Emphasis Preaching Journal

The church has always regarded as members those who have been validly baptized with water in the name of the Trinity. It is because of this passage of scripture. This is the only command of Jesus to baptize to be found anywhere in the New Testament. Acts tells us the first disciples were baptized in the name of Jesus (2:28). But by the end of the century, the Trinitarian formula seems almost universal. To allow ourselves to be bogged down in the time and place and authenticity of this passage only muddies the intent of the Lectionary authors.