I cannot understand the references often made to the church. Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," to my mind implies a gatherer. How can a company of people called Baptists, or Wesleyans, or Catholics, gathered to the names of men, be the church of God? My way of looking at this is that every believer is in the church of Christ, which is His body, but not in the church of God. I am much perplexed about this thing, and if you would spare space in Present Truth to make it plain, I should be thankful.
You are in the main correct in your view of the matter, but you certainly are somewhat confused. I think a very few words will make it plain to you. The word rendered "church" is a compound Greek word, meaning "called out." It corresponds exactly to the word "congregation," which occurs so frequently in the Old Testament. Thus, "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto You," (Hebrews 2:12) is from: "In the midst of the congregation will I praise You." (Psalm 22:22)
The word "congregation" is from two Latin words meaning a flock collected together. The root of the word means flock. This is what the people of God are--a flock gathered out by Christ, "that great Shepherd of the sheep." (Hebrews 13:20) "The church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood," (Acts 20:28) is "the flock." Really, the word "church" ought never to be used with reference to people. It means a building in which people worship, while the people themselves are the congregation. The word "congregation" is in common use, to indicate a collection of people; but since all whom the Lord calls out of the world are gathered to Him, it applies to all His people, however widely scattered they may be in the earth, since all are one in Him. The congregation of the Lord, or church, as it is in ordinary speech, is all who in every place worship the Lord in sincerity.
The term is appropriately applied to any company assembled together in one place, or to any body of people gathered about any name; only it is evident that if they are gathered to any earthly name they do not constitute the church of Christ. In this country the term "the church" commonly designates the church of England, since it is the one established by law; but all such uses are purely matters of custom and convenience. Strictly speaking, there is but one church--the congregation--just as there is but "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all." (Ephesians 4:5-6)
The church, or congregation, is the body of Christ, of which there is but one, and: "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." (1 Corinthians 12:13)
But you certainty have no warrant for thinking that the church of Christ is not the church of God. Christ said, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30)
He is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the impress of His substance. (Hebrews 1:3) "The kingdom of Christ and of God" (Ephesians 5:7) is one and the same thing. The Father and the Son have no separate interests, and Christ does all His work for the glory of the Father. "[He] suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18)
Let us not, however, in our discussion of technical terms, forget the practical, comforting, edifying part of this truth. It is this, that we are actually the body of Christ. This is true of the entire congregation of believers, solely because it is true of each individual member of the church. "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." (Ephesians 5:30) "The head of every man is Christ," (1 Corinthians 11:3) and therefore, "He is the head of the body," (Colossians 1:18)--the congregation. Our bodies, yours and my respectively, are the bodies of Christ-temples of the Holy Ghost, (1 Corinthians 6:19) for God to dwell in,--bodies prepared by God for Christ to use in revealing God in the flesh. If we hear His voice, we are His, and then we may be sure that He will make us wholly like himself.
When He comes the second time He will "fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto himself;" (Philippians 3:21) and this will be but the culmination of His "power over all flesh," (John 17:2) by which He now compels even sinful flesh to obey the mind of the Spirit.--Present Truth, February 28, 1901.