YLV Bible Study
Ecclesia
Were the aim of this ministry to be expressed in a single word, it would be this one.
The meaning of the term
People called out and gathered
When the New Testament uses ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία), the term does not denote a building. Ek (out) + kaleō (to call) — people called out and gathered. In a Greek city it designated the assembly of citizens summoned to the public square for common deliberation. An ecclesia is not a building but people who were called and who came.
The first disciples accordingly had no need of a building. They set tables from house to house, and those tables constituted the ecclesia. Buildings appeared much later, and they are not in themselves objectionable. What was lost is that it came to be assumed that without a building one cannot gather.
The character of the gathering
A building is not the condition of a gathering.
Being called is.
Again I say to you truly that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.Matthew 18:19 · Yeshua Literal Version
Brotherly love
Brotherly love — action rather than sentiment
The New Testament describes the love within this gathering with two terms. Agape is love that bears a cost and gives itself; philadelphia is the affection between those born of one Father. Neither is a sentiment; both are action. At the table it takes the following forms.
That this may appear demanding indicates only how rare it has become.
A single table