The Church: A People in Whom Christ Lives
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. — Ephesians 2:22
Ask most people in Eket where WordHouse is and they will tell you: Nung Uso Town Hall. It is a fair answer and a wrong one. The town hall is where WordHouse meets. WordHouse is the people — and more than that, it is Christ in a people. Wherever those people are on a Wednesday afternoon, there the church is.
Three things the New Testament calls the church
- The body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Not like a body — the body. He is the head; we are how He acts in the world.
- The temple of God (Ephesians 2:21–22). The presence that once filled a building now fills a people, built together, stone by living stone.
- The bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25–27). Loved, cleansed, and being prepared for a wedding.
Christ in you, together
This series has said a great deal about Christ in you. But the "you" in Colossians 1:27 is plural. Christ is in you, the people. The new creation is not a collection of individuals who happen to attend the same meeting; it is one new man (Ephesians 2:15), and no member of a body can say to another, "I have no need of you". Your growth in Christ was never meant to happen alone.
What this makes of Sunday
When we gather, we are not producing a service for God to attend. We are the temple, assembling. The teaching is Christ speaking through a member to His body. The songs are the body answering its head. The offering is the body caring for itself and its neighbours. The handshake at the door is one living stone touching another. Nothing about it is small, because nothing about Christ is.
So come on Sunday, not to visit the church, but to be it — together.