What if Jesus telling his disciples to "go into all the world" (Mark 16) and to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28) is not the "Great Commission" that we've made it to be? What if Jesus was really just talking to his disciples back then, about their world back then, which would have been the Roman Empire? If Jesus really was talking about gentiles when referring to "all nations", which is better translated as "all tribes", why did it take the disciples quite a few years before they started to warm up to the possibility of sharing the good news with gentiles? What if Jesus, in these "Great Commission" passages is really 'just' saying to his disciples: "Go and share the good news of the kingdom with our Jewish brothers and sisters before the end of the age is coming (the end of the old covenant, the destruction of the Temple together with the sacrificial system in AD.70)."?
What if the "Great Commission" that even is valid for us today is rather to be found in John 15:
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."?
What if Christians throughout history, in their effort to "go into all the world", have all too often neglected this most important call to LOVE?
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