A Part of the Club

During my undergraduate career, I was privileged to be a part of two different honors societies. These societies accepted people based on grades and had specific standards you had to uphold to retain membership. My senior year, I was the vice president of our school's chapter of Phi Theta Cappa. There was a separate set of requirements that I had to meet and standards I had to maintain for this office. I took an oath and everything.

None of this seemed strange to me. Almost any sort of club or group has rules about joining and maintaining membership. I haven't done any scientific research on this, but the general breakdown seems to be fairly straightforward. To join a club one must:

1. Share the interests of those in the club (whether it be a love of birdwatching, or a commitment to academic excellence)
2. Express interest in joining the club (how will they know to accept you if you don't make an effort?)
3. Usually pay some sort of dues (whether they be monetary or not)
4. Agree to abide by the rules of the club (come to the bi-weekly meetings, maintain a certain GPA, etc.)
5. Actually abide by these rules (once you've made an agreement, there can be consequences if you don't follow through)

Like I said, it's pretty straight forward. So here's my question: Why do we want to believe that there isn't a set of standards that allow people to be accepted into, and maintain a position in, the Lord's body (read universal church)? Now I wouldn't say that the universal church is a "club," per se, but it is certainly an organization with standards. So, it stands to reason that it would have the same sort of requirements of any other group. We like to deny these requirements in the name of "grace" and "acceptance," but organizations don't work that way. Could you imagine if a college didn't hold it's honors societies to some sort of academic standard... "It's okay. You had a good GPA at one point--that's what counts. We'll let you stay in this society even though you have a 1.0 now. No big deal."     That would be laughable. If there isn't a standard that is upheld, there's really no reason to set some people apart as a different group. Nothing defines them.

Let's look again at the standards for membership in a club as they apply to membership in the universal church. To be a member of the Lord's church one must:

1. Share the interests of those in the club (Christians must be of the same mind [Philippians 2:1-2]--reaching always toward Christ [Philippians 3:14-15])
2. Express interest in being a part of the body (this includes confessing Jesus as Lord [Romans 10:9], expressing love and desire to serve him [John 14:15], and turning away from a life of sin [Mark 1:15])
3. Be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (This constitutes paying "dues" only in that it is a requirement for salvation just as dues are a requirement for membership in some other type of group [Acts 2:37-38])
4. Follow the rules outlined in the bible/ abstain from sin (Jesus exhorts those he has healed or forgiven to "sin no more" [John 5:14] and Paul reiterates this exhortation in Romans 6:1-4) 

They may be rigorous standards, but they aren't complicated. They are the same sort of standards we see for any other club, and although we have God's grace to help us in our weakness, we should not be unwilling to live up to the standards he has set for those who want to be a part of Him. If we will comply with standards in other things, why wouldn't we comply with them for the Lord?