2 Tim 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
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THE MEANING OF “CHURCH”
FRIDAY, MAY 1
Matthew 16:13-18
1 Peter 2:9-10
“Upon this rock
I will build my church.”
THE MEANING OF “CHURCH”
The English word “church,” like the German kirche and the Scotch kirk, is derived from the Greek adjective, kyriakon, which means “the Lord’s.” It may refer to the Lord’s people in general, to any particular group of the Lord’s people, or to the building in which the Lord’s people worship (1 Cor 11:20; Rev 1:10).
The word translated “church” in the New Testament is ekklesia. This noun is related to the verb ekkaleo which means “to call out.” Although the term is used for a secular assembly (Acts 19:32, 41), in a specialised ecclesiastical sense, it refers to an assembly or a body of called-out people, separated unto God.
According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, “The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (XXV:1).
The church is sometimes referred to in the Scriptures without the use of the word itself. Peter writes to the Christians in the wide area of what we now call Asia Minor, “But ye are 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: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Pet 2:9-10).
In writing to the Corinthian Christians, Paul classes them together with the entire invisible church (1 Cor 1:2). It is this invisible church as an entirety to which Paul refers when he writes, “[I] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Col 1:24).
THOUGHT: Is the Church a building or a people?
PRAYER: I love Thy Church, O Lord.