The Church

 It is no simple task to explain the church. But for brevity’s sake, I will differentiate between the ordinary sense of the word and the mystical.  

The Bible mostly speaks of the ordinary, practical, church. As we look through the New Testament, we see that the church is an organized assembly of believers. Jesus spoke of the church in the gospel of Matthew only. In one passage, He uses the mystical sense; in the other the practical sense. “…upon this rock I will build My church.” (Matt 16:18) and, “…if he refuses to hear them, go tell it to the church.” (Matt 18:17).

 We will deal with the practical, here-on-earth, meaning of the church first, because this seems to be the Biblical order. In Acts, the church is being founded and built upon:  “And the Lord added daily to the church those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47). Saul wreaks havoc against the church (Acts 8:3). Saul and Barnabas assemble with the church in Antioch (Acts 11:26). King Herod stretches out his hand to harass the church (Acts 12:1). The church prays for Peter (Acts 12:5). Paul and Barnabas appoint elders in the churches (Acts 14:23).  They return to Antioch and gather the church together (Acts 14:27).  “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily” (Acts 16:5). And so forth...

 Paul in his letters also affirms the practical nature of the church. “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea” (Romans 16:1). Paul gives his greetings to the church that is in Priscilla and Aquila’s house (Romans 16:5).  Paul speaks of Gaius not only being his host, but of the entire church (Romans 16:23).

 In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul develops several ideas concerning the nature of the believers’ unity, the gifts of the Spirit and the body of Christ.  But he continues to use the word “church” in its common, everyday, application. The following passage is revealing: “But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. (1 Corinthians 11:16-20).

It appears that the accepted, normal, meaning of the word church is “when you come together as a church… when you come together in one place.” This is not strange or mystical or terribly earth-shaking. It is wholesome, sound, doctrine. It is not until chapter 12 that Paul begins to make the tie between the body of Christ and the church itself. “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:27-28). This would indicate that Paul has made some serious attempt to communicate the nature of the body of Christ to the Corinthians in preceding material, and indeed, he has. The entire twelfth chapter is a shift from what we see with our eyes to the reality of the Lord’s body, the very issue with which the Corinthians are struggling.

 It is no wonder that Paul then wrote chapter 13. But we must remind ourselves that Paul has not launched some new understanding of the word “church.” He continues to use the word in a normal fashion even as he proceeds with his thoughts: “yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” (1 Corinthians 14:19) He is not here talking of some mystical union of believers, but a real-time sequence where members of the body of Christ are exercising their gifts on earth, in an assembly. Each church, in Paul’s mind, is a legitimate object or entity to be dealt with as a whole while recognizing the individual differences of gifts.

 True, we do not have Paul anymore.  Nor Peter, I might add. But we still have their apostolic authority as preserved by their writings.  And upon this rock I will build my church, we heard Jesus say. The church and the Bible are inseparable. Attempts by the devil to destroy that tie have been many and almost successful. He has even made false churches that outwardly accept the Bible, but actually discredit it by their teachings that essentially supersede the Holy Scriptures themselves. That is another story and a long one in church history, but we are here examining only the basic meaning of church.  In order to know the church, however, we admonish the reader to investigate what has been happening for the last two thousand years!

 Paul speaks with full apostolic authority when he writes,  “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.  Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.  And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached?  If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord”  (1 Corinthians 14:33-37).  Having shown the practicality of the apostle and his application of the word church in his writings, it should be no hard matter to convince the reader that in this passage Paul is quite serious and quite literal.  But unfortunately, that is not the case with most nowadays, and the concept of church has slidden off the platter onto the floor sometime during the evening.  Paul adds, possibly knowing this is the case, “if anyone ignores this, let him be ignorant” (1 Corinthians 14:38).

 About the only time Paul alludes to a church universal or as an entity besides the local church, is when he speaks of his persecution of the church (1 Corinthians 15:9, Galatians 1:13).  That is, until we get to Ephesians, in which he states simply, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).  We have a beautiful picture of this mystical sort of church given in Ephesians 5, wherein the marriage relationship is used to describe the Lord and his church. The equation between the church and the body of Christ is repeated in the book of Colossians (Colossians 1:18 and 24). Paul never loses sight of the practical meaning of church, as we see from Colossians 4:15, “…and the church that is in his house.” The writer of Hebrews is very eloquent as he shows how it is all related: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

 If we look at all the passages using the word “church” (or “churches”), we find that the majority of the cases use the word to mean a gathering of believers that can be located on any terrestrial map.  But we also see that there is another use for the word “church” that means the mystical body of Christ.  I use the word “mystical” only in the meaning of “spiritually significant” and not to mean in any sense obscure or occult ramblings of the demented.  If the word church is used to mean the body of Christ, it should be used carefully so.  The apostles did not usually use it thusly, but Paul reveals that the church understood a certain way is indeed the body of Christ.

 But we must never confuse the two. The local churches derive their authority and benefit only as they are members of the body (singular) of Christ. If a church deems itself as the mystical body of Christ, then it is no longer receiving fellowship of the spirit (or Spirit) but has removed itself from its place in the golden lampstand. It does not matter whether the influence of that church spreads throughout the world and if it commands the world’s leaders; it is not in fellowship with the true believers, but against them. It doesn’t matter if the church has only three members.  If it considers itself the true church, to the exclusion of the other brethren who are members of the body of Christ, then it is a sect and possibly a cult.

But we know that in the true body of Christ, there are to be no sects (divisions). Of course, there are divisions and we call them denominations. Many pastors and parishioners want to justify such sectarianism with psychological appeals to fleshly differences in mental functions of believers, but the Bible recognizes only differences of gifts. The local churches should recognize their unity in Christ and seek the benefit of the entire church and not their denomination. However, this usually involves one sect trying to get the others to come to an agreement with its beliefs.  Modern-day ecumenism under the banner of “love” is one such attempt at getting churches to buy into the heresy of universalism (the doctrine that all souls will eventually find salvation in the grace of God).

The church practical is not a pure, mystical, representation of the body of Christ. If it is an impure, carnal, representation of the body of Christ, then Jesus must be sending a mixed message. But we are confident that the churches are not representations but gatherings of true believers (and a few seekers because of God and a few heretics thrown in because of the devil). The world does not know us. They seek an organization to bring them into captivity, to destroy all the opponents. The church is not so, and neither should the local churches be. We know that nearly two thousand years have passed since the church had its beginnings. We should know that the church universal, the body of Christ, is mystical and unified throughout time and eternity. We should know that the church here on earth is an temporary extension of that eternal church, but not to be mistaken as the body of Christ. The churches are places that believers meet for exercising their gifts. If we can find believers so minded, we should come together regardless of our fleshly differences and seek to edify one another using our God-given talents.

 It is the end times, brethren. Many of the major churches (denominations) have fallen completely from the faith. The rest seem to be working on it. But the Lord knows those who are His, and let him who names the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

- Chris Simonson

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