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TL;DR:
God’s people have always been called to be a light to the Gentiles. That means we are to take the gospel to all ethnic groups. This theme, rooted in Isaiah and echoed by Simeon, Jesus, and Paul, reinforces that the church's mission is global, not just local. In Acts 13:47, Paul quotes Isaiah to justify preaching Christ to Gentiles far from Israel, insisting that God's command to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth applies to all believers.
Both the Old and New Testaments speak of God's people being a light to the Gentiles. Isaiah used that phrase twice (Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6). Those same words appear near the beginning of the New Testament when Mary and Joseph presented the infant Jesus at the Temple. There, a righteous and devout man named Simeon took the Messiah in his arms. Moved by the Holy Spirit, he echoed Isaiah's description of salvation as "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:28-32).
About fifty years later, Paul was on his first missionary journey, hundreds of miles northwest of Judea. In Pisidian Antioch, he and Barnabas said Isaiah's light to the Gentiles phrase was why they were preaching about the Jewish Messiah to a Gentile audience far from Jerusalem. As Paul and Barnabas quoted Isaiah's light to the Gentiles, they said, "The Lord commanded us."
To be sure, today, we almost never use the word "Gentile" in everyday speech. So, would that mean light to the Gentiles has almost no relevance to us today? Hardly. To first-century Jews, "Gentiles" meant every other ethnic group on the planet.
The "go" in Jesus' Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) exhorts us to take the light to today's Gentiles—those who have yet to see the light. Will we do it? Will we be light to all the peoples of the world?
Do Paul's words in Acts 13:47 also include us somehow?
"The door is open to all the outsiders. And we're on our way through it, following orders, doing what God commanded when he said, 'I've set you up as light to all nations. You'll proclaim salvation to the four winds and seven seas!'
— Acts 13:46b-47, The Message
Once in a while, someone reflecting on Jesus' admonition to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19-20) has concluded that Jesus' command applies only to those who were face-to-face with Jesus at the time He gave it. That, for instance, is what some early leaders of the Reformation believed.
Early Christian traditions indicate that several of the twelve original apostles left their homeland to proclaim the gospel elsewhere. Andrew is traditionally associated with ministry in Greece, James the Younger with Egypt, Jude with Persia, Matthew with Ethiopia, and Thomas with India. The tradition connecting Thomas with India has received especially serious historical consideration.
Was such first-century missionary activity by the original apostles all that Jesus intended in His Great Commission? It was not, if Acts 13:47 is understood as applying the prophetic commission to God's people beyond the original apostles. Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 rather than repeat Matthew 28:19-20 word for word. Nevertheless, Acts 13:47 contains the "ends of the earth" language Jesus used in Acts 1:8 and conveys the worldwide scope expressed by "all nations" in Matthew 28:19-20.
Paul spoke the words of Acts 13:47 while preaching in Pisidian Antioch on his first missionary journey. He was addressing a large and diverse audience that included many Gentiles. Not one of the original twelve apostles was present.
When Paul says "the Lord has commanded us," the immediate reference is to Paul and Barnabas. Nevertheless, their use of Isaiah's words suggests that God's people are called to participate in making His salvation known. This broader understanding accords with Paul's statement that all who belong to Christ are Abraham's children (Galatians 3:7, 29).
In the early twentieth century, Greek scholar A. T. Robertson wrote a now-classic verse-by-verse look at the New Testament. That six-volume work was titled Word Pictures in the New Testament. In his comments on Acts 13:47, Robertson reminded his readers that centuries had passed since Luke penned that verse. He further commented that if we calculate from the time of Isaiah's original writing, even more centuries have gone by. Robertson then noted that, at the time he was writing, more than half of the world's population still had not heard the gospel.
"God's people," Robertson concluded, "are slow in carrying out God's plans for salvation."
Sadly, Robertson's observation remains relevant. We have clear marching orders, yet we are still dilly-dallying.
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
These blog posts on a world missions Bible passage are two of more than three dozen articles in the "Heart of God" series published in Engage magazine. That series looks at what the Bible says about world missions.
G - Godless and unclean, unworthy of grace
E - Enemies of the covenant, outside the covenant community
N - Not chosen, despised, distant, and lost
T - Tainted by idols, their souls counted as dross
I - Ignorant of Torah, blind to the Way
L - Lawless transgressors, led far astray
E - Excluded from Israel, doomed to decay
Like acrostics? Here are more of them.
Here are several ways translators have rendered the language of Isaiah 49:6 quoted in Acts 13:47.
Paul's quotation from Isaiah in Acts 13:47 captures the essence of Christian missions. That verse proclaims the universal scope of salvation made possible through Jesus Christ. As believers, we are called to shine the light of Christ in a world often filled with darkness. We must share the message of salvation with all people, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, or geographic background. We must overcome every obstacle and pass through every barrier that keeps us from bringing the gospel to people.
Memorable Quotes About Other Bible Verses