). 

The original Great Commission task of blessing the nations defies our dichotomies. It is both earthly and heavenly, individual and corporate, spiritual and social, local and global, spoken and performed, immediate and eternal. Faustino, a new believer whose family benefited from our immigrant relief fund, sums it up well: “I want to say thank you to all the brothers and sisters that are supporting us. Thanks to our powerful Father. May God protect our pastor and his family and all the missionaries that are in different places, in the name of Jesus. Amen!” 

Quote: “The history of mission is the history of the spread of God’s blessing, the history of God keeping his promise to Abraham.” Christopher Wright, The Mission of God’s People 

Question: How do you see the task of blessing all nations reflected in other versions of the Great Commission? Whom does God want to bless through your church or organization? 

Aaron Kauffman  

President, Virginia Mennonite Missions