Articles
The Church in Romans 16
The Church in Romans 16
The word ‘church’ appears several times in Romans 16: ‘the church which is at Cenchrea’ (vs. 1), ‘the churches of the Gentiles’ (vs. 4), ‘the church that is in their house’ (vs. 5), ‘the churches of Christ’ (vs. 16).
We see that ‘church’ is used in a universal sense of all of those who are ‘in Christ’: Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:16). It was HIS. It is made up of those are His. As Acts 2:47 put it: all the saved were added together”. In this sense, there is but one church, the Lord’s church.
The word church is also used of individual congregations: the church which is at Cenchrea or the church that is in their house. The letters of the NT were addressed to specific congregations in various places such as the church “which is at Corinth” (cp. 1Cor. 1:2).
The word ‘church’ was used of various churches that share a common characteristic – either make up of people or location. Hence we see the ‘churches of the Gentiles and the ‘churches of Christ’. Of the first, each of these local churches was constituted mainly by Gentile believers. In the second, they were the various local churches but each of them people who were said to be IN CHRIST, who belonged to Christ. Note how many times ‘in Christ,’ ‘in the Lord’ are used – (vs. 3, 7,8,9, 10, 11, 12 (twice), 13).
Lastly, these churches were local congregations of people that shared a geographic location such as the 7 churches of Asia (Rev. 1: 4), or the ‘churches of Galatia’ (1Cor. 16:1).
These were all descriptive phrases and not ‘names’. All of the individuals together made up one body of believers who were in Christ and were ‘one body’ (cp. Eph. 4:4-6; Eph 2:16, 18; 1 Cor 12:4ff). These churches did NOT differentiate themselves by various conflicting doctrines (see vs. 17-18), nor by various human leaders (see 1 Cor. 1:12-13). Men err today when they ‘name’ churches after men or doctrinal positions. Likewise, the church is not made of various schismatic groups called ‘denominations’, nor is it constituted of ‘congregations’ themselves. The church is people, specifically saved people, people who belong to Christ. These people are shown to join themselves together in whatever locality they live: for example, Paul ‘joined himself to the disciples’ when he came to Jerusalem in Acts 9:26, 28.
Even while we sometimes may need to identify a specific group (the church at Cenchrea), it is still constituted of the saved people who are located at Cenchrea and is descriptive and not a name. Are you part of the church of Christ?
Hugh DeLong
