Fully Engage

The gospels are very clear about the primary purpose that followers of Jesus have during our remaining time on earth. Jesus's direct words, his candor within the culture he created, and the larger picture of what he was accomplishing all point to one fact: our primary purpose on this planet is to engage in missions.

We are to give our best energy and efforts to bring people into a saving relationship with the God who loves them desperately. Our temporary goal in life, missions, allows us to fulfill our ultimate, eternal goal: to bring glory to our great God. Our ability to honor, worship, and bring glory to God increases exponentially as we invite others to do the same. Because of this purpose, Charles Spurgeon, the great theologian (who incidentally came to know Jesus in the town I grew up in), once said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor”. He’s provocative, but right!

Because this purpose is of primary importance, it deserves our highest prioritization. Jesus informs us that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul” (Mark 12:30). A commitment to follow Jesus involves our emotions (our heart), our intellect (our mind) and our will (The soul, considered by the Jews to be the center of the will, the nerve center for our actions).

As a commitment to follow Jesus involves us offering ourselves fully to him, so does our responsibility as “Ministers of Reconciliation”. As the Apostle Paul is talking about this responsibility to reconcile men to God, he reminds us that;

“Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again”. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Within this exhortation, we are asked to offer our emotions, intellect once again, and will to the service of God in missions. Look at the words that he uses –

• Compels. We are compelled to do something at an emotional level. The need is so great, the urge so strong, that we make a decision to do what needs to be done emotionally. Paul says that Christ’s love, manifested in everything he has done and won for us, should be our emotional motivation for sharing Jesus. The challenge involves engaging our hearts in mission.

• Convinced. This word speaks to us about understanding missions within our intellect. When we see the reality of heaven that people will miss out on and the existence of hell that many are heading towards, our task becomes starkly apparent, we must engage ourselves in missions. The word ‘convinced’ challenges us to engage our minds in mission.

•  “Live for Him”. Paul exhorts potential missionaries to “live their life for him”. We need to change and engage our will so that we are not living just for ourselves but for the will of the one who sent us. He is asking that we be convicted to live for Him. This conviction calls us to give our souls to the purpose of missions.

Friend, as Jesus calls us to give ourselves fully to him, we are asked to give ourselves fully–heart, mind, and soul–in missions.

The work of missions is only temporary because one day, we will be in heaven, and missions will be no more. As John Piper says, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” We must give ourselves fully to the work of missions in this life; it is our most faithful act of worship while we walk the planet Earth.

Give yourself fully to Missions!