What is the church?

When we hear the word "church," we often picture a building with a steeple, a place we go on Sunday. But in the Bible the church is never a building. The Greek word translated "church" is ekklesia, which means a people called out and gathered together. The church is people, the company of all who belong to Jesus Christ. It is not somewhere you go; it is something you become when you are joined to Him. Jesus spoke of it first as His own possession and His own project: "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The church is His, He is the one who builds it, and nothing in heaven or earth can finally overthrow it.

The most tender picture Scripture gives us is that the church is the body of Christ. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (1 Corinthians 12:27). Just as a body has many parts, each with its own work, so the church is made of many people with different gifts, "and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body" (1 Corinthians 12:12). No one is unnecessary, and no one stands alone. Over this body Christ Himself presides: "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18). The church is not held together by shared opinions or a common culture but by union with the living Lord who is its head, its life, and its goal.

Scripture piles up images to help us grasp this wonder. The church is a household, where former strangers become family: "ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19). It is a temple, built upon "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone," in whom "all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:20-21). It is a priesthood: "ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Peter 2:5). And it is a bride, for "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). Family, temple, priesthood, bride, body, each picture says the same thing: the church exists because Christ loved us, gathered us, and bound us to Himself and to one another.

This is why, from the very beginning, the church has been a gathered, visible people and not merely a private feeling in the heart. When the Spirit came at Pentecost, the first believers did not scatter; they devoted themselves together. "They continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). They learned, ate, prayed, and shared their lives, "and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). The church is meant to meet. The writer of Hebrews urges us not to be "forsaking the assembling of ourselves together... but exhorting one another" (Hebrews 10:25). We were not made to follow Jesus in isolation. We need the encouragement, correction, and love that come only when we belong to a real community of believers.

The church is also wonderfully wide. It reaches across every barrier the world erects: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Rich and poor, every nation and language, the educated and the unschooled, all are made one in Him. And this one people has work to do. Christ gives leaders and teachers "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12), so that the whole body, "speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things" (Ephesians 4:15). The church is meant to grow, to mature, to serve, and to shine, being "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

So what is the church? It is the people God has called out of darkness and gathered to His Son. It is a family you are born into, a body you are joined to, a temple you are built into, a people loved with the love that took Jesus to the cross. If you belong to Christ, you do not merely attend the church, you are the church, together with every other believer. And the great promise stands over all of it: the One who began this work will finish it, presenting His people at last "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle... but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27). To follow Jesus is to find your place among His people, to love them as He has loved you, and to be known by that love before a watching world: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).