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Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

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Chapter 51<br />

Church Organization and Unity<br />

The only times we read that Jesus mentioned His "church" were twice--<br />

Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. He used the word ecclesia, which means "called<br />

out," a people designated and separated from the world, defined and<br />

denominated in a form that the world could recognize as an entity.<br />

The apostles called ancient Israel a "church in the wilderness" (Acts<br />

7:38), and we read that Israel was a visible organization that the world could<br />

see as God's denominated people.<br />

<strong>Paul</strong> thought of a beautiful illustration of what the church is--it's a<br />

"body." "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular ... in the<br />

church" (1 Cor. 12:12-28). In his brilliant depiction of the relationship of the<br />

church and its members to Christ, <strong>Paul</strong> considers the church to be the "body<br />

of Christ" which "is not one member, but many" (vss. 27, 14). "As the body<br />

is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being<br />

many, are one body: so also is Christ" (vs. 12). "By one Spirit are we all<br />

baptized into one body, ... The body is not one member, but many" (vss. 13,<br />

14). <strong>Paul</strong> describes the corporate unity of the church.<br />

There is no English adjective that can be used to describe this<br />

relationship of the body to the head, or of the various members of the body to<br />

each other. Hence it is necessary to employ a Latin derivative as an adjective<br />

to describe this "body" relationship: corporate. (The word comes from the<br />

Latin corpus, meaning "body.") For example, "all the members of that one<br />

body, being many, are one body" (vs. 12). They bear a corporate relationship<br />

one to another.<br />

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