Who Should be a Church Member?

 Excepted from God's Design for the Church by Conrad Mbewe

Just as it was so important for a clan or tribe to ensure that only those who qualify to be inheritors should be considered for the inheritance, it is even more important for the church. The church is the household of God - 1Timothy 3:15 It is wrong to have in church membership individuals who are not children of God.

Nonbelievers cannot be Church Members. 

According to Ephesians 2:1-3 we can get at least five truths from this passage:

1. They are spiritually dead. 
2. They are enslaved by the world.
3. They are enslaved by the devil.
4. They are enslaved by their sinful nature.
5. They are under the wrath of God.

Only Believers Should be Church Members

Church leaders should jealously guard the door into membership into the local church. Only those who have received the Gospel and have been baptised are to be added to the church - Acts 2:37-41
There are at least two basic tests: 

1. They should understand and respond to the gospel message. 
   No one becomes a Christian and still thinks that God accepts them on the basis of their own moral and religious efforts
2. They should testify of a morally changed life
   They should be repentant. It is God who morally and spiritually changes their hearts. 
   1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - Is there evidence of changed life in you? Has God washed you, sanctified you and justified you in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ? 

There are a lot of people who have a mental knowledge of the gospel because they have heard it over and over again but who are never experienced in a moral transformation. They know the truth intellectually, but they betray what they know by the wicked lives they live.  Most of them conclude that the sermons calling for sinners to repent are for those who are visiting the church and not those already who are church members. They continue to live in sin, and the church gets more and more corrupted and scandalized.

 

The Hyena Among the Cattle

 

Doeg the Edomite Character 

The Hyena Among the Cattle 

Throughout East Africa among the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana traditions the hyena is portrayed as: 

A scavenger who lurks on the edges 

Waiting for weakness or opportunity 

Striking not to defend, but to exploit 

Attacking vulnerable livestock when the shepherd is away 

In I Samuel 21 and 22 the name of one Doeg the Edomite is mentioned. King Saul purported that there was a conspiracy against him (1Samuel 22:13).  And as a consequence, he murdered the priests (1 Samuel 22:16-23). 

Even the King in the making – David lamented (1 Samuel 22:22) “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul.” Doeg is a Snitch looking for favors and recognition even if others will be hurt!!! The type of person who tramples on others on his way up! 

Back to our African analogy, Doeg is like a hyena watching quietly at the edge of the herd. He sees an opening—not to protect, but to take advantage—and his attack causes the death of many innocent animals. 

Doeg lingered at Nob “detained by the LORD” (1 Sam 21:7), watching silently, waiting for the moment to pounce. “7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was (I)Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.” 

They used to say that “walls have ears” – who is in your surrounding who could be a Doeg in your life and that of the fellowship of brethren.  

Meditate on Proverbs 6:12-19.