This gospel of the kingdom. The good news of the coming of Messiah's kingdom—what we call in short, "the gospel"—"that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). He calls it "this" (Matthew 26:13), because it is that which he preached, which it was the object of his incarnation to set forth.
In all the world ( ἐν ὁ ìλῃ τῇ οἰκουμε ìνῃ, in all the inhabited earth). Before the taking of Jerusalem, the gospel had been carried into all parts of the then known world. We have very uncertain information about the labours of most of the apostles, but if we may judge of their extent from what we know of St.
Paul's, we should say that very few quarters of the Roman world were left unvisited. "Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the inhabited world" (Romans 10:18). St.
Paul testifies that the gospel was preached to every kingdom under heaven (Colossians 1:6, Colossians 1:23). He himself carried it to Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Illyricum, Rome, Spain (see Romans 15:19, Romans 15:24, Romans 15:28; Galatians 1:17; Philippians 1:13, etc.
). A witness unto all [the] nations. That both Jews and Gentiles might have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting Christ. The witness should be for or against them according to the use made of this opportunity.
If the gospel thus delivered contained this utterance of our Lord's, the fulfilment of the predictions would lead to belief in him, and could fail to win acceptance only by reason of invincible prejudice or wilful perversity.
Shortly, the truth is that the gospel will be everywhere offered, but not everywhere received. And then, when all these signs, especially the one last named, shall have appeared, shall the end come, primarily of Jerusalem, secondarily of this world or this age.
Nothing is said of the effect of missionary efforts in early days or in time to come. We know that there was no national conversion in the primitive era, however common individual conversion may have been.
So in the present age we are not to expect more than that Christian missions shall reach the uttermost parts of the earth, and that all nations shall have the offer of salvation, before the final appearance of Christ.
The success of these efforts at universal evangelization is a mournful problem. "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith upon the earth?" (Luke 18:8).