Someone inquired as to how many churches Jesus Christ has in view of the biblical statement in Romans 16:16, “…The churches of Christ salute you” (KJV). Does our Lord have one church, or do many churches belong to Him?
The English word “church” is translated from the New Testament Greek word “ekklesia.” The Greek word appears 114 times and is uniformly translated as “church,” except in Acts 19:39 where it is translated as “assembly.” “Ekklesia” is a compound Greek word meaning “out of” and “a calling”—the called out. Depending on the context in which it appears, it refers in the Bible to Israel in the wilderness following the Exodus (Acts 7:38), to a lawful assembly of citizens (Acts 19:39), to a mob (Acts 19:32, 41), to the whole of Christianity (Matthew 16:18), to a particular Christian congregation (1 Corinthians 1:2) or to the worship assembly of a congregation (1 Corinthians 14:4-5, 12, 19, 23, 34).
Historically and biblically, there was only one church, and there were no denominations yet, when Romans 16:16 was penned by the inspired apostle Paul. There were, though, several congregations of the one church, and that is how “churches” (congregations) is used in Romans 16:16, as well as in Romans 9:31.
Furthermore, the apostle Paul wrote that the words “church” and “body” refer to the same thing. “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23 NKJV). Later, in Ephesians 4:4, the same apostle wrote, “There is one body…” Hence, there is one church in the sense of there being one spiritual organization over which Jesus Christ is the Head, and yet, several congregations or churches comprise the one church.
