Mark: There's no point in trying to argue on what the "true" meaning of the text is. Christians feel that they are commanded to do something, and so they do.

One of my former grad students was Mormon, and they have what I understand to be a similarly strong requirement to "spread the word." He never, ever brought up his faith unless you asked him about it.

I find all of this fascinating in contrast with the Jewish notions of conversion, which vary by denomination, but generally work to discourage conversion. If anything, there's notably more internal evangelism toward "secular" Jews than external evangelism to the rest of the world.

(Snide thought: if you think of religions as "memes", then memes that require their followers to spread them are going to be that much more successful.)