The Church: The People of God We Love and Build Up

Today’s reading continues in Section III: The Church – The People of God We Love and Build Up.Read here.

The church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

With Christ’s people through the centuries and around the world, we confess, in the words of the Nicene Creed, that the church is“one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”

In all the world and throughout history, the church is one people of God, one body of Christ and one temple of the Holy Spirit through one baptism by the Spirit, and the one Bride of Christ. Across time, space, culture, and language we are one church, united by Christ and his finished work, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and joined together in the love of God. (Eph 4:4-6; 2 Cor 11:2)

As the visible expression of Christ in the world, the church is called to Christlike holiness, displayed by our determination to live as those who have been set apart for God, and demonstrated by Christlike character and behaviour. (2 Tim 2:21; 1 Pet 1:14-16)

The church of Jesus Christ is catholic (universal and all-embracing), in that all who belong to Christ—irrespective of ethnicity, gender, region, status, or ability—belong equally within his new community, the church. Therefore, there is a place for every member because each part is needed to make up the wholeness of the church. There is a place for boys and girls, for women and men, for ministers and missionaries, for homemakers, educators, labourers, professionals, and marketplace leaders

In the church catholic, no human culture can claim preeminence. All human cultures must bow in submission before the God of all wisdom and as they do so, they each make their contribution to our understanding of Scripture and proclamation of the gospel. In this way, God unites us together to declare and display his glory in all our diversity. The local church is the only visible manifestation of the catholic church. It reveals the glory of God’s temple, in which all those who belong to Jesus Christ, like living stones, have their rightful place. (1 Cor 3:16-17; 12:12-27; Eph 2:20-21; 1 Pet 2:4-10)

This one, holy, catholic church is also apostolic. It began its public witness to the good news of Jesus Christ with the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and ever since has proclaimed the same message to all the world. Throughout history and in every place, the church is apostolic, standing in continuity with Christ’s twelve apostles by holding fast to their teaching, once for all entrusted to God’s people and handed down from generation to generation. Through the gift of this living and active word, God builds his church by giving us faith and new life, and so forms his church into the likeness of Christ. (Rom 10:17; 1 Pet 1:23; Jude 3)