The Mission Field in the Bible

The mission field, in biblical terms, is the vast world of people who have not yet heard or received the good news of Jesus Christ. Scripture portrays this field as ripe and waiting, a harvest of souls that belongs to God and into which He calls His people to labor. When Jesus looked upon the crowds, He saw their spiritual need with compassion and said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few" (Matthew 9:37). His response was not despair but prayer: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:38). The mission field is both near and far. Jesus told His followers, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest" (John 4:35), urging them to recognize the readiness of those around them. He later sent out seventy others, repeating that "the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest" (Luke 10:2). The same urgency that moved the early disciples should move the church today. The scope of the mission field is global. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). Before His ascension He promised power for the task: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The field stretches from our own neighborhoods to the most distant nations. Yet the harvest requires sent laborers. Paul asked, "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" and declared, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). Every believer is called to view the world through the eyes of Christ, to pray for laborers, to give, to go, and to recognize that the mission field begins wherever people do not yet know the Lord.