6 Metaphors the Bible Uses for the Church

Figures of Speech That Show Us Major Themes of God’s Word

There is a richness to the church that defies human comprehension. God draws from a treasury of terms to describe his magnum opus, including words related to the family (seed, sons, and brethren), the gathering of worshipers (assembly, congregation, and church), the identity of a distinct group (people and nation), the holiness of his people (saints and priests), the divine cause of their existence (the elect, called, and faithful), their submissive allegiance to Christ (disciples), and God’s great love for them (special treasure and inheritance).

One of the most beautiful ways in which God’s Word describes the church is through vivid metaphors that illuminate the identity and corporate life of the church in union with Christ. Some of these metaphors, such as Christ’s bride and body, are so familiar to Christians that we often fail to think about the amazing implications that such images have for the church. Other metaphors are less well known but also are worthy of our attention and meditation.

Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 4

Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley

In the final volume of the Reformed Systematic Theology series, Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley unpack important topics around ecclesiology (church) and eschatology (last things).

1. A Flock

One of the oldest metaphors for the church is the flock of God. A flock of sheep depends on a shepherd for guidance, provision, and protection. Jacob blessed Joseph in the name of “the God who has been my shepherd [ra‘ah] all my life long” (Gen. 48:15 ESV; cf. 49:24). The Lord is the “Shepherd of Israel,” who leads his people “like a flock.”¹ Hence, David says, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1). Israel also had human “shepherds,” sometimes translated as “pastors,” especially the kings from the house of David.² When God’s people lack a qualified leader, they are “sheep” without a “shepherd.”³ The Lord brought David from tending his father’s sheep to “feed” (ra‘ah) or “shepherd” the people of God (Ps. 78:70–72). Hence, we see that the shepherd-flock metaphor is deeply rooted in God’s covenantal promises to the patriarchs, the nation of Israel, and David. This was another way of saying that he would be their God and they would be his people through his appointed king.

With the incarnation of the Lord, the flock of God becomes centered on Christ and defined by its dependence on him. Christ is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11–15). He is also “the door of the sheep,” through which they find salvation and life (John 10:1–10). Christ says he came for the “lost sheep” of Israel (Matt. 10:6; 15:24; cf. Jer. 50:6). His disciples are his “little flock,” to whom the Father gives the kingdom (Luke 12:32). His love for sinners is like that of a shepherd seeking lost sheep (Luke 15:4–7), and the church should seek people who go astray (Matt. 18:12–13). His death is not the end; he takes up his life again and calls his sheep from inside and outside Israel to make one flock (John 18:16–18).

2. A Garden, Vineyard, or Field

Agricultural metaphors, such as garden, vineyard, and field, communicate that the church flourishes by God’s blessing and must bear good fruit. Isaiah told a parable in which “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,” and though God gave his vineyard every advantage, it produced oppression instead of the fruit of justice (Isa. 5:1–7).⁴ Christ tells his own parable of the vineyard, in which the tenants mistreat the owner’s servants and kill his son rather than render up the fruit they owe him (Matt. 21:33–41). Christ’s application is sobering: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). The identity of this fruitful “nation” is revealed in Christ’s parable of “the true vine,” in which he says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:1, 5). Christ claims to embody the true Israel, in which no one can participate except by union and communion with him.⁵

The image of God’s people as a living, botanical organism shows us the unity of the church through the ages. The prophets spoke of Israel as an “olive tree” (Jer. 11:16; Hos. 14:6). Paul compares God’s people to an olive tree in which both “root” and “branches” are “holy” to God (Rom. 11:16). When some of Abraham’s physical offspring rejected Christ in unbelief, these “branches” were “broken off” by God, but he grafted new branches, Gentiles, into the same tree, warning them, too, that they would remain only by faith (Rom. 11:17–24). Though many Jews presently do not believe in Christ, God is able to graft them into the tree when they turn to the Lord in faith (Rom. 11:23). There is one tree, one people of God, rooted in the patriarchs and including all who believe in Christ alone for salvation.

Paul describes the church as a field cultivated by the ministry of the Word: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6–7). Paul explains, “You are God’s field” (1 Cor. 3:9 ESV).⁶ The lesson is that preachers, like servants hired by a farmer, are responsible to work faithfully but only God can cause the church to grow by his grace.

3. A City, Jerusalem, or Zion

From the beginning of David’s monarchy, Jerusalem, also called the city of David or “Zion,”⁷ had a central place in God’s plan.⁸ Solomon built God’s house there according to the Lord’s covenant with David (2 Sam. 7:4–17), which itself was a partial fulfillment of God’s covenant with Israel (2 Sam. 7:23–27). In Scripture, the city can represent the whole people of God.⁹ For the prophets, Zion became the focal point of Israel’s hope, symbolizing the redeemed and faithful people of God who enjoy his presence and serve his purpose to influence the world.¹⁰ “Jerusalem” and “Zion” can even refer to the people of God delivered from all evil and fully blessed.¹¹

In the New Testament, Peter says that God builds his house “in Sion”¹² by laying believers as living stones on Christ (1 Pet. 2:6, citing Isa. 28:16). Zion is wherever the church of Christ may be found, for those whom God “called” are “now the people of God” (1 Pet. 2:9–10). The epistle to the Hebrews also incorporates the city metaphor into Christian eschatology. Believers acknowledge that they are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” but this does not trouble them, for they look for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” a “heavenly” city (Heb. 11:10, 13, 16; cf. 13:14). In the new covenant, worshipers already have access to this city, for they “come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22).

In the Apocalypse, Jesus promises that those who overcome this world will be publicly identified as citizens of “the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God” (Rev. 3:12). “Mount Sion” is now located at the throne of God, where the assembly of his true Israel worships the Lamb (Rev. 14:1–5).

There is a richness to the church that defies human comprehension.

4. A House or Temple

Jacob spoke of the place of God’s special presence as “the house of God . . . the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16–17). The Lord manifested his presence with Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire (Ex. 13:21–22), which settled in the tabernacle (Ex. 29:42–46; 40:34–38) and later in the temple (1 Kings 8:10–13). The earthly temple corresponded to God’s heavenly temple, the place of his manifest glory and throne.¹³ The temple, centered on the “ark of the covenant” (1 Kings 8:1, 6, 21, 23), was the place where God kept his covenantal promise to be with his people. God’s covenantal promises to David (1 Kings 8:15–20) and all Israel came to fruition there. The house of God in Jerusalem was the center of God’s worshiping “assembly.” However, the prophets foresaw a day when God would build a new structure in Zion founded on the living cornerstone of the Christ (Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16). God’s cloud of glory will surround a cleansed and renewed Zion as a protective “tabernacle” or “shelter” (Isa. 4:2–6).¹⁴

Christ and his apostles quote the “stone” prophecies as fulfilled in him.¹⁵ Christ is the living temple, God dwelling with man (John 1:14), in a temple-body that sinners destroyed but he raised up three days later (John 2:18–22). The Lord Jesus announces that the time has arrived when God does not require worship at the temple on Mount Zion but seeks worshipers everywhere who “worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:19–24).

By union with the ascended Christ through his outpoured Spirit, God’s people have become the visible home of God’s special presence. Paul says to the church, “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16). Remarkably, the apostle quotes God’s covenant with ancient Israel (Lev. 26:12) and applies it to the church—and a Gentile church at that. Believers in Christ, Jew and Gentile, “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:20–22). Wayne Grudem says, “The picture of the church as God’s new temple should increase our awareness of God’s very presence dwelling in our midst as we meet.”¹⁶

5. A Bride or Mother

God’s covenant with his people naturally lends itself to marital illustrations. The Bible often personifies cities and nations as women. For example, we read of the “daughter of Jerusalem” and the “daughter of Zion” (2 Kings 19:21).¹⁷ Biblical poems celebrating the love between the king and his bride have long been interpreted as pictures (either allegorical or typological) of the Lord’s relationship to his people (Ps. 45:9–15; Song of Songs).¹⁸ God said to Israel, “Thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called” (Isa. 54:5). Even as he rebuked Israel for her sins, he said, “I am married unto you” (Jer. 3:14).

The bridal imagery used of Israel in the Old Testament is applied to the church in the New Testament. Christ calls himself “the bridegroom” of his people (Matt. 9:15; 25:6), which implies that he is the incarnate God of Israel, and the church is his bride. In the visions given to John, the heavenly Jerusalem and the wife of Christ rather strangely but beautifully merge, so that he sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2).

The metaphor of the bride woos us to love Jesus Christ with all our hearts. Grudem says, “The thought that the church is like the bride of Christ should stimulate us to strive for greater purity, holiness, love for Christ, and submission to him.”¹⁹ Perhaps we are zealous for God’s truth, but are we zealous for God’s Son? That is the true character of the church, the bride of Christ. Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) said,

We must ask, “Do I fight merely for doctrinal faithfulness?” This is like the wife who never sleeps with anybody else, but never shows love to her own husband. Is that a sufficient relationship in marriage? No, 10,000 times no. Yet if I am a Christian who speaks and acts for doctrinal faithfulness but do not show love to my divine Bridegroom, I am in the same place as such a wife.²⁰

Another aspect of this bridal imagery is the metaphor of the church as our mother by its fruitful union with the Lord. The Lord’s ancient people viewed Israel as their “mother.”²¹ Though Israel’s sins made her a barren wife, the Lord promised to turn from wrath to mercy and make an everlasting covenant with her, so that she would bear so many children that she must increase the size of her home (Isa. 54:1–10). Paul quotes Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel’s fruitful motherhood (Isa. 54:1), saying, “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26–27). The heavenly Jerusalem’s motherly care is exemplified in the ministry of the Word: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). By its union with Christ, the mother church is a means of our spiritual renewal and growth, and thus worthy of our love, esteem, gratitude, respect, and service.²² As Christians suffer persecution, they receive help and consolation from “our lady mother the church,” as Tertullian (fl. 200) said.²³

6. A Body

The apostle Paul also develops another word picture of the church as the “body” of Christ.²⁴ Paul says, “As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office [praxis, practice, function]: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:4–5). The idea of a “member” here is not membership in an organization but being a part of a living body, such as a hand or an eye (cf. Matt. 5:29–30). This metaphor communicates both unity of life and diversity of service (cf. Rom. 12:6–8).

When used of the church, the word body is always singular, never plural. Paul several times emphasizes the unity of the church with the phrase “one body.”²⁵ The body of Christ is one in “the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3). The Holy Spirit empowers every member of Christ’s body to serve one another effectively, though with different gifts (1 Cor. 12:4–7). God has caused each member to depend on the others and every member to have a significant function in the body (1 Cor. 12:14–25). The members share one life, so that if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

Christ is “the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18). He is specifically “head” over his “body” in its submission to his authority (Eph. 5:23–24). Paul also says that Christ is the “head” that influences his body for its health and growth (Eph. 4:15–16; Col. 2:19). This is because Christ exercises his power over his body for its good, as its Savior (Eph. 5:23), showing it the tender concern that a man naturally shows his own flesh and husbands should give to their wives (Eph. 5:28–30). Godefridus Udemans said, “We know that the Lord Jesus Christ will care for us and keep us soul and body because we are His bride; indeed, we are members of His body. Thus, He will not leave us.”²⁶

Notes:

Ps. 80:1; cf. 74:1; 77:20; 78:52; 79:13; 95:7; 100:3; Isa. 63:11.
Jer. 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 12:10; 17:16; 22:22; 23:1–2. The Latin term pastor means “shepherd.”
Num. 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 18:16; Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34.
For other comparisons of Israel to a vine, see Ps. 80:8–16; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 15:1–8; 17:1–8, 22–24; 19:10–14.
Paul S. Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 43.
For examples of georgion as “field” or “cultivated land,” see Prov. 24:30; 31:16 LXX.
“Zion” (Tsiyon) is the name of the hill (“mount Zion,” Ps. 48:2) where the city was built (Ps. 2:6).
Pss. 9:11; 48:2; 50:2; 76:2; 122:1–9; 132:13–14.
Pss. 46:4; 74:2; 102:13, 16; 125:1; 146:10; 149:2.
Isa. 1:26–27; 2:3; 4:3–5; 12:6; 33:20–22; 46:13; 52:7–8; 61:3; Zech. 2:10–11; 8:1–8; cf. Jer. 33:15–16.
Isa. 35:10; 51:3, 11; 52:1; 60:14 (see whole chap.); 65:17–18; Jer. 31:11–14; Zeph. 3:14–17.
The spelling “Sion” (instead of “Zion”) reflects the Greek transliteration Siōn of the Hebrew Tsiyon.
Pss. 11:4; 18:6 (cf. v. 9); Isa. 6:1; Mic. 1:2–3; Hab. 2:20; cf. 1 Kings 8:39, 43, 49; Pss. 33:13–14; 115:3.
The word translated as “tabernacle” (sukkah) in Isa. 4:6 and Amos 9:11 is not the typical term for God’s tabernacle; it literally means “a roughly built shelter” and is often used with respect to the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.
Psalm 118:22 is cited in Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; and 1 Pet. 2:7. Isaiah 28:16 is cited in Rom. 9:33; 10:11; and 1 Pet. 2:6, and probably alluded to in Eph. 2:20.
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 1053.
See also Isa. 22:4; 23:12; Jer. 4:11; 46:24; Lam. 2:2; Zeph. 3:14.
On the interpretation of the Song of Songs, see The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible, ed. Joel R. Beeke, Michael P. V. Barrett, Gerald M. Bilkes, and Paul M. Smalley (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2014), 942–43.
Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1053.
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church before the Watching World, in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 5 vols., 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 4:148–49.
Isa. 50:1; Ezek. 19:2; Hos. 2:2, 5. Jeremiah also refers to the “daughter of Babylon” as “your mother” when addressing Babylonians (Jer. 50:12, 42).
For many points of comparison between the church and a mother, see Benjamin Keach, Preaching from the Types and Metaphors of the Bible (1855; repr., Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1972), 695–98.
Tertullian, To Martyrs, chap. 1, in ANF 3:693.
A possible reference to the church as the “body” outside of the writings explicitly attributed to Paul is Heb. 13:3, but the statement “as being yourselves also in the body” is subject to varying interpretations. There is no indication that the Old Testament saints ever viewed Israel as the “body” of the Lord or the Messiah.
Rom. 12:4–5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:12–13, 20; Eph. 2:16; 4:4; Col. 3:15.
Godefridus Udemans, The Practice of Faith, Hope, and Love, trans. Annemie Godbehere, ed. Joel R. Beeke, Classics of Reformed Spirituality (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 99.

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley are the authors of the Reformed Systematic Theology Series.

Joel R. Beeke (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) has written over one hundred books. He is chancellor and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan; the editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; the board chairman of Reformation Heritage Books; the president of Inheritance Publishers; and the vice president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society.

Paul M. Smalley (DD, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is faculty research and teaching assistant to Joel Beeke at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He is also a part-time pastor at Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and previously served for twelve years as a Baptist pastor in churches in the midwestern United States.