The Great Compassion

In a post on July 6, 2011, I wrote about a new equation.  The basis of this equation is that a transformed life (T) is a result of following the Great Commandment (to love God and your neighbor) and then to practice the Great Commandment one must fulfill the Great Commission (go make disciples).  So the equation is T=GC²

I would like to add to the equation of T=GC².  It is another GC.  Paul Borthwick in his book Western Christians in Global Missions has another GC he calls the Great Compassion.  Matthew 25: 34-40 is the famous passage that Jesus tells us how to perform ministry.  It’s pretty simple really, we serve each other. (To refresh your memory, Matt. 25 is where Jesus tells the help we give the least of these, is serving Him.) 

So the math is simple.

First we must love God and our neighbor.  (If you wonder who your neighbor is, Jesus answered that with the telling of the Good Samaritan.)

Second if you love God and your neighbor then you are to obey the Great Commission.  So loving your neighbor is taking the Gospel to them and making disciples.

Third, we implement the Great Commission.  But how?  Isn’t the Great Commission just for teachers, missionaries and preachers?  And if the Great Commission is for the teachers, missionaries and preachers then the rest get to stop at step one?  No that is fuzzy math. 

 

Everyone who claims the Great Commandment is to do the Great Commission and the Great Compassion tells us how.  We disciple the world by giving.  Not just giving dollars but giving ourselves as Christ did.  We give to others through our service.  When we serve we transform.  So the new formula is a Transformed Life (T) equals all three Great C’s…T=GC³.

Equations

The most well known equation in the world is e=mc2. You may not even know what it means but odds are you have heard of it.

I propose a new equation for Christians. T=GC2.

Here is what this means. T= Transformation. GC2 = Great Commandment and the Great Commission. When the Great Commission and the Great Commandment are not separated but rather knit together as God intends, you will see transformation.

A few summers ago I was asked to come do some training at a Christian liberal arts university for their mission department. The issue was, “How do we get our study body to come to the annual Mission Conference?” Statements like these were made…
• “Students not called to missions do not feel the mission conference applies to them.”
• “Students in local ministry do not think the mission conference is for them.”
• “Many just don’t see the need for missions anymore.”
• Etc.

Several problems are reflected in these statements but this blog is not about people getting involved in cross-cultural missions. However the solution to these statements has the same base that we see in peoples need to give. Part of the problem begins in the compartmentalizing of the teachings of Christ. By compartmentalizing we have separated the teachings of the Great Commandment and the teachings of the Great Commission and made them separate when in truth the Great Commission is the natural outflow of the Great Commandment.

The Great Commission is not just about international missionary service. Rather it is about transforming people with the Gospel. So we learn through scripture that the Great Commission is asked of every believer. In other words, the Great Commission is for everyone following the Great Commandment. One big problem in students feeling that the mission week is not for them is because we have allowed the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to be separate, when in fact they should have never been separated.

So when you love the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, you will then go and make disciples. You will work with the Holy Spirit to see lives transformed.

Giving is a key part of both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Giving ourselves is at the heart of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. This gets much bigger than money. Loving God and loving our neighbor are not to be separated. Service and giving are all part of being obedience and obedience transforms. So T=GC2.