by Chris Steele

October 1, 2006

“Where is your church?” No doubt all of us have heard questions phrased in this way. It’s because of a popular, yet faulty, understanding of what the church is.

If I were to talk about the church, it would be the Lord’s church; the church identified in the New Testament as the church of Christ (Rom. 16:16). The church is the one for which Jesus died and purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25). The church is the “body of Christ” (Eph. 1:22-23) into which those who are obedient to the gospel are baptized and become members (1 Cor. 12:13, 27). The church is the “bride of Christ” (Rev. 21:2, 9). The church and the kingdom are one in the same (Mat. 16:18-19; Col. 1:13).

As we reason from these scriptures, we can see that the church is a spiritual institution. Therefore it does not have a physical street address. We should never refer to the building as the church. We may have a tendency to do this (perhaps because we hear it so much), but we need to develop habits that convey a correct understanding of the church of the New Testament.

In Matthew 16:18 after the confession that Peter made that Jesus is “the Christ…” Jesus said, “...upon this rock I will build my church” (emphasis mine CES). The Lord built His church. It is the church that belongs to Him and none other. It is the church that is called by His name (Rom. 16:16; cf. Acts 4:12).

We should be very clear in explaining to folks that we don’t have a church! It gives us an opportunity to tell them how privileged and blessed it is to be a member of the body of Christ, the church that belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.