What is the Church?

What is the Church? Is it a place of worship...or is it entirely something else? Read more to find out. If I were to ask the average person what is the/a church, the many would reply a building, place of worship etc. What would be God's response to this? The answer can be found in the Bible - God's thoughts written for us. Ephesians 2:19-22 says, "19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." This shows us that we (believers) are the habitation of God not a building or structure. Another scripture, 2 Corinthians 2:16 says, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" This clearly shows without a doubt that the church consists of the body of believers. So a family is the church, two persons studying the Bible is the church. I am the church, you are the church, we are the church. Additionally what does the word translated church mean in the Bible? It comes from the Greek word Ekklesia which refers to "an assembly", or "calling out". Obviously this does not refer to a building. In Old Testament times God chose to dwell in the Ark of the Covenant but since atonement was made for sin, God has now chosen to dwell in us. Isn't this a wonderful privilege? That God who in former times was hidden in the temple away from the common people now wants to live in me, in you. Thanks be to God for His great mercies. Make we make the choice today to allow Him to live in us so that we may be living temples.
This work by Ann Singh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.