Lexicon :: Strong's G1577 - ekklēsia

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

“If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church.[fn] If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.

Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things.

“He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

Saul agreed with putting him to death.

On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.

Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.

So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

News about them reached[fn] the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel[fn] as far as Antioch.

and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church,

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

After they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported everything God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.

He traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

On landing at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church, then went down to Antioch.

Some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

“But if you seek anything further, it must be decided in a legal assembly.

After saying this, he dismissed the assembly.

Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church.

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God,[fn] which he purchased with his own blood.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant[fn] of the church in Cenchreae.

who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.[fn]

To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord ​— ​both their Lord and ours.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

So if you have such matters, do you appoint as your judges those who have no standing in the church?

Let each one live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him.[fn] This is what I command in all the churches.

Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God,

If anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other[fn] custom, nor do the churches of God.

For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter!

And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues.[fn]

The person who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

So also you ​— ​since you are zealous for spiritual gifts,[fn] seek to excel in building up the church.

yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, in order to teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

If, therefore, the whole church assembles together and all are speaking in tongues and people who are outsiders or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

But if there is no interpreter, that person is to keep silent in the church and speak to himself and God.

since God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints,

For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Now about the collection for the saints: Do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.