The Church

Aside from Christ, there is no more beautiful name that has been given to us than “the church,” which He purchased with His blood. There are many different understandings of the word “church,” but God has only one understanding, the one He has revealed to us in Eph. 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 says “one flesh” as opposed to one spirit. The Man, Christ, first left His heavenly Father, and then He left 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 unto Himself. However, if Christ was crucified according to the flesh, His church must be crucified in the same way. Those who are not crucified according to the flesh cannot possibly be “one flesh” with Him. Therefore, they are not part of the church, even if they are considered to be great leaders in one of the numerous churches here on earth.

It is blessed to live this church-life; it is the most precious thing we possess. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body—one church—whether we are Jew or Greek, slave or free; we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Cor. 12:13.

God has laid out very clear guidelines, but people play church and establish countless churches based on baptism, communion, meeting traditions, or individual personalities, etc. God has formed and continues to form 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 holds ecumenical meetings with mankind. This is where He is able to establish unity and put the enmity to death. There is no other church and no other way to establish unity. In spite of the fact that this is so obvious, it is, nevertheless, a great mystery that Christ and the church are “one flesh.”