Spiritual Physiology of the Church

The word "church" represents in the New Testament the Greek word ἐκκλησία, ekklesia (Latin, ecclesia). The term is probably derived from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., "the Lord's house") that was used by ancient authors for the place of worship.

Pre-Christian History of the Term Church
Although ekklesia soon became a distinctively Christian word, it has its own pre-Christian history. Throughout the Greek world and right down to New Testament times (see Acts 19:39), ekklesia was the designation of the regular assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state who are "called out" by the herald for the discussion and decision of public business.

The Septuagint translators had used the word to render the Hebrew kahal, which is the Old Testament that denotes the "congregation" or community of Israel, especially in its religious aspect of the people of God. In this Old Testament sense we find ekklesia employed by Stephen in the book of Acts where he describes Moses as "the one who has in the congregation in the wilderness..." (v. 7:38).

The word thus came into Christian history with associations alike for the Greek and the Jew. To the Greek it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; while to the Jew, a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word "church" had a direct bearing upon its Christian meaning for the ekklesia of the New Testament is a "theocratic democracy," that is a society of those who are free but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to the King.

The Term Church was Adopted by Jesus Himself
The name ekklesia was first applied to the Christian society by Jesus Himself when He said to Peter "... upon this rock I will build My church..." (Matthew 16:18). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia said that Jesus employ a new name for the society that He came to found as the "kingdom of God" or the "kingdom of heaven" - a designation which had its roots in Old Testament teaching and which the Messianic expectations of Israel had already made familiar - into church when it was clear that Jesus was to be rejected by the Jewish people (see Matthew 16:21).

The adoption of the term "church" did not imply any abandonment of the ideas suggested by the conception of the kingdom for in Matthew 19:19, "the kingdom of heaven" is employed in a manner which at least compels us to regard them as closely correlative and as capable of translation into each other's terms.

The comparative disuse by the apostolic writers of the name "kingdom" together with their emphasis on the church only shows that they had followed their Master's guidance in substituting for a name and a conception that were peculiarly Jewish.

The Use of the Term Church in the New Testament
The word ekklesia occurs in the Gospels only twice and that is in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 of the same Gospel where the questions of discipline were to be decided by the collective judgment of the members of the church, which shows that the church possess the powers of self-government.

In the book of Acts, ekklesia has come to be the regular designation for the society of Christian believers and is employed in two distinct senses. First in local sense to denote the body of Christians in a particular place or district, e.g., in Jerusalem (5:11; 8:1), in Antioch (13:1; 15:22), and in Caesarea (18:22), a usage which reappears in the book of Revelation in the letters to the Seven Churches. Then in a wider and what was be called a universal sense to denote the sum total of existing local churches (9:31) that are regarded as forming one body.

In the epistles of apostle Paul, both usages are frequent and even been applied to a single Christian household or to little groups of believers who were accustomed to assemble in private houses for worship and fellowship (see Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2).

The Ideal Use of the Term Church
In Paul's epistles to Ephesians and Colossians, he has another use of ekklesia peculiar to himself, which may be described as the ideal use, where he used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1;18-19; 2:19).

Spiritual Physiology of the Church
As we look at Christ as the head of the church, His body, we see a number of details that can come out of that metaphor in which we are going to expand our thinking and make a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this blog as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church." This includes the following:

1. The Skeleton. It is those things that give the body its shape and form. It is absolutely essential and crucial to any kind of functioning body. It is where the internal organs are hung, the muscles are attached, and the skin wraps around it. It is the obvious framework upon which the other parts or systems of the body depends;
2. The Internal System that is the organic life of the church has;
3. The Muscles that is the activities the church engages in; and
4. The Flesh or the skin that is the outward form that it takes.

People in churches everywhere all across the world struggle with temptation, sin, old habits, confusion, trust, circumstances and suffering. The objecting of this series of blogs is to help and guide believers to be victorious over the things where they struggles and to present the church to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2), that is to be everything that God wants it to be.