(2) Fundamentally, the word is " an assembly " ; not ecclesias- tical, but civil. Nor is it used exclusively in the ecclesiastical sense in the New Testament. The town clerk of Ephesus "dismissed the assembly." The word used by St. Luke would bear the interpretation that " he set free the Church." But there is no confusion in the use of the term ; there is no doubt in which cases it means " the Church," and in which cases it means some- thing else.
(3) But even when the meaning is a Christian one, it is not always the same. There is more than a shade of difference between one case and another, and the difference is important. For example, we have mention of the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila, and of the church in the house of Philemon ; and of Lydia being " baptized, and her household." In these cases it may imply the family, and a few surrounding neighbours who were in the habit of meeting for common prayer.
(4) It is used next of the Churches or assemblies of Christians in particular localities, as when we read of the Church of * Jerusalem, or the Churches of Asia or Galatia, or the Church that is in Corinth.
(5) Lastly, it is used of the whole body of believers in all times and in all places, as when our Lord said, " Upon this rock i I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it " ; or, as when St. Paul describes it as " the pillar and ground of the truth."
It is this last and widest use of the word that is character- istic of the great Epistle to the Ephesians. When St. Paul talks . about Christ being Head of all things to the Church, when he talks about Christ loving the Church and giving Himself for it, it is not simply the Church at Ephesus he is thinking of, but that
V
8 THE CHURCH
greater Church, that universal Church, which embraces and includes the holy and the loving and the good everywhere.
2. Body. — The only point about the use of the word " body " to be observed at present is the distinction between Christ's body which He took of Mary and His body which is the Church. Christ's body which He took of Mary He wears in Heaven. He is manifested there in it, as " the Lamb as it had been slain," i.e, with the wound-prints upon Him. He wears for ever the robe of our nature, the glorified yet real human form ; the angels see it. But He is manifested on earth in His mystical or spiritual body, which in some way expresses and manifests Him. He is clothed in a body here, He is still incarnate here in the Church, He still acts and speaks among men. So He said again and again, " I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." " The world seeth me no more ; but ye see me " — ye, the disciples ; i.e. those who in every age have eyes to see.
^ Why did our Lord institute the Church in the world? What is the one great doctrine ? It is summed up in words the most exact that human speech could find — the Church, the immoi-tal Body of Christ. That body which was mortal here, and was so marvellously changed, has gone up yonder, but the immortal body of Christ is here ; the body in which He lives, still to speak the truth of God, to work the works of God, with these folded hands to plead as intercessors. Oh ! for the Church, the body of our Lord, that it might wear on earth the beauty of the Lord, and be His representative on earth until He come ! ^
IL
The Ideal Chukch.
1. The Church doctrine of this Epistle is inestimably precious. The word " Church " occurs frequentl3^ We have it here, in a con- nexion high as the heavens, and full of the very deepest spiritual suggestions. We have it in chapter iii. 10, where " the Church " is beheld as the scene in which, even now, " the governments and the authorities in the celestial regions" get informed of "the variegated wisdom of God, according to His purpose of the ages."
1 Life of J. B. Paton, 287.
EPHESIANS I. 22, 23 9
We have it again in iii. 21, where " glory " is given to the Eternal Y Father, " in the Church, in Christ Jesus," throughout eternity. And in the fifth chapter (23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32) we have it set fully before X us as the Bride and Spouse of the Lord Himself. He is the Church's Head, the Saviour of the Body ; it is subject to Him, with wifely reverence ; He loved it, He gave Himself for it, to hallow it, to cleanse it " by the bathing of the water attended by an utterance," to present it to Himself glorified, spotless, holy. He nourishes it and cherishes it. He and His Spouse are one.
Here is on the one hand an Ecclesia which is lifted for our view far above mere terrestrial and visible limitations. The one allusion to the external is the reference to the " water," but even this is at once so connected with the " utterance " (prii^a) of the everlasting Covenant as to point us straight through the ordinance to the heavenly blessing which it seals. The whole conception soars in the high air of direct spiritual relations between the Lord and a redeemed Company, whose units are all joined in an ineffable reality of faith and love to Him, and so member to member. We may call it the Ideal Church. We may call it the Invisible, in the sense of invisibility which points to an Organism seen in its true limits and relations by God alone. Yet it is a something which refuses to be really identified with any one organ- ization, or aggregate of organizations, officered and tabulated by human ministers. It is related more nearly, may we not say, to heaven than to earth. It is, in its essence, with Christ where He is. It is the wonder of angels. It is the sphere within which glory is given to God as much in eternity (iii. 21) as in time. It (not parts of it, but it) is to be presented to its Lord at last in the heavenly light. Let us beware of lowering the radiant sublimity of the conception by definitions of the Church essentially conditioned by time.