How does the Bible describe the church?
When you hear the word “church,” what comes to mind? Maybe it’s good childhood memories of Vacation Bible School and an extended family. Perhaps it is a brick-and-mortar building or a specific denomination. For others, it’s a group of people who have left a bad taste in your mouth. Some of us haven’t had the best experience with the modern-day church. Why is this? Could it be because we’ve fallen away from what the Bible intended the church to be?
In the Bible, the Greek word ecclesia is translated as “church” or “an assembly.” It can refer to an assembly of believers (1 Corinthians 1:2), a group made up of individual believers (Galatians 1:13) and a universal group of people throughout history who trust Christ (Matthew 16:18).
Throughout Scripture, the church is also referred to as the bride of Christ. This metaphor is described well at Christianity.com, but a quick summary is this — God chose the church, loves the church, is faithful to the church, and one day both Jesus and the church will be united (Revelation 21:1-2). Until that reunion, we, the church or the assembly of believers, are to live as a reflection of God’s love.
The church is the vehicle by which the world will know about Jesus. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus gave a clear mission to Peter that he would lead this movement called the church forward and that nothing, not even hell itself, could defeat it.
Jesus left His disciples with the mission to build the church. The closest thing we get to Jesus before He returns to take us to heaven is that we gather as the body and then scatter into the culture to share the truth of who Jesus is and the love He came to share with us.
We can not forsake the gathering together around what, in several translations, Paul says is the foolishness of preaching (1 Corinthians 1:21). When we skip out on this gathering, we miss out on the reminders of who Jesus is and the strength He left us in one another. Jesus’ grace and love are then what we share with the world. The church was never intended to be tribal, exclusive or a seat of power.
We believers get distracted by things that we think are important. We allow politicians to buy us with cheap promises. We warp our mission into being the morality police for culture. We distance ourselves when that is far from the image of love Jesus left us with.
Dr. Michael Williams defines the church in an article in Patheos.com as “imperfect people who know they needed a Savior, working together to build relationships, help those in need, and to glorify God by striving to be like Christ and share His love with others.”
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