The Church

"What is church?" While the answer may seem obvious, many Christians today find it difficult to pinpoint exactly what the church is (or who). Is the church a building where people gather weekly for corporate worship? Is the church the people inside who gather as a group? Unfortunately, various attempts to answer this vital question have created divisions in the church. Like everything in the Christian faith, Scripture must be our guide. The church is described in Scripture as "the Bride" and the "Body." Ephesians 5:25-27 states, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." 1st Corinthians 12:27 states, "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." Is there something to be said for the church being in a building? Looking at the whole of Scripture, God's people always worshipped God in a place of worship (the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem). Perhaps 1st Corinthians 3:16-17 can also be helpful: "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple." Why is it important to come regularly to church? Hebrews 10:24-25 has the answer: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."