Gentiles and the Identity of the Church of God
Question
Were there any Gentiles in the church of God? Does 1 Corinthians 12:2 refer to Gentiles or to Jews who had lived like Gentiles?
Originally published in Vol. 1, Number 9, September 2026, Ask The Theologian Journal.
Answer
1 Corinthians 12:2 says:
“Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.”
The question has two parts: whether Gentiles belonged to the “church of God,” and whether the “ye” in this verse refers to actual Gentiles or to Jews who had lived in a Gentile-like way.
Defining the Church of God
We should distinguish between the “church of God” and the “body of Christ.” I understand the “church of God” in the New Testament to be primarily the assembly of believing Jews—the kingdom remnant—rather than a simple synonym for the body of Christ.
Consider several occurrences of “church of God”:
1 Corinthians 1:2:
“Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”
Here “church of God … called saints” aligns with the Jewish remnant. The phrase “both theirs and ours” suggests two related, but distinguishable, groups.
1 Corinthians 10:32:
“Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.”
Three groups appear: Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God. This naturally fits Jews who are unbelievers, Gentiles who are unbelievers, and believing Jews (church of God).
1 Corinthians 15:9:
“For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
Paul persecuted the church of God before the revelation of the mystery and before the body of Christ began. The entity he persecuted must therefore be the Jewish believing community—the kingdom assembly—not the later one new man.
Galatians 1:13:
“For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.”
Again, this persecution predates the revelation of the body of Christ and locates the church of God within the sphere of the Jews’ religion, confirming its Jewish character.
These clear passages establish a default: “church of God” refers to the Jewish believing assembly associated with the kingdom program. Passages such as 1 Timothy 3:5 (“how shall he take care of the church of God?”) may be applied by extension to the body of Christ in terms of practical instruction, but the core referent of the phrase is Jewish.
On that basis, I would answer: there were not Gentiles in the church of God as such; the church of God is best understood as the Jewish remnant-church.
Gentiles and the Body of Christ at Corinth
Corinth clearly had both Jews and Gentiles present in the broader sphere of believers.
Acts 18 describes Paul at Corinth:
“And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. … And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” (Acts 18:4,7-8)
Justice appears to be a Gentile (or at least a proselyte) who worshiped Israel’s God. Crispus is the Jewish chief ruler of the synagogue. Many Corinthians believed and were baptized, indicating a mixed group. Within that mix, the “church of God” language focuses on the believing Jewish component (saints), while the wider body of Christ at Corinth included Gentile believers as well.
“Ye Were Gentiles” in 1 Corinthians 12:2
Returning to 1 Corinthians 12:2:
“Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.”
The description “carried away unto these dumb idols” fits straightforwardly with actual Gentiles who had practiced idolatry. While an individual Jew could certainly fall into idolatry, the language here resonates naturally with those whose former religious identity was pagan. It is strained to treat this as Jews who merely “lived like Gentiles.”
Therefore, I take the “ye” of 1 Corinthians 12:2 to refer to genuine Gentiles (uncircumcised, formerly pagan) who had come to faith and were now part of the body of Christ. They were not, however, “church of God” in the technical sense I have described; they were members of the one new man, the body of Christ, alongside Jewish believers.
Summary of the Relationship
The “church of God” in the New Testament is best identified with the Jewish believing remnant—the kingdom assembly.
The body of Christ, the one new man, includes both Jews and Gentiles, united in a new entity not defined by Israel’s covenants.
At Corinth there were both saints (Jewish kingdom believers) and Gentile believers. The saints constitute the church of God; Gentile believers belong to the body of Christ but not to the church of God in that technical sense.
1 Corinthians 12:2 speaks of real Gentiles, formerly idolatrous, now in Christ, not Jews who had merely adopted Gentile habits.
On that basis: there were no Gentiles in the church of God as such; Gentiles were in the body of Christ, and the “ye were Gentiles” of 1 Corinthians 12:2 refers to those Gentile believers.