The Great Suggestion

Three years ago, in an article entitled “Abandoned Babies Die in Jeddah Streets,” Arab News reported nearly twenty babies—the majority, younger than ten months—deserted within a two month span in this Saudi Arabian city. Several were found dead, and many were rushed to local hospitals where they died soon after.

When an atrocity of this nature comes to public attention, no one would begin to deny the cruelty—even brutality—of such a crime. Certainly this kind of negligence moves beyond selfishness to either insanity or wickedness. There is no person of sound mind that would expect an infant to have the ability to care for himself. For an infant, the result of desertion is death.

It is common knowledge that caring for a child is both exacting and essential; indeed, it takes a great amount of time an effort to prepare an individual—from infancy—for adulthood. However, it seems that this concept somehow does not translate into the spiritual mindset.

The Church seems very eager to create converts, yet quite deficient when it comes to bringing up young believers in the faith. When a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord—becomes born again—spiritually, that person is an infant, a newborn. The spiritual concept is no different from the physical. Helping a young believer grow will take a great amount of resources, time, and effort. That believer will fall, that believer will frustrate; but without discipleship, that believer will fail.

When the Church chooses to evangelize and fails to disciple, the newborns, which the Church itself chose to aid in birth, are abandoned to “fend for themselves.” In other words, they are left to die. Christians are called to “go and make disciples . . . teaching them to obey” everything Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19). It is no coincidence that this has come to be called “The Great Commission”; yet, somewhere along the way, believers have diluted it to nothing more than a suggestion.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a disciple is one who “embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another” or “an active adherent, as of a movement or philosophy.” While such a definition may first cause a Christian to evaluate himself, it should also open eyes to the intensity of the calling of Christ—a calling that is directed not only to the pastors and church leaders, but to everyone.

How many times has one heard, sang, taught, preached that there is “no greater calling” than to be a disciple of Christ? Conversely, how many “followers” choose the concepts and responsibilities to which they will adhere? Instead, let us live lives “worthy of the calling [we] have received” (Ephesians 4:1), allowing “the God of peace . . . [to] equip [us] with everything good for doing his will . . . [and] work in us what is pleasing to him” (Hebrews 13:20-21), as we take the Lord at his word, individually agree with everything he has said, and stop leaving the children we have birthed to raise themselves.