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DISCIPLESHIP AND MISSION: A PERSPECTIVE ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Author(s) -
Jacob Emmanuel M.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international review of mission
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.118
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1758-6631
pISSN - 0020-8582
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-6631.2002.tb00332.x
Subject(s) - missiology , gospel , christianity , charisma , evangelism , tutor , perspective (graphical) , citation , theology , theological seminary , sociology , religious studies , philosophy , media studies , classics , history , library science , art , computer science , visual arts , pedagogy
If someone had asked me 25 years ago what the relevance of the message of Matthew was to Christian mission in my own context I would have pointed directly to Matthew 25:31-46, and not to Matthew 28:19-20. This is because 25 years ago I was living in apartheid South Africa, my home country, where the contrast between rich and poor, and the powerful and powerless, was a stark and challenging reality. The question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” needed an appropriate, credible and relevant answer, and the need to identify the gospel and to live it in the face of a “different gospel” called for discernment, courage, and faithfulness. For South Africans the text which summed up the gospel in a way that made a real difference was, “For as much as you do it unto the least of these ...y ou do it to me.”