New Testament Concepts of the Christian Ekklesia – Local, House, True Church, Professing Church

Jesus and the apostles could think of the church as the universal church (all believers, living and dead, past, present, or future, in heaven or on earth), the church worldwide (all living believers around the world), or even the believers of a certain region. And there are even more limited ways in which they could think of the church.

The Local Church

By this we mean the church viewed as the sum of all Christians in a community who together make up the body of Christ in that locality. Scriptural instances abound:

Acts 5:11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Of course, the whole church, at this time, was only the believers in Jerusalem. All the believers of the church of Jerusalem were fearful because of the persecution.

Col. 4:16 “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.”

The church at Colosse was to pass on the letter sent them by Paul to the church of Laodicea. There weren’t two or more churches in either location. Just one.

Acts 13:1, Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

Acts 14:23, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church [Lystra, Iconium and Antioch] and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

Each church, the one in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, had its own elders. These elders led the believers in each local church, there being only one in each town.

Acts 15:41, [Paul and Silas] went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Luke could speak of there being multiple churches around the world, in these regions, because each city or town  where Paul and Silas went in these regions had a church. Of course, nearly every letter Paul wrote was written to a local church (the church in Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, etc.).

The House Church

Within the local church, city-wide church, there were sub-congregations that met in houses and these could each be considered a “church.”

Romans 16:3-5 “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.  They risked their lives for me.  Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.  Greet also the church that meets at their house.” (Acts 2:46; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Philemon 1; Colossians 4:15)

Colossians 4:15 “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.”

Rome, Corinth, Jerusalem, and Colosse had multiple congregations within the local church. They were churches in the one church of Rome, or Corinth, etc.

The True Church

The true believers within local congregations could be viewed as the true church.

1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (Matthew 16:18; 13:24-30; Hebrews 6:1-4)

The apostle John is writing to the church in Ephesus about some who “went out from us,” people who they thought were followers of Jesus Christ and had been in the assembly of believers but had split from them because they believed in a wrong view of Jesus. The true church was made up of true believers.

The Professing Church

As the true believers within a church could be viewed as the true church, so the church made up of those who professed faith in Jesus Christ can be viewed as the church, even if some of those who professed faith in Christ were not actually true believers.

Mt. 18:20 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.  But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

Jesus is conceiving of the church as containing true believers and those who profess to be believers but are shown not to be. Those disciplined by the church, he says, are to be treated as if they are unbelievers (pagans or tax collectors), who may yet repent but are currently acting as if they are unbelievers, and they may indeed be.

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How should we think about church? What are the implications of universal, worldwide, regional, local, house, true, and professing church?