The word church come to mean many different things. What do you think of when you hear the word? What image comes to mind?
Some think of an institution, a religious entity with ancient traditions and rituals. Some think of the leadership heirarchy. Some think of a church building. Still others think of hypocrites. All of these are common ideas.
Yet, in the Bible, this not what God was thinking about when He used the word, church.
When God uses the word, church, he has something very specific in mind. The literal meaning of the word is the called out ones. It refers to a group of people who are called out for a common purpose. Up until the first century it was used of any gathering of people. It was like some of collective nouns, like mob, bunch, herd etc. It had no God connection.
Then God took this totally secular word and applied it to a specific group, His group, His group of called out people. These called out ones are known as disciples, Christians, saints etc. All these called out ones have become a group know as the called out, the church.
You see, the church, is a group of people. It isn't an organization. It is more like an organism than an organization. God would call it a body. It isn't an institution. It is a group of people. And these people, these called out ones have a common Saviour, purpose and love.
No one represents the church, not even its leaders. The called out ones, the church, represent Jesus Christ, by their testimony and their lives of love and obedience to Christ. The church is made up of sinners, saved sinners. It is full of the broken and fragile. Full of the imperfect and the inadequate. Yet, in Christ, they are the redeemed, the saved, the called out ones, the church.
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