Among religious people who consider themselves Christians, there unquestionably exists a "we understand the concept of the church" mentality. Even many not regarding themselves to be Christians are confident they understand the concept of the church. In the American Bible belt (the south and parts of the southwest), it would be difficult to find one person [man or woman] whose background is in the Bible belt who has no concept of the church. Most people who develop in America's Bible belt [follow a life cycle that goes from childhood experiences to adult roots] are confident they have a sound, correct, genuine concept of the church. That does not mean all those people like the church or want to be a part of it. It means they are convinced they understand what the church is [and is not].
To suggest seriously to Christians that we need to let the Bible teach us its concept of the church borders on being a ridiculous suggestion. If any group regards themselves to be experts in understanding that concept, we surely do! When it comes to the concept of the church, we are certain we should be the teachers, not the students! At the risk of being scorned, this series challenges Christians to let the Bible, not heritage, form, shape, and declare God's concept of the church. Let's allow God to shape our concept of what He built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthian 3:11). Let's allow God to fashion our concept of what Jesus purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28). Let's not assume. Let's not allow "what we always heard" or "what we were always taught" to form our understandings about the church. Let's study scripture with open minds and hearts as we allow God's word and God's Spirit to lead us. Let's seek an understanding of the concepts concerning the church in the awareness that the more accurately we grasp God's purposes the more certainly we move closer to God's purposes in His will.
May we begin with the realization that things were very different in first century churches. Early Jewish Christians assembled in both synagogues and homes (consider Acts 18:5-11). Early non-Jewish Christians (gentiles) commonly met in the home of one of the Christians (consider Philemon 1:2). The church owned no building or property. The church was not identified by associating it with a religious structure at a street address.
"The church" had no name. Those we today would call Christians might at that time be called "the Way" (Acts 9:2, 19:23), disciples (Acts 6:1-7), or saints (Acts 9:13, 32). Collectively they might be referred to as "the church of God" [the church that belongs to God, a term of possession--not a name] (1 Corinthians 1:2 ); "the church of the firstborn" [the church that belongs to the resurrected one, a term of possession--not a name] (Hebrews 12:23); "the churches of Christ" [the churches that belong to Christ, a term of possession--not a name] (Romans 16:16); "the churches of the saints" [the churches that belong to the holy ones, a term of possession--not a name] (1 Corinthians 14:33); the church that is in a city [such as the church of the Thessalonians in God--1 Thessalonians 1:1]; the churches in a Roman province [the churches of Galatia (1 Corinthians 16:1) or Asia (1 Corinthians 16:19]; or frequently simply "the church" or "the churches" (Acts 8:3, etc; Acts 15:41, etc.).
In the New Testament, the word "Christian" occurs infrequently. It was not the most common word used to denote people who placed their lives in Jesus Christ. It's usage began rather late after Jesus' resurrection. In fact, the first people referred to as Christians were not Jewish Christians (see Acts 11:26). It was a term first used in Antioch, primarily in reference to gentile Christians, not in Jerusalem [where primarily Jewish Christians existed and traced their roots to the church's beginning].
In the first century world, the basic distinction was simple. There were those people who allowed God to place them in Jesus because they believed that the living God raised Jesus from the dead. There were those people who believed in many gods and fate. There were those people who rejected the existence of any form of deity. And there were those who rejected Jesus and did not believe that God raised him from the dead (see Acts 17:32-34).
However, do not oversimplify the situation in that age as far as the church is concerned. There were early, troubling distinctions made in Jerusalem among Jewish Christians that threatened to produce a major division in the church (see Acts 6:1-4). Jews born and reared in Palestine and Jews born and reared outside of Palestine had identifiable differences. Those distinctions became fellowship issues in the Jerusalem Christian community with specific physical expressions. Nor were those distinctions confined to issues among Jewish Christians. While the church in Jerusalem was primarily Jewish (see Acts 21:20,21), there were also congregations composed of people who were not Jews (Romans 16:4). The distinctions and differences among Christians converted from a background in Judaism as compared to those converted from a background in idolatry were enormous.
Enormous problems existed in the first century church because converts from Judaism were distinctly different from converts from idol worshippers. They ate different foods (compare the Jewish dietary restrictions in Leviticus 11 with Paul's declaration in 1 Timothy 4:1-5), they had different religious practices and traditions, they even followed different calendars. These Christians had so many problems relating to each other that they were certain that "God cannot accept you unless you are like me." Paul urged them to help the weak without judging each other or holding each other in contempt. He declared that even with all their differences, God made each group stand (see Romans 14).
These realities do not consider the enormous social differences often existing in non-Jewish congregations. A person who sold goods only the wealthy bought and a Roman jailer in the same church (Acts 16:14-40)? A "dirt poor" person and the owner of an expensive home in the same church (James 2:1-4)? A slave and his or her owner in the same church--meeting in the owner's home (Philemon)? A Jewish convert who refused to eat anything sacrificed to an idol and a pagan convert who ate anything in the same church (Galatians 2:11-14)? All those situations existed in the first century!
When the church assembled in the first century, some spoke in tongues, some interpreted those tongues, some prophesied, some introduced a new song, some received a revelation, and some performed miracles. To them, those experiences were typical events. It is doubtful first century Christians imagined a future time when those events would not be typical in the church. The world of the church in the first century was not a simple world!
Many of today's Christians who are convinced that they accurately and thoroughly understand the concept of the church in the New Testament often fail to realize that even then it was a concept many Christians misunderstand. Much of the material in the New Testament epistles directed first century Christians to a better understanding of who and what they were.
Thought and discussion question: why is it easy for a Christian to assume that he or she does not need to examine his or her concept of the church?
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 1