Two Meanings of "Church" in the New Testament

Two Meanings of "Church" in the New Testament

The word church in the New Testament has two distinct meanings: first, it has reference to the Universal Church (Matt. 16.18), and second, to the local church (18.17). The Universal Church is the General Church which includes all the churches past, present and future. The local church is the church in a given locality.

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16.18).

"And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell [it] unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican" (Matt. 18.17).

As to the Universal Church, there are two aspects: one, it is the Church that includes all the children of God—past, present and future. But besides this aspect, it also has reference to the sum total of all the children of God who today are living. For today we live neither in the past nor in the future. The past is gone, and the future is yet to come. In between the past and the future are all the children of God who are today living on earth. As children of God, we need to learn to be one with all the other children of God on earth as well as to be one with all the saints in the local assembly where we are (1 Cor. 11.16).

"But if anyone wants to argue about this, all I can say is that we have no other custom than this, and all the [local] churches of God feel the same way about it" (1 Cor. 11.16).

In case there is controversy between the church in Edmonton and the church in Calgary (in the churches of Alberta, Canada), you may say they have only maintained the testimony of their own locality, they have not maintained God’s testimony on earth. Today we must maintain not only the testimony of the locality but also the testimony of God on earth. We cannot be exclusive in keeping ourselves intact, because Edmonton belongs to the General Church on earth. The "body" in view in 1 Corinthians is different from the "body" in view in Ephesians 4. For the body in Ephesians 4 includes all believers past and present, whereas the body in 1 Corinthians refers to all the believers who were on earth at that particular time.

Because the church is local and the work is regional, a local church cannot contain a regional work, since a region is geographically larger than a local church. In practicing the unity of the Church, let us learn to practice well the unity of the General Church.

Let us keep the testimony of God on earth as well as the practice of unity in a Biblical locality.