JMA Missions Mid-Month October 2025
The Great Commission in the New Testament
1st Peter
Last month, looking at James, I had to admit that there really was no Great Commission in that book. This month in 1st Peter is not all that different! There is no single verse or passage that can be realistically identified as a Great Commission.
What can be identified is personal discipleship aspect of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Some early English Bibles translate 'make disciples' as 'teaching', but that is incorrect. The GK word is mathēteuō, Munce defines it as "to train in discipleship". Without a dynamic relationship with Jesus, discipleship becomes training in religion, and cheapens the Christian faith to an equal footing with any other religion in the world.
'The Pulpit Commentary' makes this statement on Matthew's Great Commission: "All must be taught the Christian faith and duty, and how to obtain God’s help to enable them to please him, and to continue in the way of salvation, so that they may "die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness; continually mortifying all their evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living"".
And this is exactly what we find in 1st Peter! 5 areas of Great Commission discipleship!
1. "Taught the Christian faith".
1 Peter 1:6–7, 6“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
All of us go through some kind of trial or adversity. Some are only 'a light affliction' as Paul said. Some are life threatening, in fact believers right now are being killed for their faith in many parts of the world. You won't see it in the nightly news, but they are there.
No matter who you are, if you name the name of Christ, your faith will be tested. The end and purpose of the testing is that your faith may be "found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Real faith is not theory or a religion. It’s furnace tested trust that glorifies Christ even when the outcome is uncertain.
2. "And duty", aka the responsibility of the believer.
1 Peter 1:13–16, 13“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ… 15as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” (you should read this whole passage for context)
The first step of responsible discipleship in this verse, 'gird up the loins of your mind'. The battle field is the mind!
Then, he follows with 'be sober', stop thinking and talking foolishly, falling for every wind of doctrine. This is basically a big, giant 'grow up', y'all!
"Rest your hope fully upon the grace" but there are a lot of people claiming grace who have never yet had a revelation of Jesus Christ. You can't rest in grace until you know Him!
3. "How to obtain God’s help to enable them to please Him".
1 Peter 2:1-5, 1"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
There is some measure where an individual can, by their own will power, rid themselves of some of these poor habits. People can stop cussing, quit drinking, and even manage to act polite for a while. But that’s just behavior modification. It doesn’t reflect what is really in the heart.
The difference is found in v3, "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious", and in v4 "coming to Him".
That's a big 'if', friend! 'If you've tasted, and if you've come to Him'! Back in the day, we called it 'playing church', and people still do it. And they can do it for a long time. But "the Lord knows those who are His."
Real help to live holy, not religious, comes from a real relationship with the Living Stone. Come to Him, and keep coming. He’ll build you into something you can never do yourself: to be someone who is pleasing to Him.
4. "To continue in the way of salvation".
1 Peter 1:8-9, 8"whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls."
Salvation is a lifelong journey, y'all. It is "the way of", not "the event of". And we, 'having not seen Him' yet we still know Him, and we have "tasted that the Lord is gracious', and we have the genuineness of our faith, being tested in the furnace, not once or twice, but many times, bringing glory to Him.
We haven't seen Him, not the way Peter did. And yet we know Him, we've experienced Him, in the oven and out of it. And we believe Him, we trust Him, we follow Him. We are saved, we are being saved, and on that great Day, we will be saved!
5. "Continually mortifying all their evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living."
1 Peter 2:24, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”
The whole of the New Testament teaches the believer’s life as a continual dying and rising—the mortification of sin and the resurrection of righteousness.
The Great Commission discipleship calls us to take up our cross daily, and also to rise up daily; to not forget "the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him (Hebrews 12:5).
So that we bear in our own lives both the marks of the cross and the power of the resurrection. Without the marks, there can be no power.
Do you bear the marks, friend?
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