A Grammar Thought

I will apologize up front if I get this grammar thing incorrect. It was passed on to me by someone much smarter than I, especially when it comes to grammar. At text study today we were looking at the Gospel for this Sunday, which happens to be the Great Commission. It was pointed out that when you look at the Greek, "Go and make disciples" has a transitive verb. What means is that it is deeply connected with the subject. In this case the subject is God, and we are but the objects. So, in a sense, it's more of "Go and find people that God is already working on." It's really about what God is doing, not what we are doing.... I know, I didn't explain it quite as well as I wish I could have, but I still think it's a really cool thought.

Another, kind of fun thought, I got from text study is related to our first reading for Sunday, the story of creation. In the story we hear God command a couple of different times, "Go forth and multiply." We always assume it to mean go and make babies. However, what if we looked at it as a command for evangelism? If that's the case we might apply it to Byron by noting that there about 4,000 people who live in Byron now. There are not 4,000 people in worship on Sunday mornings. Consequently, you might argue that our "job" then is to be fruitful, to bear the fruit of the Spirit, so that the number of people in Byron who hear the Good News of Jesus proclaimed would multiply. A fun new way to look at an old story.