Who We Are – One Requirement Part 1

This is the second article in our Who We Are series. Read the first part here. 

One Requirement 

Today, I want to talk about the one requirement we have of all the creators in the Heart Soul and Mind Community. Our one requirement is: 

All creators in the Community must be professing and practicing followers of Jesus. 

We simply say you must be professing and practicing. 

Now, this wouldn’t be a very good series if we didn’t go into more depth on each of these topics, however, with this topic particularly the details are very important. Let’s look at our requirement in more detail. 

Professing 

Firstly, professing. Professing means two things; you have made and are willing to make a public declaration that you are a follower of Jesus. Secondly, that you agree with the truths about God, and therefore Jesus, formulated in the Nicene‑Constantinopolitan Creed. 

Public Declaration 

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 

1 Timothy 6:12 ESV¹

In this verse, we see that Paul charges Timothy to hold fast to his faith, which he has declared publicly. Throughout the New Testament, we see the biblical writers encouraging Christians to publicly confess Jesus as Savior², and not to waver from that declaration³. The bible is very clear that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not based on anything that we can do⁴. 

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 

Matthew 10:37,38⁵

These words of Jesus are very blunt. What’s clear is that following Jesus is an all or nothing commitment. Everyone, and everyone’s life, is different, so your life following Jesus won’t look the same as others. But what see throughout the New Testament is that this lifelong commitment of discipleship should begin with a public declaration of your commitment to follow Jesus⁶. True faith in Jesus will make us unafraid to declare as Him as Lord of our lives to those around us. 

A Note on Baptism 

Most often, this public declaration is done though baptism. The purpose of this article is not to talk about baptism, we’ll have more on it in the future. For now, we’ll say this. At Heart Soul⁠⁠ &⁠⁠ Mind we do not believe that baptism is required for salvation, but we do understand its purpose in the New Testament as a symbol of being washed clean through Jesus’ death and resurrection⁷.

1. 1 Timothy 6:12 ↩︎
2. Romans 10:9,10 ↩︎
3. Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 10:23 ↩︎
4. Ephesians 2:8,9; John 3:16; John 14:6; Genesis 15:6 ↩︎
5. Matthew 10:37,38 ↩︎
6. Acts 2:41 ↩︎
7. Romans 6:4 ↩︎