6 Biblical Metaphors for the Church

When Jesus stated, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18), He was not referring to the local church, but to the universal church, the aggregate number of believers in the present age. A number of figures are used in Scripture to describe or illustrate the church as one living organism.

1. Body

A metaphor illustrating the unity and universality of the church is the word body. As the head has authority over the physical body and gives direction to it, so Christ as the head of the church, has authority over it and gives it direction (Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18). This metaphor also emphasizes the unity of all believers in the church age because the church reconciles Jews and Gentiles into one body. There is no distinction; they are one in Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:16; 4:4). Moreover, Christ nourishes the church by giving gifted leaders to the church that it might grow to maturity and be built up as one body in Christ (Eph. 4:12, 16; Col. 2:19). The participation in the elements of the Lord’s Supper illustrates the oneness of the church as Christ’s body (1 Cor. 10:16–17).

2. Bride

The picture of the church as the bride of Christ is seen in Ephesians 5:23 where an analogy is drawn that compares the husband and wife relationship in marriage to Christ and His bride, the church. The illustration is apt because it reveals the magnitude of Christ’s love for the church (Eph. 5:2, 25). A second emphasis of the illustration is the exalted position of the bride.[1] As in the Oriental wedding custom, at the engagement (betrothal) the bride receives the promise of future blessing with her husband. Similarly, the church today is an espoused bride, awaiting her husband’s return from glory. The second stage of the Oriental marriage was the wedding itself, when the husband came to take the bride to be with him. In an analogous figure, the church awaits the return of Christ, when she will be espoused to her husband (John 14:1–3; 1 Thess. 4:16–17). In Oriental weddings, the wedding feast followed; similarly the church, as Christ’s bride, awaits the husband’s return (Rev. 19:7–9) and the glory of the millennial kingdom to follow.

3. Building

Paul has emphasized that Jews and Gentiles alike are one in Christ because God abolished the wall that separated Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:11–18). Now Paul describes the oneness of the church under the figure of a building. The church, a union of Jews and Gentiles, is built upon the “foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). “The apostles” are collectively one of the foundational gifts, designed to equip the believers (Eph. 4:12) and bring the church to maturity (Eph. 4:13).

In the figure of the building, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 3:11), which may refer to the “primary foundation stone at the angle of the structure by which the architect fixes a standard for the bearings of the walls and cross-walls throughout.”[2] In Christ the whole building, the church, is being “fitted together” (Gk. sunarmologoumene;[3] Eph. 2:21), emphasizing Christ’s work of constructing His church. As a building “grows” when under construction, so the church, as a living organism, is growing as new believers are added to the “building” (cf. 1 Peter 2:5).

4. Priesthood

In 1 Peter 2:5 the apostle combines the figures of a building and a priesthood, stating, “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.” The statement is reminiscent of Exodus 19:5–6 where God declared that Israel was “a kingdom of priests.”[4] In the nation Israel, however, only those of the tribe of Levi could serve as priests, whereas in the church, every believer is a priest. Peter indicates all believers are priests for the purpose of offering spiritual sacrifices instead of animal sacrifices.

“Christ nourishes the church by giving gifted leaders to the church.”

The uniqueness of the New Testament priesthood is further seen in 1 Peter 2:9 where Peter refers to a “royal priesthood.” Church-age believers are both kings and priests (cf. Rev. 1:6). In the Old Testament it was impossible to combine both offices for one could only be either of the Levitical line or the kingly line, the line of Judah. The entire church functions as a priesthood, whereas in Israel only the Levitical line had that privilege. All church age believers have access to God through Christ, the church’s High Priest; in Israel individual believers could approach God only through the Levitical priests. All church-age believers may approach God boldly at any time (Heb. 4:14–16), whereas Israelites could approach God only during the particular offerings (Lev. 1–7).[5] These contrasts indicate that while both Israel and the church are called a priesthood, Israel and the church are distinct entities.

5. Flock

A beautiful, tender image depicting the relationship of believers to the Lord is found in John 10:16 where the church is called a flock (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:3). Israel had a relationship to the Lord as sheep to a shepherd (Psalm 23) and was called a flock (Ps. 80:1; Jer. 13:17), but in the Old Testament that figure was restricted to Israel. The uniqueness about the church being a flock and Christ the Shepherd is that this flock is composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus declared, “I have other sheep [Gentiles], which are not of this fold [Jews]; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock [the church composed of Jews and Gentiles] with one shepherd” (John 10:16).

The image emphasizes that members of the church as the sheep of Christ belong to Him. Jesus emphasizes that the flock is “My sheep” (John 10:26, 27) and that they are secure in His hand. Moreover, the sheep respond to the Shepherd’s voice—there is intimacy, for the Shepherd knows His sheep individually, and they recognize His voice and respond to Him.

6. Branches

In John 15 Jesus describes the close relationship church-age believers enjoy with Him as being one of branches related to a vine. Jesus is the true vine (John 15:1), while the Father is the farmer who tills the land in order that the branches may bear fruit (John 15:1). Church-age believers are the branches that draw their life from the vine because they are “in Him” (John 15:4, 5). The branches receive their life-giving nourishment in their attachment to the vine; as they remain in the vine, they are able to grow and bear fruit.

This relationship describes both union and communion of church-age believers with Christ.[6] Christ’s exhortation to the church is to “abide in me.” Abide (Gk. meno) means essentially “to remain,” “stay,” or “live.” In this context it means to remain or continue in the realm in which one finds himself.[7] Thus to abide in Christ is equivalent to believing in Christ. This relationship of abiding begins at the moment of faith, and continues as we walk by faith (cf. 1 John 2:22, 24, 28).[8]

The purpose of the branches abiding in the vine is to produce fruit. Every branch that does not bear fruit he “lifts up”[9] that it may bear fruit. The ones who continue with Christ will bear fruit (John 15:5). To enhance the fruit-bearing process the branches are pruned that they may bear more fruit (John 15:2). “The figure of the vine thus demonstrates the vital relationship between the members of the church and Christ.”[10]

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[1] Earl D. Radmacher, What the Church Is All About: A Biblical and Historical Study (Chicago: Moody, 1978), 256–65.

[2] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, 6 vols. (Nashville: Broadman, 1931), 4:528–29.

[3] “In construction terms it represents the whole of the elaborate process by which stones are fitted together: the preparation of the surfaces, including the cutting, rubbing, and testing; the preparation of the dowels and the dowel holes; and finally the fitting of the dowels w. molten lead.” Fritz Rienecker, Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, Cleon Rogers, ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980), 527.

[4] “While these desciptions of the church [1 Peter 2:9] are similar to those used of Israel in the Old Testament, this in no way indicates that the church supplants Israel and assumes the national blessings promised to Israel (and to be fulfilled in the Millennium). Peter just used similar terms to point up similar truths.” Roger M. Raymer, “1 Peter,” in John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, eds., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 2 vols. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1983), 2:845–46.

[5] See the helpful contrast in Saucy, The Church in God’s Program, 39–40.

[6] James E. Rosscup, Abiding in Christ: Studies in John 15 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), 16–19.

[7] William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, rev. by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1979), 505.

[8] Homer A. Kent Jr., Light in the Darkness: Studies in the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974), 183.

[9] The word translated “takes away” in John 15:2 may well be translated “lifts up,” a translation justified by both definition and culture. The word airei may legitimately be translated “lift up.” Cf. usages in Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon, 24. The traveler to Israel will notice the vineyards have stones measuring perhaps five inches in height placed under the vines, lifting them off the ground to enable them to bear fruit.

[10] Saucy, The Church in God’s Program, 55–56.