How the Word "Church" is Used in the New Testament
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Written by Tim Harris
Published: 21 September 2012
Bible and notebook
In this article, I attempt a comprehensive look into how the word "church" is used in the New Testament (NT).
This is an important study in modern times because society has redefined the English word "church" and this makes it challenging to separate what is from what should be.
"Church" Defined
In the NT, the Holy Spirit used a single Greek word that we translate "church:" ἐκκλησίᾳ (ekklesia)—along with five variations.
Strong's Concordance defines this word as "an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers."
In total, this word is found 114 times in the NT.
Ekklesia is comprised of two Greek words: ek, which means "out from and to", and kaléō, which means "to call." In other words, the word literally means "the called out" or, when applied specifically to Jesus' church, "the called out of the world and to Jesus."
Similarly, regarding the word ekklesia, Vine notes:
[Ekklesia] has two applications to companies of Christians, (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era...(b) in the singular number (e.g., Matt. 18:17, RV marg., "congregation"), to a company consisting of professed believers..."
The word "church" appears three times in the gospels, all of them in Matthew.
The first use occurs with Peter's "great confession" that Jesus is indeed the Christ (the Messiah) of GOD.
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
(Matt. 16:13-20 NIV)
Here, Jesus establishes that He has one church—a point that Paul later echoed in Eph. 4:4-6 ("there is one body").
The other two gospel occurrances of "church" are found in Matthew 18. In this context, Jesus is teaching on how to handle situations where our brother sins against us.
15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
(Matt. 18:15-20 NIV)
This text can be somewhat tricky, in my opinion, to properly discern.
If we back up to Matt. 18:1, we see that this conversation originates because the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.