During Jesus' ministry on earth, there were times when He specifically told some of those whom He had healed and saved not to be a witness for Him. Many believe that He did this because He had not yet been crucified, but that cannot be the reason because in Mark 1:40-45 Jesus commanded a leper whom He had healed to go through certain Jewish ceremonies as a witness for Him. Also, in Mark 5:19, Jesus commanded the former maniac of Gadara , whom He had healed and saved, to go home and tell his friends about Jesus' compassion for him. Therefore, each individual believer should conclude that he or she must be a witness in the manner in which they are instructed by the Holy Spirit, which is Christ within them. Part of having faith is to believe that God always has a good reason for everything He does, even when the believer does not know what He is doing or why.
Since salvation is a free gift from God and requires no good works, but faith only, to receive it; then God may require no witness at all from some believers except that they get baptized into a local church, receive communion, and lead a clean moral life. On the other hand, God may instruct some believers to be evangelists who preach to great crowds. Others fill some position between these two extremes. In any case, believers who fail to obey their instructions from the Holy Spirit cannot be Christians in the strictest sense, and they will receive no rewards in heaven, but they can never lose salvation because God never rescinds His grace. Here read Philippians 1:6.
Jesus' command which is called the "great commission" was given to the church as a whole, and not to individual Christians except as they fit into the local church. In the Apostles' epistles, the Holy Spirit provided the details for how the "great commission" should be carried out. In I Corinthians 12, Romans 12:3-8, and Ephesians 4:16 the Apostle Paul taught that the church operates as a team effort, with each individual Christian doing his or her part as gifted by the Holy Spirit. Paul also taught that the small roles are just as important to God as are the big ones. In the sight of God, all Christians are equal in value. The janitor in the local church who faithfully does his or her work is just as important to God as is the greatest evangelist. God rewards His servants according to their faithfulness, and not according to their rank in the church. Nowhere in any of the epistles does the Holy Spirit instruct any of the Apostles to teach that every Christian should witness to everyone they meet. Individual Christians should live joyfully as guided by the Holy Spirit; free from unnecessary guilt.
When America was fighting for its life and freedom in WWII, President Roosevelt gave a speech where he commanded our military and all of our people to pull together to win the war. He did not mean that every American should go to the front lines and fight. Had America taken it that way, America would have lost the war. Somebody had to manufacture the ammunition, tanks and planes. Somebody had to grow the food that the free world needed. Somebody had to drive the trucks and use the typewriters. America had to pull together in a team effort in order to win the war.
When Jesus, our great commander, gave His command: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature;" He meant it as a general command to the church as a whole with every Christian doing his or her part. He did not mean that every Christian should attempt to fight on the front lines as a missionary or evangelist. Some Christians have been called to pray. Some have been called to teach. Some have been called to clean the church. Every Christian who faithfully does his or her part in their local church as gifted by the Holy Spirit will be rewarded for carrying out the "great commission." Jesus left it to the Holy Spirit to flesh out the details in the epistles as to how the local church should carry out the "great commission."
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