II. The Believers Living in the Local Churches

The phrase “tell it to the church” in Matthew 18:17 indicates strongly that it is the local church that makes the universal church practical to believers. Witness Lee expounds on this phrase:

The believers are living in the local churches. Actually, we cannot live directly in the universal church. It is impossible for us to live in the universal church without living in a local church. The Lord is building up the universal church, and each of us is living practically in a local church. In Matthew 18:17 the Lord said that if, as a believer, you have a problem with another believer, you should tell it to the church. Surely the church mentioned in this verse is not the universal church; it must be the church in the place where you are. If you are in Seoul and you have any problem, you should tell the problem to the church in Seoul. If you are in Pusan, you should go to the church in Pusan; if you are in Hong Kong, you should go to the church in Hong Kong; and if you are in New York, you should go to the church in New York. The church to which you should tell your problem is the local church. (48)

A.The Local Churches Being the Local Expressions of the Body of Christ

In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul tells the believers in the local church in Corinth that they “are the body of Christ.” Similarly, in Ephesians 2:22 he states that the believers in the local church in Ephesus “are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Both “the body of Christ” and “ a dwelling place of God” are terms used throughout the Bible to refer to the universal church (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 3:15). By association, then, the New Testament identifies the local churches as the local expressions of the universal church, the Body of Christ. Witness Lee explains below:

The local churches are the local expressions of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 2:22). There is only one Body, but there are many expressions. Universally, all the churches are one Body, and locally, every local church is a local expression of that universal Body. A local church is not the Body; it is only a part of the Body. It is a local expression of the Body. The church in Seoul is not the entire Body; it is a part of the entire Body as the Body’s local expression. (48-49)

B. All the Local Churches Constituting the One Body of Christ

The one Body of Christ, the universal church, is constituted of all the local churches. This truth is confirmed by the fact that the New Testament refers initially to one church and then, throughout the Acts and the Epistles, to many churches. Witness Lee comments:

All the local churches constitute the one Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4). In Matthew 16:18 the Lord said, “I will build My church.” Here the church is in the singular number, indicating that it must be the universal church. But in the Acts and the Epistles, a number of times the Bible says “the churches"—the churches in Syria, the churches in Asia, the churches in Macedonia, and the churches in Galatia. How could the Bible refer first to one church and then to many churches? It is because the one church, the universal church, is the totality of all the churches, and all the churches are local constituents of the one universal church. (49)

As indicated by Witness Lee, the Bible speaks of a church in which the believers are to live in a practical way. This surely refers to the local church. However, a local church is not separate from the universal Body of Christ. Rather, the local churches are the local expressions of the Body of Christ, and the local churches constitute the Body of Christ.