A church is a group of persons who come together for the purpose of learning about and worshiping God. Today, “church” is the most common term used for a body of worshiping believers. But that was not always the case. In New Testament times it was a relatively new term. The term appears in only two verses in the Gospels (Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 18:17). Luke used it a lot, however, in the book of Acts, so by then the term must have become more common. Paul also wrote about the church in most of his letters, and it is a common term in the Revelation of John.
In the Old Testament Israel was simply “the congregation.” The term was also used by early Christians. In fact, it is the actual meaning of the word “church.” Christians often referred to themselves simply as the church or the congregation. (The “of God” part was assumed.) The term could be applied either to all believers in the world or to any local group of them. It meant the total presence of God’s people in a given location. The New Testament often uses the singular “church” even when many groups of believers are included together (Acts 9:31; 2 Corinthians 1:1).
The term “churches” is rarely found (Acts 15:41; Acts 16:5). Each group was the place where God was present (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17). God had purchased the congregation with the blood of his Son (Acts 20:28). In the Greek world, the word translated “church” designated an assembly of people or a meeting. This could be a political body, or it could be simply a gathering of people. The word is used this way in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. The specific Christian uses of this word vary widely in the New Testament. 1. It sometimes refers to a church meeting. Paul says to the Christians in Corinth: “When you meet as a church . . .” (1 Corinthians 11:18). This means that Christians are the people of God, especially when they are gathered for worship. 2. In texts such as Matthew 18:17, Acts 5:11, 1 Corinthians 4:17, and Philippians 4:15, “church” refers to the entire group of Christians living in one place. Often, it refers to the specific location of a Christian congregation. Note the phrases, “the church in Jerusalem” (Acts 8:1), “in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2), “in Thessalonica” (1 Thessalonians 1:1). 3. In other places, house assemblies of Christians are called churches. For example, some met in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19). 4. Throughout the New Testament, “the church” refers to the universal church.
All believers belong to it (see Acts 9:31; 1 Corinthians 6:4; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18). Jesus’ first word about the founding of the Christian movement in Matthew 16:18 has this larger meaning: “I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (RSV). The church is a universal reality. But in its local expression, Paul refers to it as “the church of God” (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 10:32) or “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16). In this way a common Greek term receives its distinctive Christian meaning. It sets the Christian assembly/gathering/community apart from all other worldly or religious groups. The Christian community understood itself as the community of the end time. It saw itself as a people called into being by God’s purposes in sending Jesus of Nazareth and his divine presence. So Paul tells the Christians in Corinth that they are those “upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, RSV). That is, God had called out of both Judaism and the gentile world a new people. They would receive the Holy Spirit’s power. They were to share the Good News (gospel) of his absolute love for his creation (Ephesians 2:11-22).
The Gospels tell us that Jesus chose 12 disciples who became the foundation of this new people. The church was understood as the fulfillment of God’s intention in calling Israel to become “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6, RSV; Romans 11:1-5). This allows Paul to call this new Gentile-Jewish community or new creation “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16). In this new community the old barriers of race, social standing, and sex are seen to be shattered. Such barriers divided people from one another and made them fit into inferior and superior classes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, NIV). This one entity is called “the body of Christ.” Paul is alone among New Testament writers in speaking of the church as Christ’s body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:12; see also 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). He also calls it “the body” of which Christ is the “head” (Ephesians 4:15; Colossians 1:18).
The origin of this way of speaking about the church is not clear. Two suggestions may help reveal Paul’s thought: 1. The Damascus road experience. According to the accounts in Acts (Acts 9:3-7; Acts 22:6-11; Acts 26:12-18), Jesus identifies himself with his persecuted disciples. By persecuting these early Christians, Paul was actually fighting against Christ himself. Paul may have later felt that the living Christ was so identified with his community that it could be spoken of as his “body.” That is, it would be seen as the expression of his real presence. 2. The Hebrew concept of solidarity. Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and his thinking was thoroughly Jewish. In that context, the individual is largely thought of as a part of the nation as a whole. The individual does not have real life apart from the whole people.
At the same time, the entire people can be seen as represented by one individual. Thus, “Israel” is both the name of one individual and the name of a whole people. The reality of the close relationship between Christ and his church is seen by Paul as analogous to the unity and connection of the physical body (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). For Paul, the Lord’s Supper reveals that unity: “The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16b-17, RSV). Since this is the case, Paul argues, all the functions of the body have their rightful place. Division within the body (i.e., the church) reveals that there is something unhealthy within. This image of the church as the “body of Christ” lies behind Paul’s repeated call for unity within the Christian community.
Church meetings are where believers come together. In the New Testament, the word for church talks about a meeting or assembly. It can also mean the people who come together. The Greek word ecclesia is usually translated “church.” The New Testament sometimes speaks of a secular Greek assembly (Acts 19:32, 41). Almost always it speaks of a Christian assembly. Sometimes the word ecclesia designates the actual meeting together of Christians. This is certainly what Paul intended in 1 Corinthians 14:19, 28, 35. There, the expression must mean “in a meeting” and not “in the church.” To translate this phrase “in the church” (as is done in most modern English versions) is misleading. Most readers will think it means “in the church building.” The New Testament never once names the place of assembly as a “church.”
The word ecclesia most often is used to describe the believers who make up a local congregation (such as the church in Corinth, etc.). It may also describe all the believers (past, present, and future) who make up the universal church, the complete body of Christ. When reading the New Testament, Christians need to be aware of the various ways in which the word ecclesia (“church”) is used. First, it is any gathering of believers. Second, it is an organized local body—made up of all the believers in any given locality. Third, it is the universal church. This means all the believers who have ever been, are now existing, and will ever be.
At times it is hard to differentiate one meaning from the other. Nevertheless, students of the New Testament could avoid some confusion if they used discernment in their study of the text. Some have taught that the smallest unit of the church is the local church, but the New Testament writers sometimes used the word “church” to indicate a small home gathering. Others confuse the local church with the universal church. But some things in the New Testament are addressed to a local church that do not necessarily apply to the whole church, and vice versa. The things Paul said about the church in the epistle to the Ephesians, for example, could never be attained by a local church. What local church could attain to the fullness of the stature of Christ? The New Testament suggests that a particular local church (i.e., a church made up of all the believers in a given locality) could and did have several ecclesiai. These “meetings” or “assemblies” were carried on in homes of the local Christians.
Thus, the smallest unit to make up a “church” was one of these home meetings. However, there is no indication in the New Testament that each of these home meetings was distinct from the other gatherings (ecclesiai) in the same locality. According to Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5, elders were appointed for every local church, not for every house group. Nevertheless, it appears that every local church of some size had several such ecclesiai (“meetings”) going on within that locality. The church in Jerusalem must have had several home meetings (see Acts 2:46; Acts 5:42; Acts 8:3; Acts 12:5, 12), as did the church in Rome (see Romans 16:3-5, 14, 15). A small local church may have had only one home gathering.
This was probably the case with the church at Colosse (see Philemon 1:2). This would have been impossible for large local churches like those in Jerusalem, Rome, and Ephesus. Several “house churches” (see 1 Corinthians 16:19-20) must have existed there. The passages that deal with the issue of the “house church” should affirm this. These passages are Romans 16:3-5, 14, 15; 1 Corinthians 16:19-20; Colossians 4:15-16; and Philemon 1:1-2 (see also RSV).
In Romans 16:3-5, 14, 15, Paul asked the believers in Rome, to whom he had written this epistle, to greet Priscilla and Aquila and the church that met in their home (Romans 16:3-5, 14, 15). The entire church in Rome could not have met in Priscilla and Aquila’s home. It would have been much too large to have met in a single home. Rather, the church in Priscilla and Aquila’s home must have been one among several such house churches in Rome. The following discussion should prove this position. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans was addressed to “all God’s beloved in Rome” (Romans 1:7), not to “the church in Rome.”
At the time of writing, Paul had not been to Rome—nor had any other apostle. The church was probably started there by Jewish Romans who had been converted in Jerusalem during Pentecost (Acts 2:10) and then returned to Rome. Since the church had not been started by an apostle, it could have been that there were no “ordained” elders in the church at Rome. Perhaps there were several gatherings of believers in various parts of Rome and its suburbs. Paul knew some of the saints in Rome (whom he addressed by name in the last chapter). He addressed an epistle to all the saints in that locality. He usually addressed his epistles to churches in their locality (see 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1).
Nonetheless, “all the saints in Rome” would comprise “the church in Rome.” Paul did the same thing when addressing all the saints in Philippi (compare Philippians 1:1). In the final chapter of Romans, Paul asks all the believers in Rome (which equals the “local” church in Rome) to greet the church in Priscilla and Aquila’s house. Later in the chapter, Paul asks the church to greet a number of people and all the saints who were with them (Romans 16:14-15). Evidently, Paul was identifying two other groups of believers who must have met together. It seems that the church in Rome, like the church in Jerusalem and Ephesus, had several home ecclesiai (meetings). The epistle to the Romans was written around AD 58. Persecution by Nero began around AD 64. Historians tell us that a vast multitude of Christians were tortured and killed during this time. Indeed, at the time Paul penned the Epistle to the Romans he said their faith was known throughout the world (Romans 1:8).
That indicates that the church in Rome had already made an impact on the Mediterranean world. When Paul came to Rome three years later (AD 61), he came to a city that had a large church there already. From Romans 15:23, we know that the church had been in existence for many years even before Paul wrote his epistle to them. In short, the church in Rome was a large church around the time Paul wrote his epistle to them.
The entire church could not have met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla. As tentmakers, they would have had only a modest-sized dwelling. Besides, Paul greeted over 25 individuals by name in chapter 16—and he had not yet even been to Rome! There must have been several ecclesiai in Rome. These home churches all unified as the one local church in Rome. For example, the Christians in Rome apparently worshiped in numerous homes such as Priscilla and Aquila’s. Other churches in homes are mentioned in Colossians 4:15 and Philemon 1:2. Groups of Christians met in houses of prominent believers or in other available rooms (compare Matthew 26:16; Acts 12:12; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2). The church in Priscilla and Aquila’s house is the first of five groups of believers in Paul’s list. But it is the only one referred to definitely as a church (see Romans 16:5, 10-11, 14-15). Priscilla and Aquila opened their home for Christian meetings. The church mentioned there was obviously only a part of the total number of Christians in Rome. Verses 10-11 and 14-15 seem to refer to two other household churches in Rome. Thus, there were at least three churches there, and probably more. Each house church could not have been a separate body with a separate church government. Rather, each house church must have been simply one home meeting of some of the saints in the one local church at Rome.
In 1 Corinthians 16:19-20 we again see Aquila and Priscilla and that a church met in their house. According to Romans, their house church was, of course, in Rome. According to 1 Corinthians (written from Ephesus), their house church was in Ephesus. Aquila and Priscilla may have left Rome around AD 49 when Jews were driven out from Rome. They very well could have already been Christians at this time. According to Acts 18, they joined Paul in Corinth (where they all worked together in their craft of tentmaking). They then went on with him to Ephesus, during the time (around AD 51) the church in Ephesus was first established. Paul continued on with his second missionary journey, while Aquila and Priscilla remained in Ephesus. No doubt, the early church there first met in their home. Paul returned to Ephesus a few years later and remained there for two years (around AD 53-54).
During this time, Paul proclaimed the gospel from Ephesus (as a center) to all of Asia (see Acts 19:8-10). As this was going on, the church in Ephesus grew (see Acts 19:18-20). It was during these years that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He sent greetings from the churches in Asia, from the church that met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, and from all the brothers (1 Corinthians 16:19-20). It would be hard to imagine that all the saints in Ephesus met at Aquila and Priscilla’s home. The church probably began that way, but as it grew, so did the number of home meetings. From other portions of the New Testament (specifically, 1 Timothy) we discover that there must have been several home meetings in Ephesus because there were so many saints there. First Timothy 5-6 reveals that there must have been a large number of believers in Ephesus—young men, young women, older men, widows, and so forth). At any rate, several saints must have hosted an ecclesia, or a meeting, in their home. (Aquila and Priscilla left Ephesus around AD 56-57 and returned to Rome, where again they hosted a church in their home. Others in Ephesus would have to open their homes.) All of the church in Ephesus was headed up by Timothy, Paul’s coworker.
In Colossians 4:15-16 we read about a church existing in the home of one called Nymphas. Paul asked the saints in Colosse to send his greetings to the brothers that are in Laodicea, Nymphas in particular, and the church in Nymphas’s house. It seems evident that the first greeting included all the believers in Laodicea who would comprise the entire church in Laodicea. (Laodicea was a neighboring church to Colosse.) The second and third greetings were to a specific individual (Nymphas) in the church in Laodicea and a church meeting in Nymphas’s house. This church meeting in Nymphas’s house would probably be one of several home meetings—all part of the one local church in Laodicea.
In Philemon 1:1-2 we read about a church in a particular home. Paul wrote a short epistle to Philemon, an elder of the church in Colosse. It was written on behalf of Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave converted by Paul to Christ. In his introduction to this short epistle, Paul sends his greetings to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the church in Philemon’s house. Note that Paul did not send greetings to all the saints in Colosse and then to the church in Philemon’s house (as is the pattern in 1 Corinthians 16:19-20 and Colossians 4:15). Instead, he just sent greetings to Philemon and to the church in his house. Therefore, we can assume that the entire church in Colosse must have met at Philemon’s house. WORSHIP When the church first began in Jerusalem, the believers met in homes for fellowship and worship.
Acts 2:42-47 tells us that the early Christians met in homes to hear the apostles’ teachings and to celebrate Communion (which is called “the breaking of bread”). During such gatherings, the Christians often shared meals with one another in what was called a love feast (2 Peter 2:13; Jude 1:12). At these meetings, the Christians recited Scripture, sang hymns and psalms, and joyfully praised the Lord (see Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:16-17). Christians also gathered together in homes to pray (Acts 12:12) and read the Word. Small groups of believers met in homes for worship quite regularly. In a city where there were several such ecclesiai, all the believers would gather together for special occasions. The believers would come together to hear an epistle from the apostles read out loud (see Acts 15:30; Colossians 4:16).
We can conclude from the NT that all the Christians in a city met together once a week on Sunday, which was called the Lord’s Day. First Corinthians provides several insights about how the early Christians worshiped together when all the believers in one city met together. We know that 1 Corinthians pertains to this larger gathering because in 1 Corinthians 11:20 Paul spoke of all the believers coming together in one place. Also, in 1 Corinthians 14:23 he spoke of the whole church coming together in one place. Paul used this epistle to correct the Corinthians’ behavior in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) and in the use of spiritual gifts during church meetings (1 Corinthians 14). Paul revealed how he felt a model Christian meeting should be conducted. Paul urged the Corinthians to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together in a manner that reflected Jesus’ institution of that meal.
They were to remember the Lord and his death for them, and they were to partake of the bread and wine with all seriousness. At the same time, they were to recognize that they were members of the same body of Christ—joined to one another, and also to Christ. Paul says in chapter 14 that the believers should show this in their worship. One’s personal experience and expression should not hinder the coordination of the body in worshiping God corporately. Thus, when the believers exercised their spiritual gifts, they should do so in good order and for the building up of the congregation, not personal improvement. When all the church assembled together to worship God, it should be a display of spiritual unity.
