The New Testament is full of metaphors used to describe the Church. Here are five of them.
The People of God
In God’s promise of deliverance to the Hebrews he says that ‘they will be his people’ and he ‘will be their God’ and they shall know him as Yahweh who has brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 6). They are for the rest of the Old Testament, God’s people, an oft-repeated refrain. Peter picks up the same imagery in his first letter (1 Peter 2) in his beautiful statement of the Church’s fulfilment in Christ of the promises given to Israel. The Church is a chosen people, a people for his own possession, a nation that’s set apart from others. Once this was not the case, but now we are God’s people.
This means that the Church universal becomes our first kindred, greater than familial and national ties—though it doesn’t dissolve these, we remain of the people of our blood—we discover that water is thicker than blood. At the very end of history God will dwell with us, the church descending from on high, and we will be his people (Revelation 21).
The Household of God
We have access through one Spirit to the Father, we become children of the most high God and Christ is our brother (Ephesians 2). We join God’s household, as heirs to the promise (Romans 8). I’ve written before on why the word ‘family’ conjures the wrong images for many today, so it may be better to stick with household.
The Church is a people, a nation, even an empire, with an expansive order and global ambitions. It’s also a tight knit group bonded by familial ties—and with all the abilities to wound each other that families have too. They shall know him by the way we love one another (John 13). This is vital image for us to maintain in an age riven by loneliness and division, but often overstated in the church circles I’ve been in, to the detriment of other images.
The City of God
John’s vision of the end of history has the church descended from heaven as a city—as the New Jerusalem—perfect and ruled over by God (Revelation 21). That city is very like the garden set in Eden from Genesis 2, but also notably different. The gates are now on each side, you can enter from anywhere in the world. The city is adorned like the high priest and founded on the apostles as the new tribes of Israel. It’s shaped as the holy-of-holies, the whole city a Temple: though more on that later.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham was looking for this city (Hebrews 11) knowing it would come through his offspring who are now as numerous as the stars in the sky (we will one day rule instead of them too—stars are a symbol of the powers/angels).
The Church is a city, with walls, gates, and gatekeepers. There are different laws inside to those outside, and different customs and ways of doing things. There is something distinct about us, despite our presence in the lands in which we live.
The Temple of God
Peter describes Christians as living stones being built into a building (1 Peter 2)—a Temple—so that the church is composed of each one of them. Held tight by the strength of those around them, built on the Cornerstone of Jesus, and the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
In John’s Revelation we see that the people are the Holy-of-Holies (Revelation 21) where the presence of God dwells. We are told individually that we are the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3) as well as corporately, because God’s Spirit dwells in us.
The Church is the Temple, the patterned on the Heavenly Temple, the design for the cosmos. We are where the worship of God happens. There are particular rituals required for his worship, and particular offices needed to keep it orderly. More broadly we expect the Church to operate on the principle as in heaven so on earth, the Church is where we encounter the heavens in behaviour, in teaching, in relationships, and in direct encounter with God in Christ by his Spirit.
The Flock of God
Jesus describes his people as sheep. Noisy, confused, prone to groupthink, and not the best at cleaning their bottoms. We should look for the true shepherd who enters through the door, the one whose voice we know who leads us forwards (John 10). The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, hunts down wolves, and kills thieves.
The Church are Jesus’ flock. He leads us and we know his voice. We should be attentive to it in the scriptures. He laid down his life for us, he unmanned the Enemy, slew Death, and threw sin out of the fold. We don’t have to do anything to rescue ourselves, and we wouldn’t know how to, but he comes to rescue and save.
Jesus names elders as shepherds under the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5), who guide and lead the people in Jesus’ stead. They guard the sheepfold, deal with wolves, ward off thieves, and show the sheep which way Jesus is leading.
The Images Continue
There are more images of the church, she’s a Vineyard or Garden (Mark 12, John 15), she’s the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), his Bride (Ephesians 5), and his Army (2 Timothy 2). There are others.
My point is simply this: we have a tendency to think in one or two of these. We should deliberately try to move our mental imagery into some of the ones we don’t naturally think in. This will help us to conceive of the church in Biblical ways we’ve forgotten.
Photo by Andrea Lightfoot on Unsplash
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