There was a time when I was once five feet seven inches. The advancing years have exacted a toll on my frame, but once--at my peak--I commanded 67 inches of altitude. I wasn’t tall, but every inch was important to me. I resented anyone who would short me an inch, and I suspect the Great Commission of Matthew’s gospel feels the same way.
Matthew’s gospel ends with a stirring call to action from the Lord Jesus. The passage has been popular among Evangelicals for more than a century, but over the years--in our hurry to get to the words of Christ in red--we have chopped a couple of inches from the stature of this great passage. We have ignored the two verses that set the stage; verses 16 and 17. They provide the setting for the Lord’s missional statement. Seriously, who reads these verses? As it turns out, you will, today:
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