Christianity's Great Omission

There is a magnificent old hymn titled “Stand up, stand up for Jesus.” People did that. Time was, you would see unfazed, tomato-and-egg-spattered preachers on street corners telling Bible truth like it is. They carried out the Great Commission of Mark 16:15. They weren’t popular – truth rarely is.

Nowadays we have the Great Omission, because one has to look hard to find a Christian with the courage to go public with the gospel. Thank God for the few who still carry out the original Commission.

Generally, it’s a case of “sit down, sit down for Jesus.” So much time is spent sitting in comfort. The blight has crept into almost every assembly. Widespread, inward-looking lethargy has turned the church into a giant easy-chair.

Jesus says those who don’t believe are condemned, (John 3:18). John Doe on Main St has to hear before he can believe, but many believers don’t seem to have read Mark 16:15. They keep sitting down - in the church, in conferences, seminars. They are noisy - singing, shouting, jumping, but at the exits the believers become quiet as a library patron. The public has probably forgotten Jesus exists. Is it Christianity or Chickianity?

Lord, take my life, my all, I surrender all” is sung in church, but risk-taking public action doesn’t accompany the gusto. In a free democracy, few will spend an hour to give out tracts or door-knock, lest some nasty person yell at them. The status quo is as far from the Book of Acts as LA is from Mars.

Jesus’ concern for the unsaved has not registered with many church leaders. The faithful are not urged to venture outside the assembly, but to sit and wait for unbelievers to come in. Jesus said the opposite to the disciples. He said “go.” (Mark 16:15). Yet there is little interest in training and equipping the flock to go onto Main St with the Great Commission.

Awareness of what Jesus says is surely at an all-time low. It is because so few are proclaiming the gospel except from the safety of a church or a television studio: even then, many listeners are already believers.

In the meantime, demon-spirited violence, lewdness and witchcraft fill the TV channels. Politically, minority groups push ungodly agendas, lobby unceasingly, and by noise and zeal get laws changed to suit themselves.

It is sad. Christians have all the necessary backing by God (as written in the Bible) to undertake the Great Commission. This writer knows it by personal experience. Yet the average Christian soldier cleans and polishes his spiritual weapons in “the barracks” but never goes out to use them.

Through it all, Jesus remains as powerful as He always was, but His followers are timid.

The Bible says put on the armour of faith as in Ephesians 6. “Stand” is a vital word there. The Apostle Paul says “…and having done all, to stand.” People who will stand are desperately needed today. It is the Great Omission.

Jesus is surely saying to Christians now (as He did then): “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). Again, thank God for the obedient few, but for the rest – wake up! Stand up, stand up for Jesus!