The Church

by KERR, J. | Category: Names That Need To Be Known | Jun 2006

In the introductory article of this series the writer briefly drew readers’ attention to the ‘varying uses of the word ‘church’ ...’. He emphasised the difference between the terms ‘the church which is the body of Christ’ and ‘church of God’, then added that many believers saw no difference. Presumably, he was referring to the fact that many thought these were interchangeable terms used to describe the same persons. One of the main thrusts of this article will be to show that differences do exist and to discuss which persons are in these churches. We will then develop the thought, also expressed in the first article of the series, that these different terms ‘contain separate treasures and we will look for the special values God intended us to see in each’. Finally, to help us practically in our Christian lives, we will consider the behaviour expected of those who bear these precious names which link believers to both the Saviour and God Himself. However, before doing so, we must establish the root meaning of the word ‘church’.

Of all the scriptural terms being considered, probably the most common one is ‘the church’. In fact, in its common English usage it is regularly used to identify the place of Christian worship, whereas in the Scriptures it is always used to describe the people who are gathered together: it is never used to describe a building or meeting place. Most Bible students know that the word ‘church’ is made up from two words in Greek which are ‘ek’ and ‘klesis’. This quote explains the Greek in more detail; ‘ekklesia NT:1577, from ek, ‘out of’ and klesis, ‘a calling’ (kaleo, ‘to call’), was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens ‘gathered’ to discuss the affairs of state, Acts 19:39 ... It has two applications to companies of Christians, (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, ‘I will build My Church’ Mat.16:18, and which is further described as ‘The Church which is His Body’, Eph.1:22,23;5:23, (b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat.18:17, RV marg., ‘congregation’), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Acts 20:28; 1 Cor.1:2; Gal.1:13; 1 Thes.1:1; 2 Thes.1:1; 1 Tim.3:5, and in the plural, with reference to churches in a district.’(1) While this definition is helpful for defining the meaning of the word ‘church’ we need to study its use in more detail to understand who, exactly, are being described. Now, at least as far as the Bible is concerned, we can state that any church is a group of people called out and subsequently gathered together. This is fundamental to our understanding of its varied use.

As we study the use of the word we will think of three things in any particular usage, (a) who are the people described by the word, (b) what are they called out from, and (c) what are they gathered to? Let us now look at one use of the word ‘church’ that takes us back to the Old Testament.

Acts 7:38 is an interesting scripture for us to begin with. This ‘church in the wilderness’, KJV (or ‘congregation’ as some versions including the NKJV translate ‘ekklesia’ here) is a very clear reference to the Israelites who composed the camp of God in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership. These persons were called out (v.36), received living oracles (v.38) and had a divine service in the tabernacle (v.44). Who were they? They were the redeemed of the Lord.(2) Where had they been called from? Out of Egypt (a type of ‘the world’). For what purpose were they gathered together? To be God’s own special people, a treasure He could call His own.(3) This was accomplished through the Passover lamb,(4) baptism(5) and their constitution as God’s people on the basis of obedience,(6) with a divine form of government.(7) As a result they were to be separated from all others.(8)

The word ‘church’ in the majority of uses in the New Testament refers to what we have already mentioned: that which is called ‘The Church the Body of Christ’ and the ‘Church of God’; the latter usually in a given location, e.g. Corinth. Other uses are ‘the churches of God’,(9) obviously referring to more than one Church of God and ‘the church of the living God’(10) linked with the term ‘God’s House’, describing the Churches of God in aggregate. Since the first two terms are the most numerous in the New Testament, and possibly the ones most misunderstood, we will restrict our comments to these.

Although there are many similarities between the Church the Body and a church of God (for example each reflect the same characteristics and the same persons can be in both at the one time) we will see that these are two separate entities. The fact that they are different will be shown shortly, but an illustration is a good starting point. To explain the difference, consider two separate entities, say we call them the London Police Force and the London Police Force Football Team. Each has a different constitution, different rules, and exists for a different purpose. Nevertheless they have similarities and, like the churches under consideration, some people can be in both at the same time. I should imagine one similarity would be that the standard of behaviour in each is expected to reflect the integrity and honourable conduct imposed by the Chief Commissioner of Police. We might say that the football team, although existing for a different purpose from that of the force is very closely associated with it. Any person can be in the force subject to qualifying for entry; however a person cannot be in the football team unless he or she is in the police force. All in the force are not in the football team; there are qualifications for that as well, namely a commitment to football which is not necessarily of interest to all police personnel.

If we now look at what the Scriptures have to say about the two churches referred to, it will become clear how the illustration helps. Like all illustrations it falls short in that not all in the force are expected to be in the football team, whereas most certainly all in the Church the Body are expected to be in a church of God during their lifetime.

Several characteristics of these two churches are shown by Scripture to mark them out as different entities, but, for brevity, we will confine ourselves to one topic, namely that a person can be in one and not in the other. Surely that would be enough to show they were different. Although most believers in the New Testament churches were in both, some were not(11) - just like the police force and its football team. Who then are in the Church, the Body of Christ? The answer is those who are Christ’s: believers in the Lord Jesus who have accepted Him as their personal Saviour; no other condition is required.(12) They have been ‘called out’ and separated from the unregenerate and gathered together into a spiritual union with Christ.(13) The objective: to be Christ’s mystical bride which will one day be presented complete and perfect to Himself.(14) Once in this eternal union with Christ it is impossible to lose that position,(15) even if after salvation we progress no further in spiritual things and indeed fall back into disobedience and unbelief.

The description above of the Body of Christ is accepted almost universally among believers. However, when we come to consider what the Scriptures teach about a church of God, there are different opinions. So who were in a church of God? Saved people certainly, but saved people who had been baptised and added to churches of God.(16) This was in obedience to Christ’s teaching as communicated to the apostles by the Lord Jesus during the forty days He appeared to them, teaching ‘the things pertaining to the kingdom of God’ (Acts 1:3). This forms the pattern of the first church of God. Those in that Church at Jerusalem were called out and separated, but from whom? Well, the fact that a saved man was put out of the Church of God in Corinth for sinful conduct,(17) because he was disobedient to the apostles’ teaching, shows that those in that church were called out and separated, among other things, from disobedient believers. This not only applied to moral disobedience, but also doctrinal.(18) Those put away from a church of God were still in the Church the Body. So what were those in Churches of God gathered together to? They were gathered together to obedience and subjection to the Lordship of Christ.(19)

Some believe that 1 Corinthians 1:2 shows that all believers everywhere who call upon Jesus’ name, are in a church of God because they are in the Body of Christ and that a church of God is simply an aspect of it. We must, however, take into account the steps by which a person enters a church of God, namely through conversion, baptism and addition, then maintains that position. Believers outside the churches in New Testament times were surely not included in Paul’s uncompromising description, ‘all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours’. These latter were persons who owned the Lordship of Christ and were continuing in other churches of God in fellowship with each other(20) so that the letters to the churches could be passed around.(21) Why should it be any different today?

In 1 Corinthians 12:27 (another verse often misunderstood) the Church of God in Corinth was not ‘the’ Body of Christ but ‘body of Christ’. This puts an entirely different meaning on the verse. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary says ‘The body of Christ (lit., body of Christ; there is no definite article) does not refer to the local church at Corinth, for there are not many bodies, a thought contrary to the context. Rather, it points to the quality of the whole, which each of them individually helps to constitute’.(22) In the same chapter, verses 28-31 refer to gifts given to the Body, the divine plan being that these were manifested in churches of God, which were the visible representation of the Church the Body.

Let us finish by considering the wonderful privileges we have as a result of being called by these names. The Church the Body of Christ compares a spiritual reality with the working of the human body. Christ the Head, we the members, interdependent on each other under the ‘headship’ of Christ. Coming now to the Church of God, it is such an honour to be ‘tagged’ with God’s name, to carry it in testimony and be known publicly with the appellation ‘of God’. What responsibilities we have by being identified with God and Christ in these names!

(Bible quotations are from the NKJV)

1)Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers. (2)Ex.15:13 (3)Deut.7:6-7 (4)Ex.12:21-23 (5)1 Cor.10:2 (6)Ex.24:7 (7)Ex.24:12 (8)Ex.33:16 (9)1 Thes.2:14 (10)1 Tim.3:15 (11)1Cor.5:13 (12)1 Cor.12:13, Eph.2:16 (13)1 Cor.12:13 (14)Eph.5:27 (15)John 10:28 (16)Acts 2:41-42 (17)1 Cor.5:13 (18)2 Tim.2:18 (19)Col.2:6 (20)1 Cor.1:9 (21)Acts 15:23 (22)The Wycliffe Bible Commentary. Copyright(c)1962 by Moody Press (23)Col.1:9-10

KERR, J. | Jun 2006
Names That Need To Be Known