The believers are in the church in the locality where they live. For example, Acts 8:1 speaks of “the church which was in Jerusalem.” This was the first church established in a locality, within the jurisdiction of a city, the city of Jerusalem. It was a local church in its locality, revealed by the Lord in Matthew 18:17. It was not the universal church, as revealed by the Lord in Matthew 16:18, but only part of the universal church, which is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). The record concerning the establishing of the church in its locality is consistent throughout the New Testament (Acts 13:1; 14:23; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Rev. 1:4, 11).
The second time the New Testament mentions the local churches is in Acts 13:1: “Now there were in Antioch, in the local church, prophets and teachers.” In Antioch there was another local church, another local expression of the universal church. Hence, Acts 8 and 13 reveal that the church had two expressions: one in Jerusalem and the other in Antioch. All the local churches are local expressions of the same one universal church.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul writes to “the church of God which is in Corinth.” This reveals that the church is not the church of any person or of any practice or doctrine but of God. The church is the church of God because it is constituted with the universal God; nevertheless, it exists on earth in many localities, one of which was Corinth. In God the church is universal in nature, but in practice the church is local and in a definite place. This indicates that the church has two aspects: the universal and local aspects. Without the universal aspect, the church has no content; without the local aspect, the church has no expression and practice. Hence, the New Testament stresses the local aspect of the church.
The church is of God because the church is constituted of the element of God. However, the church which is of God is also local. Therefore, both the universal and local aspects of the church are seen in 1 Corinthians 1:2. The universal aspect refers to the constitution, nature, and content of the church, and the local aspect refers to the expression and practicality of the church. If we have only the local aspect, without the aspect of the church being of God, we will have only an outward formality; we will lack the inward reality. Furthermore, if we have only the universal aspect but not the local aspect of the church, we will have the reality but not the practicality. On the one hand, the church is constituted of God; on the other hand, the church is expressed in a particular locality. The universal church is expressed and practiced in particular localities.
The universal church, as the Body of Christ, is expressed through local churches. Local churches as the expressions of the one Body of Christ are locally one. The book of Revelation was written to local churches: “To the seven churches which are in Asia” (1:4). Asia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire, and in that province there were the seven cities spoken of in 1:11. The seven churches were in seven cities respectively; they were not all in one city. Revelation 1 through 3 does not deal with the one universal church but with local churches in seven cities. The church is firstly revealed as being universal in Matthew 16:18 and then as local in 18:17. In Acts the church was practiced in the way of local churches. In regard to the Epistles, only a few were written to individuals, and all the rest were written to the local churches. Not one was written to the universal church. Without the local churches, the universal church has no practicality and actuality. The universal church is realized in the local churches. Knowing the church universally must be consummated in knowing the church locally. Our knowing and practicing the local church are a great advancement. The church is in the advanced stage in the book of Revelation, because Revelation is written to local churches.
In Revelation 1:11 we see that sending the book of Revelation to the seven churches equals sending it to seven cities. This clearly shows that the practice of the church life in the early days involved having one church in one city, with one city having only one church. In no city was there more than one church. The local church took the city, not a street or area, as the boundary. A local church should include the whole city in which the church is located; it should not be larger or smaller than the boundary of the city. All the believers within its boundary should constitute the one unique local church within a city. Hence, one church equals one city, and one city equals one church. This is what we call the local churches.