Look back over that event in your life, examine it in your mind, inquire about it carefully, inspect it closely, interrogate it thoroughly to find out whether or not it was done for God ‘d purpose, and whether, therefore, your baptism is right and acceptable in his sight.
Examine These Thoughts
Was I baptized for some personal motive? Was it to gain the hand, the heart, the approval and the acceptance of a companion? Did I do it to enhance my own personal affairs? Will it help me in some way in my business relationships, or my social reference to others? Or, when I was baptized years ago was I very young and impressionable, and did it upon the urging and insistence of my parents? Or, was it the popular thing to do because my peers were doing it? Was it that a gospel meeting was in progress and several of my friends though we should be baptized? Why was I baptized? Was it for the social reasons of being accepted into a group who fellowship I both desired and needed? This may not be a completely bad reason, but it is not good enough to serve as the Divine design of baptism. Did I do it to become identified with a particular religious group, or church?, When I was baptized, did I join the church? Were you taught that you were saved at the point of your faith and you wanted to be baptized because you were saved? Was that the reason? Did the preacher ask you: “do you believe that God for Christ’s sake has pardoned your sins, and wish to be baptized because your sins are already pardoned?” This question is asked and this doctrine is taught very widely throughout the religious world. Were you very young when it was-the moral and spiritual implications of it? You see, there may be a number of wrong reasons for being baptized.
Some Were Baptized Again
I read about some people who were baptized unto John’s baptism in the 19th chapter of Acts. They were not baptized for the right purpose. “And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5).