{"id":94178,"date":"2026-02-22T15:24:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=94178"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:24:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:24:31","slug":"the-church-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tby Joe R. Price<br \/>\nvia <em>The Spirit&#8217;s Sword<\/em>\n<p>The expression &#8220;church of Christ&#8221; is a descriptive term of possession. The word church is a collective noun (like &#8220;flock&#8221; or &#8220;family&#8221;). The church is composed of saved people (Christians, the &#8220;called out&#8221; ones, Acts 2:41, 47). &#8220;Church of Christ&#8221; is used to signify the church that belongs to Christ (&#8220;<em>I will build my church<\/em>&#8220;, Matthew 16:18). &#8220;Church of Christ&#8221; is not a denominational title.<\/p>\n<p>We emphatically affirm that the church of Christ is not a denomination. While many promote the advantages of &#8220;the church of your choice,&#8221; Jesus&#8217; urgent prayer to the Father was for the unity of His believers &#8211; not their division into religious sects (John 17:20-21). Denominationalism is the essence of religious division. We plead for the unity of believers, grounded in the truth of Jesus (Ephesians 4:3-6; II Timothy 3:16-17).<\/p>\n<p>Others would promote the notion that Christ is important, but the church &#8211; not so much. Yes, Christ is preeminently important (Colossians 1:18). We must also acknowledge the importance of His church, the church of Christ (Matthew 16:18). To diminish the church of Christ is to diminish Christ.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of Christ&#8217;s church is brought into focus by what the Bible says about the church of Christ:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It belongs to Jesus, not man (Matthew 16:18). Jesus built it; it is His. Men have constructed rivals to it, but without Christ&#8217;s approval.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus purchased His church with His blood (Acts 20:28). This is the value Jesus places on His church, the saved ones.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is the head of the church of Christ (Colossians 1:18). Since it is His, He exercises supreme authority over it. That is how valuable the church is to Him. We must submit ourselves to His authority in all things (Matthew 28:18-20; Colossians 3:17).<\/li>\n<li>The church of Christ is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23). Who wants to believe for a moment that Christ&#8217;s body (composed of the saved ones) is insignificant?<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is the Savior of His body, the church of Christ (Ephesians 5:23). He gave Himself to die on the cross so she could live (Ephesians 5:25). That is how important the church is to Jesus!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How important is the church of Christ to you? (Acts 2:36-42, 47).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Joe R. Price via The Spirit&#8217;s Sword The expression &#8220;church of Christ&#8221; is a descriptive term of possession. The word church is a collective noun (like &#8220;flock&#8221; or &#8220;family&#8221;). The church is composed of saved people (Christians, the &#8220;called out&#8221; ones, Acts 2:41, 47). &#8220;Church of Christ&#8221; is used to signify the church that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-94178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42577,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-it-divisive-to-claim-all-denominations-are-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":0},"title":"Isn&#8217;t it divisive to claim all denominations are wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2001","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read the article about why you left the Nazarene denomination. On the latter point of baptism, I will not comment now, but I think your first listed reason is a rational mistake. You said, \"yet the Nazarene Church exists, as does any denomination, because man disregards the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55569,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-yours-mine-or-the-lords\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":1},"title":"The Church: Yours, Mine, or the Lord&#8217;s?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via\u00a0Gospel Minutes, Feb. 6, 1976 Questions: Isn't it true that the present-day church of Christ was begun in the early 1800s by Alexander and Thomas Campbell? Was there any organization of your church from the first to\u00a0the 18th centuries? On what basis can your ministers claim that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/division-in-the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":2},"title":"Division in the Restoration Movement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via Unmasking Sophistry, Vol. 5, No. 1, January-March, 2025 As a reminder, when we talk about the Restoration Movement, we refer to the religious movement that began around the start of the nineteenth century in the United States and endeavored to restore the doctrines and practices of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70114,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":3},"title":"The Restoration Movement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via\u00a0Unmasking Sophistry, Vol 4. No. 4, October-December 2024 Earlier in this series, we discussed the Reformation Movement. This movement set out to reform the Roman Catholic Church to correct the errors and abuses that had developed over the centuries. While the reformers' intentions may have been good,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14650,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-truth-about-error\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":4},"title":"The Truth About Error","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenneth E. Thomas Often one will read an article or hear a sermon and immediately think or say, \"I wish I had written or preached that.\" When this is the case I often do a lesson with the same title or a modified one with some of the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5035,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-divisions-among-the-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":94178,"position":5},"title":"What do you think about the divisions among the churches?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to ask you a question about Romans 16:17 and I Corinthians 1:10 about there being divisions in the church.\u00a0 I have been a member of the church since 1960, at the age of 13, and led singing most of the years since.\u00a0 My dad preached over twenty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}