Common noun, genitive, masculine, singular.
The word is used here to qualify the nature of the church to who Paul is writing; amidst all the reports of divisions with members of the church rallying, apparently, to different individuals, the emphasis here that the church belongs to God may not have been incidental. The very thought that the church belongs to God is what impassions Paul to his labour, and ought to serve as a reminder to his audience that to split the church is to do damage to God's bride. While this is a clear theological motivation for all of Paul's endeavour, it is interesting that Paul does not use the expression every often; only 10x (7x in the singular) out of the 65x he uses the word 'church/es' in the thirteen canonical letters attributed to him. (The expression is elsewhere used only once in Acts 20:28.)
Open Alberith Greek Wordbook on Theos
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