Note that JESUS
commands: "Go
ye into all the world,"
If "Go"
is gone from the gospel, is the gospel
go-ne? Our world consists of a
little sphere of influence and travel,
"the world"
is hostile and foreign to truth.
Our world is confined and comfortable,
"the world"
is vast and foreboding.
"Let this mind
be in you, which was also in CHRIST
JESUS:" It is helpful,
when fearful, to remind ourselves of
the travel expense incurred by CHRIST
to deliver the gospel to us.
"WHO, being in
the form of GOD, thought it not
robbery to be equal with GOD: But made
HIMSELF of no reputation, and took
upon HIM the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men: And
being found in fashion as a man, HE
humbled HIMSELF, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the
cross."
"gospel"
= good news ... but apart from the bad
news, it is viewed as a recreational
drug to a sinner willfully oblivious
to his symptoms. The frustration
among many of the Great PHYSICIAN'S
pastoral interns today is due to the
futile attempt to disciple the dead.
The ministry of the gospel has turned
into a mortuary for still born sinners
to socialize instead of evangelize.
We have gone half-hearted
"into all the world" with
false doctrine, sloppy diagnostics,
and a pike full of guile and glitz.
I wonder if we have dispensed the
placebo of clever programs for so long
that we too are unable to distinguish
it from the real.
If the gospel is
the death, burial, and resurrection of
JESUS CHRIST and we jade its
implications, are we guilty of
baptizing for the dead?
"... if the dead
rise not at all? why are they then
baptized for the dead? And why
stand we in jeopardy every hour?"
Paul took so seriously his commission
from CHRIST that he jeopardized his
life to death for the gospel.
But as a result,
"all the world"
of his day had a preacher for
"every creature".
The commission
is oh so simple, but convicting to
consider on a personal level, is it
not?
"Go ..."