“Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer” (Luke 21:14).
The NASV puts it this way, “Make up your minds.” One of life’s great frustrations for many people is that they cannot make a decision. They cannot come to a conclusion. They find themselves caught between forces that seem to pull them one way and then the other. If something new or novel comes along, they are carried with it.
Jesus knew His disciples would face some pretty serious opposition. It would not be easy for them. But He would have them know that they would not have to worry about what they were going to say. He says, For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist (Luke 21:15). They would have the word of the Lord on that matter and that should settle it. They would thus have no reason to doubt what He said, nor should they doubt their passion when problems arose.
Shouldn’t we be able to do the same thing? Shouldn’t we be able to come to the same kinds of conclusions? We have the Word of the Lord, and we should be able to “make up our minds.”
WE CAN MAKE UP OUR MINDS ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE LORD’S BODY
We live in a world filled with people, many that have been taught that membership in the Church is not necessary. But the Lord has had some things to say about that topic. This ought to help us make up our minds.
In his conversation with Nicodemus, you will find him saying, “you must be born again” (John 3:7). I don’t think many folks will deny the necessity to being born again. After all, we have the word of the Lord on the matter. But have we thought of this in connection with membership in the Church? There is a definite relationship. Go back to verse 5 of this chapter, and you will see that Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
So, from the word of the Lord, we would conclude that one must be born again. We are also sure that one would have to be born of water and of the Spirit. But we are also sure that when one was born of water and of the Spirit, he would be in the kingdom of God. He would be a subject in the kingdom, a child in the family, and a member in the body of the Lord (Eph. 1:22-23). In short, he would be in the Church. He would have no choice about that part, not any more than a child would have in becoming part of a family into which he was born.
A man would not have much trouble making up his mind about this sort of a proposition. He would have the word of the Lord to help him and that would settle the matter once and for all.
Yes, we can make up our minds about becoming a member of the Lord’s body and identifying with a local congregation (church).
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