Daniel Wallace (Executive Director of CSNTM (The Center for the Study of NT Manuscripts) & Senior Research Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary) states that a common misunderstanding of the Great Commission goes like this: “In the Greek, the word translated ‘Go’ is really a participle and it literally means, ‘as you are going.’ But the words ‘make disciples’ are an imperative in Greek. That’s the only imperative in these two verses. Therefore, the Great Commission is not a command to go; rather, it is a command to make disciples as you are going, or make disciples along the way.”
It is true that there is one imperative (command) “make disciples” in Matthew 28-19-20, and three participles that tell how to fulfill the imperative:
By going with the Gospel (aorist participle)
By baptizing new converts (present participle)
By teaching them all that Jesus taught (present participle)
As for the Greek, it is true that the word translated ‘go’ is a participle. But it is not a present participle, which is the one that would be required if the meaning were ‘as you are going.’ It is an aorist participle, πορευθέντες (poreuthentes). As such, it hardly means ‘as you are going’ or ‘while you are going.’ The basic idea would be ‘after you have gone,’ and as such would presuppose that one would have gone forth before making disciples. But in collocation (placing words side by side) with certain kinds of verbs, this basic meaning is altered. When an aorist participle is followed by an aorist imperative in narrative literature, it almost invariably piggy-backs on the force of the imperative. That is, it is translated like an imperative because the author is trying to communicate a command.
Wallace gives these examples in the book of Matthew:
Here are all of the passages in Matthew of the aorist participle of poreuomai followed by an aorist imperative (each time the translation of the participle is italicized):
Matt 2.8: “Go and look carefully for the child.”
Matt 9.13: “Go and learn what this means.”
Matt 11.4: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.”
Matt 17.27: “Go to the lake and throw out a hook”
Matt 28.7: “Go quickly and tell his disciples”
Matt 28.19: “Go and make disciples”
Wallace concludes: However, you should also notice that the command to go is a necessary prerequisite for fulfilling the main injunction in the sentence. It cannot be dispensed with, but neither is it the main point.
This is why Greek uses the participle instead of two imperatives: the second imperative is almost invariably the main point, while the aorist participle is the necessary prerequisite.
For example, Peter could not throw a hook in the lake until he went to the lake (Matt 17.27);
The women could not tell Jesus’ disciples that he had been raised from the dead until they went (Matt 28.7).
How does this relate to the Great Commission? Essentially, it means that the apostles must go before they could make disciples
To make disciples, we must go with the gospel and win sinners to Christ, then we must baptize them, and immediately teach them all that Jesus taught.
The prerequisite for baptism is salvation and the immediate result of baptism is teaching the new convert. The Book of Acts is the early church obeying the Great Commission by winning sinners to Christ, baptizing them immediately, and teaching them doctrine. On the first day of the church’s existence, Peter preached and won 3000 sinners. Those new converts were immediately baptized, and Peter and the Apostle also taught them “the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:41-42).