A Command for The Workplace
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
By: John Dillon
A few years back, our church had a large campaign for overseas missions. The goal was to encourage church members to get engaged with one of our strategic missions partners and to consider participating in one of several planned mission trips for the year. The campaign even had its own, very simple logo: GO. It was a nod to the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:19-20). The logo elicit a desire to mobilize out into the world to share the Gospel with people groups who haven’t had the chance to hear it.
The campaign was great, it encouraged people to go on mission trips and to learn more about the global mission of the church. Most importantly, it highlighted the last instruction that Jesus gave to the Apostles (and subsequently, to us) before ascending to Heaven. It is a command that we all should know and seek to fulfill as our purpose for time on earth.
However, I think there is more to the Great Commission than just going out on mission trips. In fact, I am willing to go as far as to say that the command “GO” is not actually the most important part of the Great Commission. What then is the central point of the Great Commission? I believe the answer is found in the way Jesus structured His Command, and more specifically, the grammar that is used.
Grammar? I know this sounds boring, but bare with me for bit and I think we may see the Great Commission through a slightly different lens. I see four main commands that Jesus gives the Apostles, designated by four different verbs. The four verbs are as follows: Go; Make Disciples; Baptize; Teach. Now which of these four words stands out? In English it’s not as clear. An argument could be made that active sentences put the main point up front, and thus “Go” is actually the central point of the sentence, but that could very easily be debated and argued against.
However, the Great Commission was not given in English, it was given in Greek. Now let’s take a look at these four verbs again, this time looking at the specific Greek words:Go (πορευθέντες); Make Disciples (μαθητεύσατε); Baptize (βαπτίζοντες); Teach (διδάσκοντες). Did you see it? The key is in the endings of each verb; let’s look again: Go (πορευθέντες); Make Disciples (μαθητεύσατε); Baptize (βαπτίζοντες); Teach (διδάσκοντες). Now which verb is not like the rest?
Make Disciples (μαθητεύσατε) has a different ending than the other three verbs. That is because this verb is formed differently; namely it is in the imperative mood. Going Deeper with New Testament Greek, a popular Greek Grammar book, states “the basic concept of the imperative mood is that it expresses a command.”[1] Well that make sense…but if the other three verbs are not imperative commands, then what are they?
They are participles… what on earth is a participle you ask? You are not the only one asking that question. Participles are a very difficult, and very peculiar part of the Greek language. That is because they can be used in many different ways (which is a whole textbook in and of itself). For the sake of not going too deep down a rabbit hole here, I will skip to the end and suggest that the three remaining verbs are participles that function adverbially (i.e. modifying a verb). Our Greek Grammar book chimes in again here saying, “When a participle functions adverbially (i.e. modifying a verb), it is grammatically subordinate or dependent on the main verb of the sentence or clause. Typically, the main verb will be in the indicative, imperative, or subjunctive mood. Adverbial participles often indicate the means, manner, or results of the action of the main verb” (emphasis mine)[2].
So what’s my point here? I believe that using an imperative for “Make Disciples” and participles for “Go,” “Baptize,” and “Teach,” is intentional. It is trying to communicate something. Steve Runge says,
If a writer chose to use a participle to describe an action, he has at the same time chosen not to use an indicative or other finite verb form. This implies that there is some meaning associated with this decision. Representing the action using a participle communicates something that using a different mood would not have communicated.[3]
I believe Jesus chose to use an imperative for “Make Disciples” to highlight the main point of His Great Commission; that we are to continue making disciples, like He made disciples. The use of adverbial participles for “Go”, “Baptize” and “Teach” is to give us further instruction as to HOW to make disciples. They still are commands, but are a supporting cast to the main verb, “make disciples.”
Now for the main point of this article, can we make disciples in the workplace? This is a loaded question of course because the answer is a resounding YES. Jesus did not specify a specific place to make disciples, he just said “Go.” In fact, as a participle it would be grammatically correct to translate the word “Go”(πορευθέντες) as “as you go,” or “while you go” (one of those nuances of participles we don’t have time to cover… but I promise it would be grammatically acceptable). So while we are going at work, we can make disciples (and for a global company like ours, that can be of many nations). We can teach others the things Jesus taught through our words and our actions. As others take an interest in what we have to say, or how we act, we can encourage them to get plugged into a local church body (i.e. baptize). And we can know that even though culture tells us to leave our faith at the door, and that talking about Jesus at work is “inappropriate,” Jesus tells us that He is with us through it all. Thinking of our time at work as time on the mission field, we can live out the Great Commission in the workplace, for the glory of God.
Closing this out, I will say that I am not a native Greek speaker. I have a basic education in the language but am in no way an expert. However, based on the grammar used in the Great Commission, I like to think that the different forms of verbs used would have stuck out to native Greek speakers of Jesus’s day, providing an emphasis that we miss in the English. As such, I would like to try bring some of that Emphasis to the English Translation as a tool that we can use when we think of the Great Commission:
“Therefore, [as you] go, make disciples of all the nations [by] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [and] teaching themto observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
[1] Andreas J. Kostenberger, Benjamin L. Merkte, and Robert L. Plummer, Going Deeper With New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament ( Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2020), 210.
[2] IBID., 321.
3] Steven E. Runge, Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2010), 6.