We shouldn't be so quick to accept folks into the fellowship without any verification of salvation; just because they show an interest in church attendance (they may be legalistic) is no guarantee of spirituality. Before extending the right hand of fellowship one ought to be proven in his testimony and gone through the right channels, for the wolf tries to get in by some other door. There will always be those who refuse to follow the rules and make up their own because they are anti-establishment or turned off to organized religion.
But the Spirit should bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. In other words, there must be fruit to be faith, (no fruit--no faith, period). Just because someone claims to be Christian is not the right way to accept him. Some believers and there are unsaved believers too, actually think a Christian is someone who goes to church or inherits his faith from his forefathers. "My dad was a Baptist, my grandpa was a Baptist, and therefore, I am a Baptist." Too many are born into the church family and don't ever reckon a time of wandering or prodigality.
The issue facing Jude was that heretics had crept in unawares and they went unnoticed and influenced the flock. There is usually a lot of investigation that goes on before one is accepted as a deacon, but a new member ought to give his testimony and witness before men to show that he is unashamed to own his Lord. Jesus always called people publicly and there are no secret, Lone Ranger believers or lone wolves.
The true believer fits in and finds his niche in the body and feels right at home, not a stranger amongst God's children and Christ's family known as the organism called the church or called out ones (ekklesia in Greek)--he is in his own skin because he's family! Still, no matter how much we test the spirit of the believer or seeker, there will be mistakes and the devil may still plant his seed in the church to uproot the faithful.
There are churches that don't vet their members and welcome all in the name of charity and universal brotherhood. If you attend, you're a member here, they say. They don't think it's our business to pry into personal lives, but the church is meant to be the body of believers, not a social club or event--it's an organism of the faithful and it's purpose is to further the growth of the body of Christ, to the work of ministry (i.e., fulfilling the Great Commission). There are some churches so lax and undisciplined that the true body of Christ has become barely visible and is restrained in the process. We are to receive seekers into the church service and to reach out to them evangelically and to bring them into the fold and help them find their way.
The sermon ought to have an evangelical message and element to appeal to the lost, which is inherent so that they can respond to the gospel message--no response is a "no" response or rejection. True preaching challenges and jerks people out of their comfort zones, it is known for making seekers feel uneasy and uncomfortable. We are to "comfort" God's people, as Isaiah 40:1 says, but the unbeliever needs to be awakened from the death of his spiritual slumber.
We are to be friendly and cordial in greeting them, but remember that the church is not a home for the unsaved and sin is not welcome there, it's a hospital for those sick with sin and in need of the Great Physician Himself in the person of Christ, the divine Healer. Christ didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and this means people that think they're all right to have nothing to gain from the gospel message because they don't realize they're lost--you have to get them lost first before saving them!
I'm not saying we must get "pedigreed" believers or someone cannot be accepted if not vouched for by known Christians, but no one gets in automatically to God's church, it's a turnstile and we all enter through our own faith, not our parents, or whosoever it may be. Whole families can be saved, but we are not to vet them all on the virtue of one influential member who has pull or rank. In God's family and in His economy there is "no respecter of persons" and God "shows no partiality," and neither should we. We treat one and all the same, for there is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ, neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ and on equal ground without rank or caste system (cf. Gal. 3:28). Soli Deo Gloria!
But the Spirit should bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. In other words, there must be fruit to be faith, (no fruit--no faith, period). Just because someone claims to be Christian is not the right way to accept him. Some believers and there are unsaved believers too, actually think a Christian is someone who goes to church or inherits his faith from his forefathers. "My dad was a Baptist, my grandpa was a Baptist, and therefore, I am a Baptist." Too many are born into the church family and don't ever reckon a time of wandering or prodigality.
The issue facing Jude was that heretics had crept in unawares and they went unnoticed and influenced the flock. There is usually a lot of investigation that goes on before one is accepted as a deacon, but a new member ought to give his testimony and witness before men to show that he is unashamed to own his Lord. Jesus always called people publicly and there are no secret, Lone Ranger believers or lone wolves.
The true believer fits in and finds his niche in the body and feels right at home, not a stranger amongst God's children and Christ's family known as the organism called the church or called out ones (ekklesia in Greek)--he is in his own skin because he's family! Still, no matter how much we test the spirit of the believer or seeker, there will be mistakes and the devil may still plant his seed in the church to uproot the faithful.
There are churches that don't vet their members and welcome all in the name of charity and universal brotherhood. If you attend, you're a member here, they say. They don't think it's our business to pry into personal lives, but the church is meant to be the body of believers, not a social club or event--it's an organism of the faithful and it's purpose is to further the growth of the body of Christ, to the work of ministry (i.e., fulfilling the Great Commission). There are some churches so lax and undisciplined that the true body of Christ has become barely visible and is restrained in the process. We are to receive seekers into the church service and to reach out to them evangelically and to bring them into the fold and help them find their way.
The sermon ought to have an evangelical message and element to appeal to the lost, which is inherent so that they can respond to the gospel message--no response is a "no" response or rejection. True preaching challenges and jerks people out of their comfort zones, it is known for making seekers feel uneasy and uncomfortable. We are to "comfort" God's people, as Isaiah 40:1 says, but the unbeliever needs to be awakened from the death of his spiritual slumber.
We are to be friendly and cordial in greeting them, but remember that the church is not a home for the unsaved and sin is not welcome there, it's a hospital for those sick with sin and in need of the Great Physician Himself in the person of Christ, the divine Healer. Christ didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and this means people that think they're all right to have nothing to gain from the gospel message because they don't realize they're lost--you have to get them lost first before saving them!
I'm not saying we must get "pedigreed" believers or someone cannot be accepted if not vouched for by known Christians, but no one gets in automatically to God's church, it's a turnstile and we all enter through our own faith, not our parents, or whosoever it may be. Whole families can be saved, but we are not to vet them all on the virtue of one influential member who has pull or rank. In God's family and in His economy there is "no respecter of persons" and God "shows no partiality," and neither should we. We treat one and all the same, for there is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ, neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ and on equal ground without rank or caste system (cf. Gal. 3:28). Soli Deo Gloria!