Week 8 — Day 2

1 Tim. 3:15 But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth

1 Cor. 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? As God’s dwelling place, the church is both God’s house and His household, His family. In the Old Testament the temple and God’s people were two separate things, but in the fulfillment in the New Testament the dwelling place and the family are one. According to God’s New Testament economy, God’s house is His family. Hebrews 3:6…refers to “Christ…as a Son over His house, whose house we are.” In Old Testament times, the house of God was the house of Israel (Lev

22:18; Num. 12:7), symbolized by the tabernacle or the temple among them (Exo. 25:8; Ezek. 37:26-27). Today the house of God is the church. The children of Israel, as people of God, are a type of us, the New Testament believers (1 Cor

9:24—10:11). Their history is a prefigure of the church. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2227)

Today’s Reading

The church has a twofold function. To Christ, the church is the Body; to God, the church is the house. Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body of the Head. This is one function of the church. God is the Father, and the church is His house. This is another function of the church…The church as the Body of Christ is an organism. In like manner, the church as the house of God is a living entity, a living house

First Peter 4:17, another verse that refers to the church as the house of God, says, “It is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God.”…God’s house, or household, is the church composed of the believers. From this house, as His own house, God begins His governmental administration by His disciplinary judgment over His own children, that He may have strong ground to judge, in His universal kingdom, those who are disobedient to His gospel and rebellious to His government

In speaking of the church as the house of God, Paul specifically refers to God as the living God. The living God who lives in the church must be subjective to the church and not merely objective…Because God is living, the church is also living in Him, by Him, and with Him. A living God and a living church live, move, and work together. The living church is the house of the living God. Therefore, in our meetings, service, and ministry we should give people the impression that the living God is living, moving, speaking, and acting among us

The church, the house of the living God, is living in the Father’s name and in the Father’s life. This means that the church is living in the Father’s reality

God’s house is a living composition of His many children in the Father’s life and reality. This means that where the house of God is, there is God the Father with His life and reality. This is similar to the church being the Body of Christ. Christ is not separate from the members of the Body, for, as the Head of the Body, Christ dwells in all the members. For this reason, Christ should not be counted as a separate member of the Body, because He is in all the members of the Body

The principle is the same with the church as God’s house. The Father is not a separate member of the household, the house, but is in all the children

The first characteristic of the status of the church is that it is an assembly called out of the world. The second characteristic is that the church is God’s house composed of those who have been born of God…In order to be the assembly, we need to be sanctified, that is, separated from the world. But to be a component of the house of God, we need to be born of God. Anyone who has not been born of God cannot be part of His house, part of His family. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2227-2229)