What Does the Great Commission Really Say About Being a Disciple?
Matthew 28:18–20 may be one of the most familiar passages in Christianity: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”
It is commonly called the Great Commission, and understandably so. Jesus sends his followers into the world to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them. But this passage can also become something it was never intended to be: a formula for determining who is—and who is not—a legitimate Christian.
A common discipleship study uses Matthew 28:18–20 to ask a progression of questions:
Are you a biblical disciple?
If not, what do you need to do to become a disciple?
Is becoming a disciple what you want to do?
The conclusion then follows:
Someone ready to be a disciple is ready to be baptized.
That progression can feel completely logical. But once again, we need to watch what the questions are doing. And this time, we should start by doing something remarkably simple.
Back up two verses.
What Happens When We Start at Verse 16?
Matthew 28:18 doesn't begin a new story.
Verse 16 does: “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.” These are already Jesus' disciples. They have traveled with him, listened to him, they've listened to him teach. They've watched him heal. They've seen his conflicts with religious authorities. They've eaten with him. They've misunderstood him. They've abandoned him. They've experienced the trauma of his crucifixion. And now they encounter the resurrected Jesus. Then Matthew gives us an extraordinary detail: “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”
Some doubted.
Then Jesus gives them the Great Commission. That detail should stop us in our tracks.
The Great Commission Was Given to Disciples Who Still Had Doubts
Think about what Matthew could have written. He could have told us that the disciples finally understood everything. He could have said their faith was now complete. He could have presented eleven completely confident, fully formed believers receiving their final instructions. He doesn't.
Instead:
They worshiped—and some doubted.
And Jesus commissions them anyway. That doesn't make doubt the goal of discipleship. But it certainly complicates the idea that doubt disqualifies someone from being a disciple. These aren't people standing outside discipleship trying to qualify for entrance.
Matthew explicitly calls them disciples before mentioning their doubt. That matters. Doubt can be part of the journey. Questions can be part of the journey. Confusion can be part of the journey. The disciples themselves demonstrate that repeatedly throughout the Gospels. Jesus doesn't wait until every question disappears before including them in what comes next.
This Is What Happens When We Read Only Three Verses
This passage provides an excellent example of the danger of studying Scripture as isolated verses. If we begin at Matthew 28:18, we hear:
Go.
Make disciples.
Baptize.
Teach.
Those can easily become steps. But when we begin at verse 16, we encounter something different.
We encounter people. People with a history. People who have followed Jesus imperfectly. People who have failed. People who worship. People who doubt and people who forgot that they are part of the story. And Jesus tells those people: The story isn't over. You're part of what happens next.
That doesn't eliminate the commands Jesus gives them. It gives those commands a story.
And What Happens If We Back Up Even Farther?
The problem becomes even more obvious when Matthew 28:18–20 is treated as though it were an independent definition of discipleship. Matthew has spent twenty-eight chapters showing us discipleship. We have watched people encounter Jesus follow him, listen to him, question him, misunderstand him, learn from him, fail him, try again with him, argue with him and become afraid of him.
They also experience moments of remarkable faith experience moments of remarkable confusion. Peter can recognize Jesus as Messiah and shortly afterward completely misunderstand what that means. The disciples can hear Jesus teach about humility and then argue about greatness. They can promise loyalty and then run away. Matthew doesn't give us a dictionary definition of a disciple at the end of the book.
He gives us a story about disciples.
And that story matters when we reach its conclusion.
Pattern #1: “Make Disciples” Becomes a Definition of a Christian
The first question is: “Are you a biblical disciple?”
That sounds like a perfectly reasonable question. But what does biblical disciple mean? Matthew 28 doesn't use that phrase. More importantly, Jesus isn't using this passage to give the eleven a test for determining whether they qualify as disciples. Matthew has already identified them: “Then the eleven disciples…”
The passage is a commission given to disciples, not a checklist given for determining whether someone qualifies as one. That's an important distinction.
Pattern #2: The Question Creates Two Categories
Once someone is asked: “Are you a biblical disciple?” the question quietly establishes two possible categories:
biblical disciple and not a biblical disciple.
But those categories have to be defined somewhere. If “biblical disciple” means someone who has followed the particular sequence established by the study, then the question becomes circular.
What is a biblical disciple? Someone who follows this process.
Did you follow this process?
No.
Then you're not a biblical disciple.
The conclusion was embedded in the definition. That's why definitions matter so much.
Pattern #3: Description Becomes Qualification
Then comes: “If not, what do you need to do to become a disciple?”
Notice what has happened. The previous question established the possibility that your existing Christianity doesn't qualify. Now the next question asks what you must do to correct it. We have moved from:
Jesus commissions his disciples to: Are you actually a disciple? to: If you're not, here's what you need to do to become one.
But Matthew 28 never makes that move. The study does. That doesn't automatically mean every conclusion is wrong. It means we should be able to distinguish what Jesus said from what our system has constructed from what Jesus said.
Pattern #4: “Make Disciples” Becomes an Entry Process
Jesus says: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” Then he speaks of: baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. These things unquestionably belong to Christian discipleship. But notice something important about the final phrase: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
How long does that take? A conversation? A week? A study series? Or a lifetime? Jesus' description itself suggests movement and formation. People aren't simply certified as disciples after understanding a collection of requirements. They are being taught how to live within the way of Jesus. That sounds remarkably like a journey.
Pattern #5: The Questions Progress Toward a Decision
Now look at all three questions together:
Are you a biblical disciple?
↓
If not, what do you need to do to become a disciple?
↓
Is becoming a disciple what you want to do?
Then:
Someone ready to be a disciple is ready to be baptized.
This is important because the questions aren't functioning independently.
They create a progression:
Define → Evaluate → Disqualify if necessary → Prescribe → Obtain commitment → Move toward baptism
Once you see the pattern, the purpose of the questions becomes clearer. The passage has moved from being something we're investigating to something being used to move the person toward a decision. Again, wanting someone to follow Jesus or be baptized isn't the problem. The question is whether Matthew 28:18–20 actually establishes this particular process.
Watch What the Questions Are Doing
This is perhaps one of the clearest examples of why questions themselves deserve examination. Consider where we started: Jesus speaks to eleven disciples, some of whom doubt, and commissions them to carry his mission into the world. Now consider where the questions take us:
Are YOU really a disciple? If not, what must YOU do to become one? Are YOU willing to do that? Then YOU should prepare to be baptized.
Those aren't the questions Matthew asks. They are questions asked of Matthew for a particular purpose. That's an important Bible-reading distinction. Sometimes we aren't simply discovering answers from Scripture. Sometimes we bring a system to Scripture and use carefully arranged questions to reconstruct that system from selected verses. The easiest way to notice when that might be happening is often remarkably simple:
Read more. Read the paragraph. Read the chapter. Read what came before. Eventually, read the whole book.
Disciple May Be Better Understood as a Journey Signal
Christian churches have spent enormous energy trying to define exactly when someone becomes a disciple. Perhaps we've sometimes missed what the word is signaling. A disciple is fundamentally a learner, follower, apprentice. Those are movement words. They describe direction, a relationship, a formation and someone going somewhere with others. That's why discipleship can be understood as a journey signal. It tells us something about the direction of a person's life: I am following Jesus.
That doesn't mean the journey doesn't have beginnings or important markers. Baptism is profoundly important in the New Testament. Commitment matters. Obedience matters. Transformation matters. But none of those require us to turn discipleship into a status awarded after someone completes the correct sequence. Look at the people standing on that mountain. They are disciples and the still learning. They're disciples and some still doubt. They're disciples and Jesus is still telling them what comes next.
Doubt Isn't the Opposite of Discipleship
Matthew's inclusion of doubt may be one of the most beautiful details in the entire passage. Some worshiped. Some doubted. Perhaps some did both. Matthew doesn't explain it away. Neither should we. Doubt can sometimes be exactly what happens when an old understanding of God collides with something we haven't yet learned how to comprehend. These disciples have just watched their Messiah die. Now he's standing in front of them alive. Of course some of them are struggling to process what they're seeing. Doubt isn't necessarily rebellion. Sometimes doubt means: “I don't know what to do with this yet.” And Jesus' response isn't: Come back when you've resolved that. He gives them a mission.
The Great Commission Is Bigger Than a Conversion Formula
Matthew 28:18–20 certainly matters for evangelism. It matters for baptism, teaching, mission and discipleship. But perhaps its greatest significance isn't that it gives us a formula for deciding who qualifies as a Christian. It's the culmination of Matthew's entire story. Jesus has been given all authority. The mission that began in Israel is expanding to all nations. His disciples—imperfect, recovering, worshiping, doubting disciples—are being sent to continue what he began. And Jesus ends not with a test, but with a promise: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
That's easy to miss when we reduce the Great Commission to:
Go → disciple → baptize → teach.
The Gospel ends with presence. The same Jesus these disciples have imperfectly followed throughout Matthew promises to remain with them as the journey continues.
A Better Set of Questions
Instead of beginning with: “Are you a biblical disciple?”
we might begin with:
Why does Matthew tell us that some of the disciples doubted?
What have these eleven experienced during the previous twenty-eight chapters?
What does “make disciples” mean after watching Jesus make disciples throughout the entire Gospel?
Why does Jesus connect discipleship with ongoing teaching?
Why does Matthew end the Gospel with Jesus promising his presence?
And only after wrestling with those questions should we turn toward ourselves:
What would it mean for me to continue learning, following, and participating in the way of Jesus?
That's a very different question from: “Do I qualify as a biblical disciple?”
One asks us to prove our status. The other invites us further into the journey.