Welcome a person whose faith is weak, but not with the idea of arguing over his scruples. One man believes that he may eat anything, another man without this strong conviction, is a vegetarian. The meat-eater should not despise the vegetarian, nor should the vegetarian condemn the meat-eater – they should reflect that God has accepted them both. After all, who are you to criticize the servant of somebody else, especially when that somebody else is God? It is to his own master that he gives, or fails to give, satisfactory service. And don’t doubt that satisfaction, for God is well able to transform people into servants who are satisfactory. (Romans 14:1-4 Phillips)
After I sought a personal relationship with Jesus, a preacher told me I would go to hell if I wasn’t baptized by immersion.* I passed that information on to others. (I’m sorry God and everyone I said that to.) With increased Bible study I believe water baptism is performed out of love for God but baptism by the Holy Spirit is essential.** If you disagree with me, please don’t leave; we can still encourage one another.
Christian core belief is Jesus dying on the cross — a sacrifice for our sins and His resurrection into heaven. Beyond that our beliefs may differ, but God wants all Christians to be one body in Christ. Here, Paul uses the example of meat-eaters and vegetarians, but we could change those examples to infant baptism and believer baptism. Then, Paul would be saying to welcome a person into your church whether or not he or she believes in infant or believer baptism. God accepts Christians with both viewpoints to serve Him, and so should you. Don’t befriend a person to change his or her viewpoint (scruples); if God doesn’t like our way of thinking or our actions, He is perfectly capable to change us Himself.
*Mark 16:16a “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”**1 Corinthians 12:13a: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body.
Great advice. Everyone is on different roads to get to the same place. We should be respectful of each other’s beliefs even if it doesn’t match up with our own, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone. Everyone’s personal relationship with God is special and unique.
Thanks for responding, Jen. I would so much love to go to a church that baptizes infants and baptizes believers and one that holds services on every day of the week — a church that emphasizes God’s love and Christians coming together and is dedicated to helping and loving others in the community.