Why didn the early church talk about the issue of membership?
Probably because they didn’t have to. There were at least three reasons. First of all, in Jerusalem, there was only one church. If you were a Christian, you were part of that church. There was no question as to whether you were a member of this church or that church. Secondly, in Acts 5:13, Luke writes that “no one else dared join” the early church after the Ananias and Sapphira incident. The people saw that when this couple lied, they died. They saw that being part of the church was serious business. Because people would not join the church unless they were serious, there was no need to have a process to determine the sincerity of a person’s commitment. Thirdly, there was a cost involved in just identifying oneself as a Christian. Christianity was considered a cult, and when people joined a church, it often meant that they were being cut off from their families, their communities, and even persecuted for their faith. Because the mere acts of joining a church and declaring one’s faith
