By Art Sphar

We recently attended a special service where the speaker was Dr. Mike Sweeney, president of Emmanuel School of Religion, the seminary I attended. Sweeney is an interesting speaker, having spent much of his career as a Bible translator in Papua, New Guinea, before he became a professor of world mission at Emmanuel. In his message, Sweeney said he believes the Bible is not primarily a book on church history, or doctrine, or Christology, or even theology, but rather it is primarily a book on the mission of the church. How we understand the Bible, and how we interpret the Bible, depends a lot on what kind of a book we understand the Bible to be.

Sweeney made a compelling argument and I must say I certainly agree with him. Consider Jesus’ own words, for example: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15). Jesus made his mission very clear in this passage. He was to get people to believe in him in order that they might have eternal life. The next two verses make this mission even more clear: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The mission God gave his one and only Son was to get people to believe in him.

Later, because Jesus had had the audacity to heal a man who had been an invalid for 38 years, on a Sabbath, the leaders of the church began to persecute him. Jesus said to them, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). The conflict was between tradition and mission and, in Jesus’ eyes, mission trumped tradition.

What about us? If we are to be Jesus’ disciples, we need to be growing more like him. The definition for the word “disciple” is “one who follows.” Sometimes we hear the phrase “Christ followers,” and this is truly what disciples are. Jesus was clear about what his mission was and he was committed to fulfilling that mission. As Jesus’ disciples, shouldn’t we be equally clear about what our mission is today and equally committed to carrying it out? With his help, we can.