The Church

Aside from Christ, no more beautiful name can be uttered than “the Church”—which He purchased with His own blood. There are many different understandings of the word “church,” but God has only one understanding, and He has revealed that in Ephesians 5:31-32: “‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

It is written “one flesh” as opposed to “one spirit.” The man—Christ—first forsook His heavenly Father, and then He forsook His earthly mother when He died on the cross. He entrusted His mother to His disciple John, and He said to His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He suffered death according to the flesh so that in His flesh through death He could receive His church to Himself. But if Christ is crucified according to the flesh, His church must be just the same, and those who are not crucified according to the flesh cannot possibly be “one flesh” with Him. And if they are not one flesh with Him, they are not in His church, even if they are considered to be leaders in one of the countless churches here on earth.

It is so blessed to live a “church life”; it is the most precious of our possessions. We are all baptized with one Spirit to become one body. In other words, we are “one church,” whether we are Jew or Greek, slave or free; we have all received one Spirit to drink from. 1 Cor. 12:13.

God has given very clear guidelines, but people “play” church and form lots of churches based on baptism, communion, traditions or on some person. God formed and is still forming His church on the cross, because that is where He has destroyed and continues to destroy all enmity. The cross is the place where God has “alliance” meetings with people, and this is where He is able to bring unity and put an end to enmity. There is no other church, and there is no other way to establish unity. In spite of the fact that this is so obvious, it is nevertheless a tremendous mystery that Christ and the church are “one flesh.”