Reading: Church (ISBE Article)

The word "church," which is derived from κυριακός, kuriakós, "of or belonging to the Lord," represents in the English Versions of the Bible of the New Testament the Greek word ἐκκλησία, ekklēsı́a; Latin, ecclesia. It is with the signification of this word ekklēsia as it meets us in the New Testament, and with the nature of the society that the word is there used to describe, that the present article is concerned.

I. Pre-Christian History of the Term

Although ekklēsia soon became a distinctively Christian word, it has its pre-Christian history; and to those, whether Jews or Greeks, who first heard it applied to the Christian society it would come with suggestions of familiar things. Throughout the Greek world and right down to New Testament times (compare Acts 19:39), ekklēsia was the designation of the general assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state. They were "called out" (Greek ek, "out," and kaleı́n, "to call") by the herald for the discussion and decision of public business. The Septuagint translators, again, had used the word to render the Hebrew ḳāhāl, which in the Old Testament denotes the "congregation" or community of Israel, especially in its religious aspect as the people of God. In this Old Testament sense, we find ekklēsia employed by Stephen in the Book of Acts, where he describes Moses as "he that was in the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38). The word thus came into Christian history with associations alike for the Greek and the Jew. To the Greek, it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; to the Jew a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the Heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word had a direct bearing on its Christian meaning. For the ekklēsia of the New Testament is a "theocratic democracy" (Lindsay, Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries, 4), a society of those who are free, but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to their King.

II. Adoption by Jesus

According to Matthew 16:18, the name ekklēsia was first applied to the Christian society by Jesus Himself, the occasion being that of His benediction of Peter at Caesarea Philippi. It is true that Jesus had up to this time described the society He came to found as the "kingdom of God" or the "kingdom of heaven," a designation that had its roots in Old Testament teaching and which the Messianic expectations of Israel had already made familiar. But now when it was clear that He was to be rejected by the Jewish people (compare Matthew 16:21), and that His society must move on independent lines of its own, it was natural that He should employ a new name for this new body which He was about to create. So the "kingdom" terminology grew into the understanding of "ecclesia", that is the church. Thus, Jesus said to Peter, on the ground of the apostle's believing confession, "Upon this rock I will build my church." The adoption of this name, however, did not imply any abandonment of the ideas suggested by the conception of the kingdom.

III. Use in the New Testament

1. In the Gospels

Apart from the passage just referred to, the word ekklēsia occurs in the Gospels on one other occasion only in Matthew 18:17. Here it may be questioned whether our Lord is referring to the Christian church, or to Jewish congregations commonly known as synagogues. The latter view is more in keeping with the situation, but the promise immediately given to the disciples of power to bind and loose in Matthew 18:18 and the assurance "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20) are evidently meant for the people of Christ. If, as is probable, the ekklesia of Matthew 18:17 is the Christian ekklesia of which Christ had already spoken to Peter, the words show that He conceived of the church as a society possessing powers of self-government, in which questions of discipline were to be decided by the collective judgment of the members.

2. In Acts

In Acts, the ekklēsia has come to be the general designation for the society of Christian believers but is employed in two distinct senses. First, in a local sense, to denote the body of Christians in a particular place or district, as in Jerusalem (Acts 5:11; Acts 8:1), in Antioch (Acts 13:1; Acts 15:22), or in Caesarea (Acts 18:22) - a usage which reappears in the Apocalypse in the letters to the seven churches. Then in a wider and what may be called a universal sense, to denote the total of existing local churches (Acts 9:31), which form one body.

3. In the Pauline Epistles

In the Pauline Epistles both of these usages are frequent. Thus, the apostle writes to "the church of the Thessalonians" (1 Thessalonians 1:1), "the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 2:1). Indeed, he localizes the word yet further by applying it to a single Christian household or to little groups of believers who were accustomed to assemble in private houses for worship and fellowship (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philippians 1:2). This use of the word recalls the saying of Jesus in Matthew 18:20. The universal use, again, may be illustrated by the contrast he draws between Jews and Greeks on the one hand and the church of God on the other (1 Corinthians 10:32). It can also be seen in the declaration that God has set in the church apostles, prophets, and teachers (1 Corinthians 12:28).

But Paul in his later epistles has another use of ekklēsia peculiar to himself, which may be described as the ideal use. The church, now, is the body of which Christ is the head (Ephesians 1:22,23; Colossians 1:18,24). It is the vehicle through which God's wisdom and eternal purpose are to be made known, not only to all men but also to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:9-11). It is the bride of whom He is the heavenly Bridegroom. It is the bride for whom in His love He gave Himself up, that He might cleanse and sanctify her and might present her to Himself a glorious church, a church without blemish, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5:25-27). This church clearly is not the current church as we know it on earth, with its divisions, its blemishes, its shortcomings in faith and love and obedience. It is the holy church that is to be when the Bridegroom has fully "cleansed it by the washing of water through the word." It is the ideal that the current church must keep before it and strive after. The ideal up to which it shall finally be guided by that Divine in-working power that can conform the body to the head to make the bride worthy of the Bridegroom so that God may receive in the church the glory that is His (Ephesians 3:21).

IV. Features of the Church

1. Full of Faith

There are certain characteristics of the Christian church that the New Testament gives us from which we can form some conception as to its nature. A fundamental feature is faith. It was to Peter confessing his faith in Christ that the promise came, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Primarily the church is a society of believers. Hence, we find that "believers" or "they that believed" is constantly used as a synonym for the members of the Christian church (e.g. Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; Acts 5:14; 1 Timothy 4:12). This church-founding and church-building faith, of which baptism was the seal, was much more than an act of intellectual assent. It was a personal laying hold of the personal Saviour, the bond of a vital union between Christ and the believer which resulted in nothing less than a new creation (Romans 6:4; Romans 8:1,2; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

2. Fellowship of Believers

If faith in Christ is the fundamental note of the Christian church, the next is fellowship among the members. This feature follows from the very nature of faith as just described; for if each believer is vitally joined to Christ, all believers must stand in a living relation to one another. In Paul's favorite figure, Christians are members one of another because they are members in particular of the body of Christ (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27). That the Christian church was recognized from the first as a fellowship appears from the name "the brethren," which is commonly applied to those who belong to it. In Acts, the name is of very frequent occurrence (Acts 9:30, etc.), and it is employed by Paul in the epistles of every period of his career (1 Thessalonians 4:10, etc.). Similar testimony lies in the fact that "the koinōnia" ("fellowship") takes its place in the earliest meetings of the church side by side with the apostles' teaching and the breaking of bread and prayers (Acts 2:42). The koinōnia at first carried with it a community of goods (Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32), and afterward found expression in the fellowship of service to the saints (2 Corinthians 8:4), and In acts of Christian charity that are inspired by Christian faith (Hebrews 13:16). In the Lord's Supper, the other sacrament of the church, the fellowship of Christians received its most striking and most sacred expression. For if baptism was especially the sacrament of faith, the Supper was distinctively the sacrament of love and fellowship - a communion in Christ's death and its fruits that carried with it a communion of hearts and spirits between the participants themselves.

3. Unity of the Body

Although local congregations sprang up wherever the gospel was preached, and each of these enjoyed an independent life of its own, the unity of the church was clearly recognized from the first. The desire for unity can be seen in the discussions between Jerusalem and Antioch (Acts 11:22; Acts 15:2), the conference held in the former city (Acts 15:6), the right hand of fellowship given by the elder apostles to Paul and Barnabas (Galatians 2:9), the untiring efforts made by Paul himself to forge strong links of love and mutual service between Gentile and Jewish Christians (2 Corinthians 8). These things serve to show that though there were many churches, there was but one church. This truth comes to its complete expression in the epistles of Paul's imprisonment, with their vision of the church as a body of which Christ is the head, a body animated by one Spirit, and having one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 3:11). And this unity, it is to be noticed, is conceived of as a visible unity. Jesus Himself evidently conceived it so when He prayed for His disciples that they all might be one so that the world might believe (John 17:21). And the unity of which Paul writes and for which he strove is a unity that finds visible expression through the manifestation of a common faith in acts of mutual love (Ephesians 4:3,13; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15).

4. Consecration of the Saints

Another dominant note of the New Testament church lay in the consecration of the members. Saints is one of the most frequently recurring designations for them that we find. As Thus employed, the word has in the first place an objective meaning; the sainthood of the Christian church consisted in its separation from the world by God's electing grace. In this respect, it has succeeded to the prerogatives of Israel under the old covenant. The members of the church, as Peter said, are "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's possession" (1 Peter 2:9). But side by side with this sense of an outward and priestly consecration, the "saints" practiced holiness - a holiness consisting, not merely in a status determined by relation to Christ, but in an actual and practical saintliness, a consecration to God that finds expression in character and conduct. No doubt the members of the church are called saints even when the living evidence of sainthood are sadly lacking. Writing to the Corinthian church in which he found so much to blame, Paul addresses its members by this title (1 Corinthians 1:2; compare 1 Corinthians 6:11). But he does so for other than formal reasons - not only because consecration to God is their outward calling and status as believers; but also because he is assured that a work of real sanctification is going on, and must continue to go on, in their bodies and their spirits which are Christ's. For those who are in Christ are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). And those to whom has come the separating and consecrating call (2 Corinthians 6:17) must cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Paul looks upon the members of the church, just as he looks upon the church itself, with a prophetic eye; he sees them not as they are, but as they are to be. And in his view, it is "by the washing of water with the word," in other words by the progressive sanctification of its members, that the church itself is to be sanctified and cleansed. This cleansing is done so Christ can present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5:26,27).

5. Power in the Spirit

Another feature of the church was spiritual power. When the name ekklēsia was given by Jesus to His followers, His promise to Peter for the church included the bestowal of the gift of power (Matthew 16:18,19). The church was to receive the "power of the keys," to open the doors of the kingdom of heaven to the Jew (Acts 2:41) and the Gentile (Acts 10:34-38; Acts 15:7). The church was further to have the power of binding and loosing, i.e. of forbidding and permitting. The legislative powers bestowed upon Peter and the disciples (Matthew 18:18; compare Matthew 18:1 and also Matthew 18:19,20), were at the conference in Jerusalem exercised by the church as a whole (Acts 15:4,22). The power to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven was expanded into the great missionary commission, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). This command was a commission that was understood by the apostolic church to be addressed not to the eleven apostles only, but to all Christ's followers without distinction (Acts 8:4, etc.). To the Christian believers there belonged the dual power of legislating for its members and of opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. But these dual functions of teaching and government were clearly recognized as delegated gifts. The church taught the nations because Christ had bid her go and do it. She laid down laws for her members because He had conferred upon her authority to bind and to loose. But in every exercise of her authority she relied upon Him from whom she derived it. She believed that Christ was with her always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20) and that the power she was given was from on high (Luke 24:49).

V. Organization of the Church

It seems evident from the New Testament that Jesus gave His disciples no formal prescriptions for the organization of the church. In the first days after Pentecost, they did not realize the need of any distinct organization of their own. The worship at the temple was still adhered to (Acts 2:46; Acts 3:1), though it was supplemented by apostolic teaching, by prayer and fellowship, and by the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42,46). Organization was a thing of gradual growth suggested by emerging needs, and the differentiation of function among those who were drawn into the service of the church was due to the difference in the gifts bestowed by God upon the church members (1 Corinthians 12:28). At first the Twelve themselves, as the immediate companions of Jesus throughout His ministry and the prime witnesses of the Christian facts and especially of the resurrection (compare Acts 1:21,22), were the natural leaders and teachers of the community. Apart from this, the earliest evidence of anything like organization is found in the distinction drawn by the Twelve themselves between the ministry of the word and the ministry of tables (Acts 6:2,4). This distinction was fully recognized by Paul (Romans 12:6,8; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 9:14; 1 Corinthians 12:28) though he enlarged the latter type of ministry so as to include much more than the care of the poor. The two kinds of ministry, as they meet us at the first, may broadly be distinguished as the general and prophetic on the one hand, the local and practical on the other.

1. The General and Prophetic Ministry

From Acts 6:1, we see that the Twelve recognized that they were Divinely called as apostles to proclaim the gospel. Paul repeatedly makes the same claim for himself (1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 9:16; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 4:1; Colossians 1:1). But apostleship was by no means confined to the Twelve (Acts 14:14; Romans 16:7). And an itinerant ministry of the word was exercised in differing ways by prophets, evangelists, and teachers, as well as by apostles (1 Corinthians 12:28,29; Ephesians 4:11). The fact that Paul himself is described as an apostle, a prophet, a teacher (Acts 13:1; Acts 14:14; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11) appears to show that the prophetic ministry was not a ministry of stated office, but one of special gifts and functions. The apostle carried the good tidings of salvation to the ignorant and unbelieving (Galatians 2:7,8), the prophet (in the more precise sense of the word) was a messenger to the church (1 Corinthians 14:4,22). And while the teacher explained and applied truth that was already possessed (Hebrews 5:12), the prophet was recognized by those who had spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 John 4:1) as the Divinely employed messenger of revelations (1 Corinthians 14:24,30,31; Ephesians 3:5).

2. The Local and Practical Ministry

The earliest examples of this are the Seven of Jerusalem who were entrusted with the care of the "daily ministration" (Acts 6:1). With the growth of the church, however, other needs arose, and the local ministry is seen developing in two distinct directions. First there is the presbyter or elder, otherwise known as the bishop or overseer, whose duties, while still local, are chiefly of a spiritual kind (Acts 20:17,28,35; 1 Timothy 3:2,5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:2). Next there are the deacon and the deaconess (Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:8-13), whose work appears to have lain chiefly in house to house visitation and a practical ministry to the poor and needy (1 Timothy 5:8-11). The necessities of government, of discipline, and of regular and stated instruction had brought it to pass that within New Testament times some of the functions of the general ministry of apostles and prophets were discharged by a local ministry. The general ministry, however, was still recognized to be the higher of the two. Paul addresses the presbyter-bishops of Ephesus in a tone of lofty spiritual authority (Acts 20:17-38).

Literature

Hort,The Christian Ecclesia; Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Cents., lectsI-V; Hatch,Bampton Lectures; Gwatkin, Early Church History to AD 313; Köstlin, article "Kirche" in See Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche; Armitage Robinson, article "Church" in Encyclopedia Biblica; Fairbairn, Christ in Modern Theology, 513-34; Dargan, Ecclesiology; Denney, Studies in Theology, Ch viii.

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Church'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. 1915.