3. FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD Another figure is that of the household or family that accentuates the love, mutual care, affection, and fellowship enjoyed in Christ. It brings out the thought of brothers and sisters who share a common Father and share that relationship. Paul writes, “So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but…
When Paul speaks of the Old Testament being a “shadow of good things to come,” he’s saying that we find in the OT a physical form of the spiritual reality. The church is neither confined to a physical place for worship as was the Jewish and pagan religions (John 4:21) nor does it have a…
As to its usage, the word appears in literature outside the New Testament letters that describe a class of people with the same craft, profession, or citizenry to conduct business. In the New Testament, the word is used by Luke to describe Israel in the wilderness (Acts 7), an assembly of people in Ephesus and…
Moulton and Milligan explain that the word “meant originally any public assembly of citizens summoned by a herald. It is the term in the Septuagint for the community of Israel, whether assembled or not”[1] (p. 195). The verb literally means “to call out of” (ek, out of + kaleo, to call). Sometimes, the word is…
We propose a meaning for the word ekklesia that is consistently applied to both universal and local contexts. The word ἐκκλησία, when applied to God’s people, was never intended to describe a physical meeting. This is not an unusual use of words used by New Testament writers. The word shepherd, for example, referred to a…
Another human production of using unsound words that corresponds with the unscriptural practices is the use of the word “church”. First, let us be reminded as to the personal accountability to sound words and to Paul’s charge not to teach a different doctrine (1 Tim. 1:3-4). It is within the same context that Paul identifies…