Your first responsibility on earth is to preach the Gospel to those in your world; making disciples or students of those in your sphere of contact. That’s what Jesus meant when He said: “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” That word “nations” is the Greek “ethnos,” which refers to a group of people with common interest, characteristics, or vision. If you’re a student in school, for example, your fellow classmates are in your “ethnos”— that’s your world, where the Lord expects you to make “students” or pupils of God’s Word.
Making disciples of those in your “ethnos” means reaching out to them with the message of the Gospel; teaching them how to live by God’s Word: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). The Lord Jesus told a parable about the Kingdom of heaven saying, it “...is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).
What was more important to the man wasn’t the field but the treasure in the field. In the same way, God is more interested in the souls you can win to Him in your sphere of contact. The preaching of the Gospel is not optional but something we must all do. It’s not only for the evangelists or pastors. It’s for every Christian, including you. The reason you’re in that family, neighbourhood, classroom or on that summer job is because God wants you to turn those in darkness there to His marvellous light. He wants you to reach out to them with the message of eternal life.
Prayer
Dear Father, I thank you for demonstrating your trust in me by sending me to the world as your ambassador. I thank you for making me a minister of reconciliation; today, by the power of the Spirit, I’m faithful and effective in winning the lost in my world to you, turning them from darkness into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
