I am afraid that many people are not clear about the difference between the church and the various Christian organizations. The matter of the church is an exceedingly great matter. Let us take a look at this matter in the Scriptures.
There is a clear exposition of the church in the New Testament. The New Testament not only plainly records the matter of the church but also clearly sets before us the pattern of the church. Hence, many Bible readers acknowledge that the Bible is more than clear in its speaking concerning the church. God not only explained the church in plain words but also drew a picture. It can be said that He has given us a well-illustrated text. Therefore, there should not be any ambiguity concerning the church.
The Bible shows us with clear words that there is only one church, which is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22b-23) and that Christ is the Head of the church (Col. 1:18). It is impossible for a head to have several bodies. A head can have only one body. Although the church is composed of many people, there is only one church throughout the ages and in all places because Christ has only one Body. The utterance in the Bible concerning the church as the Body defines the church quite accurately. If we said that the church was a garment, it would be possible for there to be more than one garment. You and I may not have the same number of garments, yet we both have only one body. There are many “ones” mentioned in the Bible. For example, there is only one God, one Lord, and one faith (Eph. 4:5-6), and we drink one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). These “ones” all relate to the church. Whenever the church is mentioned, it is a matter of being one. The church is one. If we are to speak about the church, we must see this oneness. Moreover, it is not simply a matter of being united but a matter of being one. The church is one, just as our body is one.
Since the church is one, the Bible shows us that the last prayer of the Lord Jesus on the earth was to ask God to keep His disciples so that they would be one on the earth (John 17:11, 21-22). Once the Body was produced, it was one. We need to keep such a oneness and not divide it. In the church in Corinth, however, we see that the flesh came out. Some people said that they were of Apollos-they considered him to be a competent preacher of the Scriptures. Others said that they were of Peter-they considered him to be the number one apostle. On the day of Pentecost he stood up to give a testimony, and three thousand people were saved. Peter also opened the door for the Gentiles. Still others said that they were of Paul-these ones had not been saved through Apollos or through Peter. Furthermore, there were those who said that they were of Christ-they followed no one but Christ and considered that all the others were wrong because they were of the flesh and of men. In the book of 1 Corinthians of is mentioned four times: of Paul, of Apollos, of Peter, and of Christ. The oneness of the Body of Christ-the church-was damaged by these four “of’s” (1 Cor. 1:10-13). Therefore, Paul wrote the Corinthians a stern letter to rebuke them.
On the one hand, the Bible shows us that the church is universally one; on the other hand, it shows us that the church is expressed in many localities. For example, there were the seven churches in Asia: the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamos, the church in Thyatira, the church in Sardis, the church in Philadelphia, and the church in Laodicea (Rev. 1:4, 11). The church was expressed in each of these cities. In the age of the apostles there was an expression in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), in Antioch (13:1), and in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2). Now all over the world there are thousands of expressions of the church, including one in Taipei, one in New York, and one in London. Although there are thousands of expressions locally, the church itself is still one universally.
The expression of the church takes the locality as its boundary. History shows us that at the beginning of the church the population of Jerusalem may have been around one million. Even though the population was great, the Bible shows us that there was only one church in Jerusalem. On one day three thousand were saved and on another day five thousand were saved, but they still belonged to the church in Jerusalem. This is because the expression of the church takes the locality as its boundary. How great the boundary of a certain locality is determines how great the boundary of the church in that locality is. Likewise, how small the boundary of a locality is determines how small the boundary of the church in that locality is. In Lystra (Acts 14:6, 21), a small city whose population was probably no more than twenty to thirty thousand, there was only one church. The church itself is universal while its expression is local. The boundary of a local expression should be the jurisdiction of the locality at that time. There are churches that are in cities as big as a county, churches that are in cities that serve as capitals, and churches in cities the size of towns or villages. However, there are no churches on a particular street. There is no such thing as the church on Hoping Road or the church on Ren-ai Road. The Bible has only local churches. There is only one church universally, but there are thousands of local expressions. The only separation that may be allowed among the churches is separation by locality. Within a locality, however, there should not be any separation. If there is a separation, it is a division. This is the truth of the Bible.
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