III. The Ideal Church. — So far as we have pro- ceeded hitherto, we have considered the word in- K\7)<rla always in the sense of the Christian body in its actual state of imperfection. We come now to a conception of the Church in which the empirical
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idea disappears and an ideal Church appears, still capable ol proj^Tess, indeed, in some of the similes under which it is depicted {e.r;. Eph 4'"), but free from all the negative elements of evil. From one point of view, every Christian can be regarded as pcrfe t. lie was washed by baptism from every sUin (cf. 1 Co 6", He 10'*, 1 Jn 3"), and from hence- forth is holy (fivios). The Christians are ' the saints' (ol aytoi). So the distinction of the ideal from the actual body of Christians was a thought w hich lay near at hand. It is the actual Church to which reproof and blame are addressed ; the ideal which ' shall judge tlie world,' I Co 6-. It is the actual Cliurcli upon the foundation of which some build badly ami some well (1 Co 3'"-"), the ' great hou.se ' in which some are ' vessels unto honour ' and some ' vcs.sels unto dishonour ' (2 Ti 2-°) ; it is the ideal which is a ' holy temple of God ' (i'aii! = shrine) (1 Co 3"), sanctified and cleansed by 'the wa.shing of water with the word ... a glorious Church not having sjjot or wrinkle or any such thing . . . holy and without blemish ' (Eph 5-°'"). The metaphors under which the ideal Church is sjKjken of, and its relation to Christ expressed, are of three kinds — (a) the Church as a building, (6) the Church as a body (nwiia), (c) the Church as a bride.
(1) Thf Church as a Building. — This very natural comparison is, according to St. Matt., as old as tiie lime of Christ Himself (Mt Ift" • On this rock I will build my Church ■). St. I'aul (1 Co 310-Ifl) compares the growth of the Corinthian community with that of a building, of which he himself laid the foundation, and upon which others are building. He then (still referring primarily to the Coriiuhian community) passes directly in v.iti to tne idea of the finished building, ' Ye are a temple of God.' The word used for ' temple,* »««,-, means properly an inner shrine or sanctuary-, and St. I'aul evidently has in his'mind the Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem where ' the Lord sittt-th upon the cheru- liims'(2K 19"), as the Holy Ghost has Uisslirine in theUiXtiWa (cf. 2 Co 0**, and for the same thought in regard to the individual believer 1 Co 6"). Then follows m the Ephesian Kp. the con- ception of the whole Church as a ' holy temple,' a * habitation of God * in which the individual Christians or communities are the parts, each fitting into his proper place and the whole held together by Christ, the chief cornerstone (Eph 220-22). Here, where the thought is that in Christ Jew and Gentile are made one building by the breaking down of the ' middle wall of partition' (V. I-*), Christ is the cornerstone and the apostles and prophets the foundation. But in 1 Co 310, where the thought is the building up of the community, Christ is the foundation, and the apostles, etc., the liuilders.
(2) The Church as a Body (^*i/*«).— The idea of the Christian unity in Christ seems to have suggested the comparison ol the society to a human body, in which the individuals are members. each performing, according to his ' gift,' his proper function, ana accepting his proper position (Ro 12*). Then conies the identi- fication of this Christian body with the body of Christ (1 Co 1212. 27, cf. ©it^, Jn 151^.), a conception which culminates in the Idea of the believers all partaking in the one body of Christ in the Eucharist (1 Co 10'7.Jn (fi^f). Not until the later Epp. is the ■u^nri'o called outright the "body of Christ' (Eph 123 412 623, Col 118. 24 21&), In the earlier Epp. it is the vaguer ' we,' ' you,* i,€. primarily the community to which the apostle is writing, although the secondarv idea of the whole (jhurch was probably also present to his mind (Ko 12', 1 Co 12'3- 27, cf. e"). In this relation Christ is sometimes identified with the whole bofly (1 Co 12'»- IT), but in the later Epii. He is called the Hca<l. as the guardian and director (Eph sii. ■*!), as the source of its life, filling it with His fulness (Eph l'-"), as the centre of its unity and the cause of its growth (Eph 4", Col 218). Tiiese last two pa-ixsoges represent the actual Church as growing gradually to this itieal perfection.
(;J) The church as a Brid*. — We have to do here, not only with an ideal conception, but also with the further st^-p of a personi- fication. The comparison of the single community to a virgin is found first in 2 Co 112 • i espoused you to one husband that I Slight present you as a pure virgin to Christ.' Here the idea of Christ as the bridegroom is also present. The expressions tj rv*l«>lsr^ (I I* 613^, ^ i«AucTvi adiX^ (2 Jn H), n ixXi«T») xupiet (td.i), ore also applied to single communities. But the applica- tion of this personiflcation to the whole Church as the Itride of Christ is a step t)eyond these. We are here, says .St. Paul (Ei>h 632)^ face to face with a great mystery. Man and wife become one Mesh, so that a man should love his wife as his own body. The Church is the Bride of Christ ; the two arc one l)odv. Just as man and wife are one Itody ; and as Christ loved the (jhurch and gave Himself up for it, so the husband should love his wife. We see here how closely conncct<'d is this conception with that of the Church as the body of Christ. The union of the two ideas is seen also in the relation of the individual Christian to Christ (1 Co 9><^\ A« man and nnfe become one flesh, so he who cleaveth to (;hri8t (the expression i M*\Uiiu*»t