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Scripture Reading: Eph. 5:22-25; Gal. 3:27-28; 1 Cor. 12:12-13
In the previous chapters we saw that the church is the central thought, the center, of God’s eternal purpose. Before the New Testament time, it was never revealed to anyone but was hidden as a mystery in God, who created the universe. The source of the church is Christ, so the church is the increase of Christ. The function of the church is to be the Body of Christ and the house of God. Moreover, the practice of the church is local, not universal; it is expressed in localities, its content is Christ, and it has a proper order.
The proper order of the church is seen in Philippians 1:1, which speaks of the saints, the overseers, who are the elders, and the deacons. In the church we have the saints as the basic members, and among the saints we have elders and deacons. On the one hand, we realize that in the church there is no human organization, but on the other hand, the Scriptures tell us clearly that there is an order in the church. Not only from the teachings of the Scriptures but also from our experience, we can see that without this order under the Holy Spirit there is no possibility to have the real church life, the real practice of the church. The real church practice depends very much on this order under the Holy Spirit.
In this chapter we come to the ninth point concerning the church, the authority in the church. The order of the church comes out of the authority in the church. We should consider in detail what the authority in the church is. We are told clearly that the church is the Body of Christ and the house of God. To be sure, there is authority in our body, and there is also authority in a house, that is, in a family. Without authority, our house would be a mess. Likewise, as long as a body is living and standing, there is authority in it, but when it becomes a carcass and no longer a body, there is no more authority in it. As long as there is a body, there must be authority, and as long as we have a family, a home, there also must be authority. This illustrates that in the church there truly is an authority.
The authority of a body is the head. When a person is standing, does his body bear his head, or does his head hold up his body? If we were to cut off a man’s head, his body would fall down. Without the head, the body cannot stand. It seems that the body bears the head, but in actuality, it is the head that holds up the body. Therefore, the head is the authority. The Head of the church is Christ the Lord, and the authority in the church is the headship of Christ. It is clear that in the church there should be an order, but this order comes from the headship of Christ. We must realize, honor, and respect the headship of the Lord. If we are not under the headship of the Lord, we can never be right in the order of the church. Many times in the past years, brothers or sisters have come to me and said, “Brother Lee, I simply cannot go along with some of the elders.” Every time someone has brought a problem like this to me, I ask them, “At this moment and concerning this very issue, are you under the headship of the Lord?” Invariably, the one asking admits that he or she is not under His headship. I reply, “First, you must be right with the Lord. Submit yourself to the headship of the Lord, and then you will be clear.”
When I came to the West, to America and Europe, many friends said to me, “People in the Far East are more submissive, but people in the West are more independent. It is probably easy for the brothers and sisters in the Far East to practice the order in the church.” However, you should not appreciate the Orientals too much. It is very difficult to deal with the Japanese and the Chinese. I am neither for or against the Orientals or those from the West. All the Orientals and all the Westerners are the descendants of Adam. There is no difference between us, for we are all Adam’s race. It is not a matter of East or West. It is a matter of whether or not we are under the headship of Christ and whether or not we have learned the lesson to submit ourselves to the headship of the Lord. In order to keep a right order in the church and among the saints, we must be under the lordship and headship of the Lord. The authority in the church is the headship of the Lord.
Sometimes elders have come to me, saying, “I simply cannot understand how to be an elder, so I want to resign from the eldership.” I have answered such brothers according to the same principle, asking, “Do you feel that at this very moment you are under the headship of the Lord? There is only one way to be an elder, and that is to submit to the headship of the Lord. The more you submit yourself to the headship of the Lord, the more you are qualified and equipped to be an elder.”
Once when I delivered a message about the headship, I illustrated it with the need to have an order between a husband and a wife. The husband is the head, and the wife is the one who must submit. That message was very much under the anointing, and a certain brother who heard it was very moved. He regretted that in the past he had not been the proper head in the family, so he prayed, “Lord, help me from today on to be the head.” After the meeting he went home and told his wife, “From this time on, I am the head,” and he began to practice being the head day by day. Not long after this, trouble came because his wife could not tolerate it. She came to me and asked, “Brother Lee, what kind of a head are the brothers? I simply cannot submit myself to this kind of head.” Eventually I learned that neither of this couple was under the headship of Christ. The husband was not, and neither was the wife. There was no real headship, so there was no order. I asked the brother, “While you are assuming the headship, are you under the headship of the Lord?” It is wrong for us to practice any kind of authority if we are not under the headship of the Lord.
Ephesians 5 tells the wives to submit to their husbands, but it tells the husbands to love their wives, not to rule over them. The elders should care for the saints in the same principle. In 1934 I was very young, but since Brother Watchman Nee was absent for a long time, the Lord put the responsibility of the church and the work in Shanghai into my hand. One day the elders came to me and told me about some problems related to the brothers and sisters. I realized that these elders were trying to exercise their authority as elders and were neglecting to show love to the saints. I brought this matter to the Lord. While I was before the Lord one day, the Lord revealed to me in His Word that the husband is the head, but the husband is told not to rule the wife but to love her. The elders have the authority, but they should not exercise their authority. Rather, they should exercise love toward all and extend love to others. This is simply to submit themselves under the headship of the Lord.
The headship of the Lord is the authority in the church. If we want to practice the church life, we have to learn the lesson of always submitting ourselves to the headship of the Lord. The Lord is the Head, and we are all members under His headship. If our relationship is wrong with the Head, we will be wrong with the Body, and to be sure, we will be wrong with the other members. It is when we are right with the Head that we are right with all the members and with the Body. If we are not under the headship, we have no ground to say anything to the brothers and sisters in an adjusting way. If we want to say something to them, we must submit ourselves under the headship of the Lord. To not submit to the headship of the Lord and yet say something to the brothers and sisters simply means that we are rebellious. We are rebellious to the Lord and rebellious to the Body, the church. Please do not think that it is easier to deal with the churches in the Far East than with those in the West. I emphatically say that it is not. Many times certain ones in the Far East came to us to speak about the church in a rebellious way.
We must realize that if we are going to practice the real church life, we must submit ourselves under the headship of Christ. When we are about to say something to the brothers and sisters, we must first test and check whether we are currently under the headship of Christ. If we are not, we should stop. If we are not under the headship, and we say something about the church, we are speaking in a rebellious way. No matter how nice our attitude is, it is false and hypocritical. Our real need is to submit ourselves under the headship of Christ. If we are under the headship of Christ, we will have a pure motive and a right attitude, even if we speak very frankly. But if we are not under the headship of Christ and simply pretend to be nice, we are being political; we are playing politics among the saints.
We must be sincere, open, and frank. Of course, we must also be polite and nice, but we should not pretend. A person who is under the headship of Christ is true, real, and sincere. We may open our heart to a brother to speak something in a serious and frank way, even with heavy words, but if we are submitting ourselves under the headship of the Lord, the Holy Spirit within the brother’s spirit will testify that our motive is pure and our attitude is right. But on the contrary, if we are not under the headship of the Lord and come to a brother, pretending that we are so good and spiritual, we are playing politics and are a hypocrite among the saints. In this case, the Holy Spirit cannot testify for us. The church has been constantly damaged by these political maneuvers. We must have no political maneuvers. All of us, especially the leading ones, must submit ourselves under the headship.
When the people of Israel rebelled, Moses and Aaron did not play politics and they did not maneuver. They simply knelt and bowed down before the Lord, taking the Lord as the Head, realizing His headship, and letting Him come in. What they said after that, they said in a frank, open, and straight way. This is the right way to realize the headship, the lordship, of Christ as the authority in the church. We do not have a pope among us as the Catholic Church does, to whom all believers must submit. To exercise authority in this way is devilish; it is from Hades and not from the New Jerusalem. Rather, we all must realize the headship of Christ. The best way to glorify Christ and honor the Lord is to take Him as the Head, praying, “Lord, You are the Head. I take You as the Head, and I speak and act in a genuine way. I am under Your headship.”
It is not only the younger ones among us who must submit to Christ and remain under the headship of Christ. Even the oldest ones must submit themselves under the headship of Christ. In the church, if we all realize the headship of Christ, there will spontaneously be a wonderful, spiritual order among us. There will be a situation in which each one knows where he stands and what is his right position in the order of the church. If in a family with many members, all the members are real, sound, spiritual Christians, realizing and submitting to the headship of Christ in their home, there will be a nice, spiritual order in their family. In such a family, even the youngest one will know what his position and standing is, and each one will be right with the order of the family. It is when no one in the family takes the headship of Christ that they fight and quarrel with one another. Then, even the least desires to be the greatest, and the last desires to be the first. There is disorder in such a family simply because they are not under the headship of the Lord.
In the church there are both brothers and sisters. In many places, especially today, the sisters are not willing to submit to the brothers. Some sisters have come to me, saying, “Are not the sisters equal to the brothers? Is there no equality between us? Do you believe that the brothers are greater?” I have even met brothers who stand for the sisters. They say, “We do not agree that we brothers are above the sisters. We are all human. Why do we have to be different from the sisters?”
Galatians 3:27-28 says, “As many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor free man, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Cannot be Jew nor Greek indicates that in Christ the problem of races has been dealt with; cannot be slave nor free man means that in Christ the problem of social ranks has been dealt with; and cannot be male and female indicates that in Christ the problem of gender has been dealt with. However, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” Galatians 3 says we have been baptized into Christ, and 1 Corinthians 12 says we have been baptized into the one Body. However, 1 Corinthians 12 does not mention male and female. In Christ, the problem of male and female has been done away with, but in the church there is still male and female. If there were not the problem of male and female, there would be no need to speak about head covering in the previous chapter, chapter 11, and there would be no need to speak about the position of sisters in the church meeting in chapter 14.
In Christ, the racial problem, the social problem, and the gender problem are all gone. But in the church, while the racial problem and social problem are gone, the problem of male and female still remains. Therefore, when sisters or brothers come to ask why there is a difference between the brothers and sisters, or whether we feel the sisters should submit to the brothers, the only reply is to ask, “Do you take the headship of Christ? Do you submit yourself to the headship of Christ?” This will solve the problem. If all the brothers and sisters with such a problem would go to the Lord to submit themselves to the Lord and take the headship of Christ, the problem is solved.
The order in the church comes from the headship of Christ being realized by us in a practical way. If each of us submits ourself to the headship of Christ and takes His lordship in a real way, there will be no problem. There will be no argument; rather, a nice, spiritual order will spontaneously come into being among us. We will get nowhere by doctrines, teachings, and arguments. We can argue everyday until the Lord comes back, but we will not solve the problems. However, if each one of us would submit to the headship of Christ and pray, “Lord, You are the Head, and I realize Your headship in my life in a practical way,” every problem will be solved. Problems are solved not by doctrine or by teaching but by realizing the headship of Christ.
I must speak seriously. Do you realize that there is a rebellious nature within us? There is an element, an essence, within us that is always rebelling. The problem in the church is one of rebellion; no one likes to submit to others. This damages and spoils the church life. I beg you to take this word from one of your brothers. If we are going to practice the church life with sincerity, we must submit ourselves to the headship of Christ and realize the headship of the Lord. Otherwise, there is no way for us to practice the real church life. We can come together all the time, but we will not have the reality of the church life. We will only be false, just pretending and presuming; we will not be real. To have the real church life, we need to submit. We should not try to submit to others; we should simply submit to the headship of Christ. Then we will be right in the order in the church. This is not an issue between us and others; it is an issue between us and the Head. If there is a problem between brothers or sisters, that means there is a problem between us and Christ the Head. To be sure, if we are right with the Head, we will be right with others. It is possible for us to realize the real church life only when we realize the headship of the Lord in a practical way.
We are not going to organize something among the Christians, and we have no intention to set up a church of another kind. No, that is something fallen; that is not the Lord’s recovery. Rather, we are very burdened that in these last days the Lord will recover a real church life among His children to express Christ and to bring the coming kingdom of God. There is a great need of the real church life. The real church life requires that we know how to exercise ourselves to apply Christ as our life and realize His headship among us. We live by Him, and we live under Him. He is our life, and He is our Head. This is the only way for us to practice the real church life, and this is the only way for all the problems to be solved.
None of the problems are solved by discussion or argument. The history of the church proves that arguments never get us anywhere. In fact, the more we argue, the more trouble and problems we have. Let us submit ourselves to the headship of Christ. We need to practice to take the Lord as the Head and to realize His headship among us in a practical way. If we are going to argue with a brother, we must first check with ourself and ask, “Am I under the headship of Christ?” If we check in this way, our argument will be gone. The headship of the Lord is the answer to our arguments.
Let us see clearly that in the church there is the need of a spiritual order, and this order comes only from the headship of Christ being realized by us in a practical way. Without this, there is no possibility for us to practice the real church life. We look to the Lord for this matter. This is very basic and very vital. If we have this, we have the church life. If we do not have this, the church life is gone.
