I have recently been editing the section of our Introduction to Faith seminar dealing with the biblical evidences for church membership. More than a year ago I preached on the topic at Faith but, since I am reviewing this section of the seminar notes, I thought I would share the section. (I have no idea why there are nine and not ten; it just worked out that way!)

1. The apostles counted people. Paul had no problem recommending Timothy to keep a list of people in his congregation at Ephesus, telling him to make a list of widows over the age of 60 (1 Timothy 5.9ff.) This tells us that list-making in the church was not unheard of. And we should add that God Himself initiates this pattern of list-making by keeping a “book of life (Revelation 3.5; 13.8; 17.8; 20.12, 15; 21.27).” Paul hopes that the visible church conforms to this “book (Philippians 4.3.).”

2. The math of the Great Commission. The disciples are instructed by Jesus to “make disciples” by baptizing them as well as “teaching them to observe” His commandments (Matthew 28.19-20). This takes place in the New Testament era as new converts devote themselves to the teaching of the church, to share life together, and witness other converts who are being “added to their number (See Acts 2.42-47.).” It seems like part of the Great Commission is that converts are gathered into numbered and organized congregations (see Acts 14.23).

3. Practical reasons to distinguish believers from nonbelievers. The practice of marriage requires delineation between believers and nonbelievers; believers should not marry nonbelievers (2 Corinthians 6.14). In fact, regarding divorce, it made a difference to Paul if you were married to a believer or a nonbeliever (1 Corinthians 7.15; 2 Corinthians 5.17). Parents should find it alarming if a potential son-in-law refuses to publicly join himself to other Christians; can he join himself to your daughter (see Wayne Mack and Dave Swavely, Life in the Father’s House)? The practice of the Lord’s Table also requires delineation. Even though it is possible to come to the meal in an “unworthy” manner, without “examination,” turning the meal into a meal of “judgment,” it is a meal ordained by Jesus for believers alone (1 Corinthians 11.27-29). Membership was a means by which the apostles could offer the Lord’s Table in a way that conforms to Jesus’ command.

4. Painful reasons to distinguish believers from nonbelievers. In the church at Corinth, sexual immorality was happening within the congregation (1 Corinthians 5.1).  Paul knows that believers will run into sexually immoral people, but he says not to associate with sexually immoral people who bear the name of brother; instead, he says, “purge [expel] this evil person from among you (1 Corinthians 5.9-13).” How they purge this individual? Should they place a guard at the door Sunday morning and keep him from coming in? No, for Paul says in the same letter that nonbelievers should be welcomed in church worship (1 Corinthians 14.22-25)! Naturally, if a person being disciplined “refuses to listen” and, as a result, they are to “be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18.17),” wouldn’t you continue to hope that many Gentiles and tax collectors would come to the worship service to hear the gospel! To purge an individual, but still allow him to come and worship, is to remove his name from the membership list and publicly acknowledge that, because he refuses to repent of his sexual immorality, he is no longer a member of the congregation. When he comes to the place to worship, as it is hoped, the congregation is encouraged to treat him as they would any nonbeliever.

5. Who is my elder? When Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica  to “respect” those who are “over” them as elders and to “esteem them very highly in love because of their work,” he is assuming that they know who their elders are. They are following not just any elder, but their own leaders (1 Thessalonians 5.12-13; see also Hebrews 13.7, 17).

6. Who is my flock? The Bible insists that nonbelievers are to be welcomed into a worship service, but how, then, is an elder to know who is a part of the flock and who is not? Paul says that an elder who does not know how to manage his own household surely cannot “care for God’s church (1 Timothy 3.5).” In the ancient world (like today), the members of one’s household, blood-relatives or not, would be understood. When Paul tells the elders at Ephesus to “pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit made you overseers,” he is assuming that these elders know who are a part of their flock (Acts 20.28). Paul assumed that there was a membership list of some sort that reflected the identity of the flock.

7. Glued together. Ananias and Sapphira, members of the Jerusalem church, brought a deceptive offering to the congregation; the vocabulary of the phrase, “kept back for himself some of the proceeds (Acts 5.2),” is connected to the deception of Achan in Joshua 7. Both died on the spot. The immediate witnesses were sufficiently humbled so that, while they apparently believed the teaching of the apostles and had many commendable things to say about the congregation, they were not ready to join with them (Acts 5.13). The word for join is to glue to or cement to. While they professed faith, they were not ready to be glued to the local church, which only makes sense if the Jerusalem church practiced church membership.

8. Who is my brother and sister? There are numerous admonitions addressed specifically to believers regarding how to behave towards other believers, for example, to “bear with one another” and forgive one another (see Colossians 3.13). And there are admonitions with regard to behavior towards those who are not believers (see 1 Corinthians 5.9-13). Membership is a way that helps believers distinguish between the two, even though both are there on a Sunday morning. But not just this, the maturity of the entire body of believers depends upon individual parts making strong joints that hold the body together so that it grows up “into Him who is the Head,” in love (Ephesians 4.15-16). By God’s grace and according to His plan, it is the sure recognition of who we are as believers in the church that provides a picture of what it looks like to grow and mature into the likeness of the church’s Head, Jesus Christ.

9. Room for error. Church membership is a public commitment to the only organization founded by Jesus to last for all time. Yet some are only pretending. One need only consider Judas Iscariot, or Hymenaeus and Philetus (1 Timothy 1.20 and 2 Timothy 2.17-18), or Demas (2 Timothy 4.10; see also Philemon 24 and Colossians 4.14) to see examples of individuals who were, for a time, members of the visible church, but never the invisible church. John says that there were some who “went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us (1 John 2.19).” Membership in our era, as in the New Testament era, does not always agree with God’s “book of life.”