Are you called to be a global Christian? Think not? Keep reading, as I’d like to suggest that you are called.
God through Christ wants everyone on the globe to experience his blessings. What blessing? Jesus wants to experience the blessing of abundant life. Jesus himself said he came to bring abundant life, full life, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit the grows the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. As Paul will write to his ministry partner, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2:4, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God loves all. He wants all to experience his love.
Similarly Peter would write, in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
It is this belief, this mission that has fueled Christians to make disciples of all people, all nations, all ethnicities. It continues to motivate us to this day.
It is why we say along with Paul who wrote in Philippians 3:20, that we are citizens of heaven. Jesus is our King, and thus we distance ourselves from nationalism. Jesus is our King, and we pledge allegiance to him.
We make disciples of all nations.
We need other nations to disciple us.
We support the work of missionaries and sister churches around the globe.
We pray, we give, we go.
We support the work of eradicating injustice wherever it is found.
That’s why I believe the idea of a missionary call is something we Christians need to abandon. We are all already called. God, as we have seen in this week’s posts, has called us to participate in the mission of his Kingdom. How and where we participate is up to us. Don’t think you need to wait for God to reach out to you like you wait for someone to call you on the phone. You’ve been called, which I hope has been abundantly clear in this week’s posts.
If you love God and follow his heart and his ways, then love for others will flow from your heart and into your actions. Scripture and the example and teaching of Jesus repeatedly affirm that his disciples are people who love all other people. We even love our enemies, Jesus taught. In previous posts in the Relationships series, we talked about how difficult it can be to love others, including those close to us, let alone our enemies. So as we grow in our relationship with God, we will grow a heart of love for the world.
That begs the question, if we aren’t waiting on some special missionary call from God, and we are all called to love the world, does that mean everyone should travel overseas? We’ll talk about that in the next post.
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