Vince: 2 Commissions

Commission: “To send out with a charge”

There are two distinct commissions or mandates in the Bible which we must be careful not to confuse. The first is the cultural or creation commission or mandate when God charged Adam and Eve to populate, nurture, subdue, and rule over creations.

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:28)

The Great Commission is the missionary mandate where Jesus charged the Apostles to disciple the nations as they were going, baptizing, and teaching.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19)

Both commissions are from the same source: God, who commanded them for the blessing of mankind. Both commissions are charges to go and multiply.

The cultural commission is distinct from the missionary commission. The main mandate of the missionary commission is the proclamation of the gospel, and the central goal is the extension of God’s kingdom through the establishing of churches.

Missionary church planting is not in opposition to works of mercy (ie. cultural mandate), but there is an order of priority. The ministry of evangelism ordinarily precedes and produces ministries of mercy.

God has not called us [in the missionary mandate] to go into all the world and improve agriculture, relieve medical distress or build schools. He has called us to go and plant [disciple-making] churches, which in turn become centers of improved agriculture, health and education. Educational, relief and medical work must take their place behind church planting in order of priority… We must never again allow social action to usurp the place of evangelistic ministry. Ambivalence here spawned the social gospel of a previous generation... Let’s remove all ambivalence by looking carefully at what Jesus declared in the Great Commission.”

The church is sent with one central co-mission with Christ—to make disciples of all nations. Keeping this priority of the gospel mandate is key to blessing the nations in the fulfillment of the cultural mandate.