Bite 53: What is the Church?

Another Point to Investigate

See? This is why I love having a plan in study. If I’d skipped the summary, I might have missed an important question. A term which I’m not alone when I use it without thought, do I have a right concept of the church? I bet without a doubt that I have junk in my backpack that I need to leave at the door. And, after study, exchange for truth. How about you? I’m dropping mine right here. Deep, centering breath because the church for me is a sensitive subject. Here we go, shoulder-to-shoulder.

The Passage

1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 
6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 
8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 1

What Does Ephesians Say?

What Does the Rest of the NT Say?

Those are the details I learned from the NT about what a church is. Next I want to investigate the Greek and see what other information I can gather from the linguists who wrote the dictionaries.

ἐκκλησία-ekklēsia

BDAG

The first dictionary I explored has been BDAG. Interestingly, this word is used with the OT in mind. Within the first couple of definitions there are examples of times in the NT that Hebrew words for gathering or assembly were translated by using this Greek word. Two of those are Hebrews 2:12 where Psalm 22:22 is quoted and Acts 7:38 where Stephen immediately prior to being stoned used this word for the assembly in the wilderness from the time of Moses. These examples are of gatherings and assemblies of the Israelites. OT church, if you will.

That is interesting, however that is merely some background sort of information because it isn’t the definition the scholars assign to our particular verse in Ephesians. In a general sense, this word is used for an assembly, congregation, gathering of people and more specifically it is defined this way:

The Definition

ⓒ the global community of Christians, (universal) church The local assembly or congregation as well as the universal church is more specif. called ἐ. τοῦ θεοῦ or ἐ. τ. Χριστοῦ. This is essentially Pauline usage, and it serves to give the current Gk. term its Christian coloring and thereby its special mng.²

The Greek that is there in that definition is saying that Paul frequently uses the term (which had a different meaning in his time) in association with of God or of Christ. It is a Pauline thing to call it a church of God or a church of Christ. Our main bit of information that we want to take away is that BDAG defines this term in Ephesians 3:10 as the global community. The church universal. The catholic church.

What do some other scholars say about they think the definition of the word is as used here in our context?

TDNTA

This dictionary makes a clear distinction that its take on the term is that definitions should not be separated into one meaning of it being the church universal and the other the local or house church. It is one unit. The single unit is a small portion of the whole. In the introduction to the word, this dictionary states it thinks the “assembly” is the best single term.

Once again, language is not a one-for-one code, but the scholars here are trying to put the word into a term English speakers will best relate to the meaning of the word as it was used in the NT. Let’s look at where Paul used the word specifically.

This definition is in some ways a summary of the entirety of the letter because Paul uses the term frequently. I will bring all of the references here because I think they are all valuable to consider as we look for Paul’s meaning.

The Definition

A more specific doctrine of the church unfolds in these epistles. It is Christ’s body, with Christ himself as head (Col. 1:18, 24; Eph. 1:22; 5:23). There is a relation of coordination and subordination between it and Christ (Eph. 5:24–25, 29). The church is to be holy and without blemish (5:27). Through it God’s wisdom is to be made known (3:10). The human statements here circle around a divine mystery (3:4–5). All that concerns Christ and the church is God’s doing. The mystery of their union forms a model for that of husband and wife even as it is also illustrated by this (5:25ff.). The images are taken from the contemporary world: the Redeemer overcomes hostile powers on his heavenly ascent (Eph. 4:8ff.), breaks down the wall of division (2:14ff.), creates the new man (2:15), loves and cherishes the church as his spouse (5:22ff.), and builds it up as his body (2:19ff.).³

In the conclusion section of the definition, there is this statement of clarification about the term.

The NT itself makes no distinction between an invisible triumphant church and a visible militant church. The church, as the individual congregation representing the whole, is always visible, and its righteousness and holiness are always imputed through faith. Luther recognizes this when he prefers the term “congregation” to “church” in his rendering of Scripture. Yet if the ideal is not to be played off against the reality, no more is the whole church against the local congregation. Every congregation represents the whole church, that at Corinth no less than that at Jerusalem. The development of larger organizations does not alter this basic truth.⁴

Let’s look at one more dictionary.

Mounce

Mounce tells us that the Greek word we’re looking at comes from the word which is defined at “to call out” and so another way to think of the church is as “the called out ones” of God. Further, Mounce explains this:

But the prototype of the NT ekklēsia lies not in Greco-Roman history but in the assembly of God’s people in the OT (cf. Acts 7:38), which developed into the Jewish synagogue as the gathering of the community of God. In these gatherings the great stories of salvation history were regularly rehearsed and the wonderful promises of God to Israel recounted (cf. Num 14:7–9). But while the ekklēsia may find its roots in the synagogue, it is not a subset of it but becomes the new term used for the gathering of various groups of Christian believers.⁵

Reflection

Assimilating the information we gathered from cross references and dictionaries, we can compose a working definition of what is the church. Did you have a chance to do that? How about you do that where you’re sitting and I’ll work on one here where I’m sitting and then we will share our analysis.

Ready? In my analysis, I see three main features that are prominent in the definition of “What is the church?”.

1. The church is of God and Christ. It’s God’s family/household while Christ bought it and is in authority over it as its head.
2. Consisting of people who are partakers of the promises of God, it is both groupings of smaller and regional folk as well as all of those groups combined into one universal and global entity which serve to reveal God’s wisdom.
3. It meets. As Mounce describes above, “In these gatherings the great stories of salvation history were regularly rehearsed and the wonderful promises of God to Israel recounted (Num 14:7–9).” As the modern church, this is the objective. For us, rehearsal of the gospel and the promises associated with it is what we recount. In our assemblies. There is no other message in scripture to proclaim.

ReCap

To whom does it belong? God.

What is it? People with God’s calling. 

Where is it? In houses, the wilderness, regional locations, all over the world wherever it congregates. 

Significance

Remembering what Zuck says in his book Basic Bible Interpretation, application should be personal and specific. Here is my effort in relation to what I’ve learned about the church in my study.

In my own life, as a member of a local church, I have an authority in Christ himself. He is my head. I follow his teaching along with my global community. If anyone imposes that which is contrary to what he has said, the one attempting to impose his will on us is not my authority and I will not comply.

I look at it in the same way that Paul pictures the marriage relationship in comparison to Christ and the church. In the same way that I will not follow the authority of another man besides my husband when he speaks contrary to the godly leadership of my husband, I will not follow the authority of another leader besides my God when the other authority conflicts with God.

I will meet with anyone who will join me and together we will proclaim the magnificent account of salvation to one another.

What’s in My Backpack?

Already present in my backpack of understanding was the idea of the church universal. I also understood that it was a people as opposed to a structure. What I didn’t realize is that associated with the idea of the church is the meeting, gathering, assembly idea. As the church, there is an action. 

I wonder if the Persecuted Church in the world today recognizes this concept and why they are willing to meet together in secret. Not simply rely on electronics or letters, but they risk not just sickness but life itself to assemble. This I respect immensely. And would like to meet with them if I was in their region. People with God as their authority. 

Wrap Up

For our Bible Study Bite today, did you notice how we went about the process of studying a term that we had in our passage? We allowed Paul to speak, using the word. First we let him speak within the passage we are studying, then in the letter we are studying, then in his other texts in the NT. After that, we asked experts in language for assistance in understanding. 

Did you notice that we did not try to exhaustively gather data? There are more verses in the Bible that use this word-a total of over 70 verses, actually. Our objective is to gain insights and knowledge in keeping with what we can absorb right now. Can we distill information from 70 examples? Can we keep organized data from more than 3 dictionaries? 

Maybe you can, and I admire that. Honestly, the number of verses I looked at with you today was pretty overwhelming. Please recognize that we will not be able to learn everything. We are looking to grow our knowledge and understanding by increments. This is why we carry a backpack at all. And why it needs to be regularly assessed and considered. We are constantly learning and hopefully refining our theology and doctrine. If we already knew everything, why study?

Seriously? It’s a genuine question.

Study isn’t about checking a box to acquire God’s favor. We have his favor. What we want is to know him better to worship him more accurately. That’s my reason for study. 

1. Ephesians 3:1–13 (ESV)
2. Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 304). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (pp. 398–399). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
4. Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (pp. 401–402). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
5. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 110). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.