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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:22; 1 Cor. 11:3a; Matt. 23:8, 10; 1 Pet. 5:3, 5; 1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 2:14; Gal. 2:9-12; Acts 15:13, 19; Heb. 13:17
The previous two chapters concerned two basic truths — the church being Christ and the genuine oneness of the church. This chapter concerns a third basic truth in the New Testament that is somewhat deeper — the headship of Christ and the constitution of the church. The constitution of the church is the way in which the church is arranged. The headship of Christ is closely related to the constitution of the church.
First, we need to see that the headship of Christ was not fully established in the Old Testament. Ephesians 1:20-22 states that when Christ ascended to the heavens, God gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. This proves that before Christ’s ascension, in the Old Testament time, the headship of Christ was not fully established. Of course, with God there is no element of time, but in God’s administration there is the element of time. Before the New Testament age the headship of Christ was not complete, not fully established. It was in Christ’s ascension that God inaugurated Him into the full headship.
The headship of Christ was not fully established in the Old Testament because Christ was not yet incarnated. In the Old Testament times Christ was only the Son of God, not yet the Son of Man. This is very significant. For Christ to have the full headship, He needs two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Being God alone is not adequate for Him to be the Head. To be the Head, He needs to be both God and man. This matter is neglected by most Christian teachers. According to the human concept, being God is adequate for Christ to be the Head of the universe. However, according to God’s economy, God will not exercise His judgment in His administration as God alone. Acts 17:31 says, “He has set a day in which He is to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
God needs a man to exercise His judgment in His administration because His administration is very much related to dealing with Satan. The government, the police, and the law courts are established not for good men but for criminals. In a sense, if the subtle one, Satan, and all the evil spirits and demons did not exist, there would be no need for God to set up a governmental administration. God has a governmental administration in the universe mainly for two reasons. On the positive side, God needs an administration in order to carry out His eternal purpose. On the negative side, God needs a government to deal with His enemy and all the evil powers. Without man, God’s eternal purpose could never be fulfilled, and His enemy could not be dealt with. Because God is the Creator and Satan is a creature, God would never lower His status to deal directly with Satan. Therefore, God needs man, another creature, to deal with Satan. In summary, man is needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and to deal with God’s enemy. Hence, before Christ became a man, His headship could not be fully completed, fully established.
Christ as the Son of God alone was not qualified to be the Head over all things in God’s governmental administration. He needed to be incarnated, to put on humanity. In incarnation Christ became no longer only the Son of God but also the Son of Man. He now has two elements, the divine element and the human element. In order to be the Head over all things in God’s government, Christ needed to have divinity and humanity, and He needed to accomplish two things. To take care of God’s two needs, Christ needed to carry out God’s eternal purpose and defeat God’s enemy. By dying on the cross, on the one hand, Christ accomplished God’s purpose, and on the other hand, He also defeated Satan and destroyed the power of death on the cross (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, Christ has accomplished everything. By incarnation He picked up the human element, and by being crucified He accomplished God’s purpose and defeated and destroyed God’s enemy. Because Christ gained the human element in His incarnation and accomplished God’s purpose and defeated God’s enemy in His crucifixion, He is now fully qualified to be the Head of the universe in God’s administration.
After Christ’s crucifixion He rested for three days. A person rests after accomplishing something. After resting in the tomb for three days, Christ resurrected and then ascended into the heavens. In His ascension He was inaugurated into the full headship of the entire universe. In the third heaven Christ was given to be Head over all things to the church. Christ is also the head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3a). Thus, in His ascension Christ’s headship was fully established.
All these truths are buried in the Bible. Many Christians today read the Bible but do not see the truth. No book sold in Christian bookstores today contains the truth that Christ’s headship was not fully established until His ascension, because He needed to become a man and be crucified in order to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and to defeat and destroy God’s enemy. This truth is in the Bible, yet if we do not have the light, we will not be able to see it. Because the human mentality can only know doctrine, we need heavenly light, vision, and revelation in order to see a vision of the truth. We need to repeat this truth again and again until our inner eyes are opened and we see it. Once Christ picked up humanity through incarnation and was crucified to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and defeat and destroy God’s enemy, He was qualified both in element and in achievement to be the Head over all things. Thus, in His ascension God inaugurated Him into the universal headship over all things for God’s administration. Today the headship of Christ is fully established.
The first preaching of the gospel by Peter in Acts 2 indicates the establishment of the headship of Christ. At the conclusion of his message Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified” (v. 36). This means that God has inaugurated Christ. Jesus was not a great man outwardly; rather, He was an unknown man from Nazareth, a small town in the despised region of Galilee. Such a lowly man was inaugurated into the universal headship over all things by God. We need to declare, “There is a man in glory! There is a man on the throne in the third heaven! This man, Jesus, has been inaugurated as the Head over all things!”
Through the twenty centuries of church history the matter of how the church should be organized has been a continual problem. The church does not consist of only one or two persons. On the day of Pentecost alone three thousand were saved and brought into the church (v. 41). Not long after, five thousand more were saved (4:4). It would be difficult even to know how to bring together only these eight thousand people. Eventually, there was not only a church in Jerusalem, but there were also churches in Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, and Europe. Furthermore, in the church there were not only believers but also apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). There were also elders, deacons, and deaconesses. All these believers, churches, gifts, and serving ones had to be arranged, or organized, in some way.
Actually, according to God’s New Testament economy, there should not be any organization in the church. The church is not an organization but an organism. A desk, which is an organization, consists of many pieces fitted together without any life. However, our physical body, which is an organism, was not organized but was born and grew into its present form. An organism with its many organic parts is altogether a matter of life. The word organic means “of or related to life.” An organism is an entity entirely of life. Nothing in our body is produced by organization. In contrast, in an organization nothing is living; every piece is dead. Everything in an organization is a human work arranged by human hands.
Today’s Christianity is altogether an organization. Positions and offices in many denominations are decided by elections. Pastors today are often hired and fired. However, nothing in an organic body can be elected, hired, or fired. Our arms are not placed on our bodies by an election, nor can an old or weak arm be hired or fired. Elections, hiring, and firing are inorganic tools of human organization. There should be no elections, hiring, or firing in the church, because the church is altogether an organism. However, today’s Christianity is full of elections, hiring, and firing because it is an organization.
The church is an organism, not an organization, yet there is surely the need of some arrangement among thousands of people who come together in various cities as local churches. Finding this arrangement and the proper way for all the affairs of the church to be carried out is a great problem. Most seminaries have a course concerning the organization of the church, but the concept of organization related to the church cannot be found in the New Testament. We need to see the basic principle that any kind of organization leads to a hierarchy and that any kind of hierarchy is an insult to the headship of Christ.
Let us first examine the organization of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is organized by first claiming that Peter was the unique representative and successor of Christ and thus the head of the church. The Catholic Church says that Peter became the first pope and that every succeeding pope has also been the head of the church. The office of the pope is an insult to the headship of Christ. The Catholic Church claims that because Peter is named first when the disciples or apostles are mentioned in the New Testament, he was Christ’s representative and was the head of the church. It is true that in the four Gospels and Acts Peter’s name is mentioned first, but at least one verse lists Peter second. Galatians 2:9 mentions “James and Cephas and John.” This verse shows that Peter was not always the first. Sometimes Peter was the first, but sometimes he was not. In Galatians 2:9 he became the second, and James became the first. Peter became second because he lost the boldness that he had on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2 Peter did not care for his own life. He cared only for Christ and stood up in a threatening situation to take the lead to declare the gospel. However, in Galatians 2 he became afraid of only a few Jewish believers. Peter was eating with the Gentile believers, but according to verse 12, when some Jewish believers came, he became afraid and began to shrink back and separate himself from the Gentiles. This damaged the truth of the gospel (v. 14). The truth of the gospel in the New Testament economy is that the Gentile and the Jewish believers are one (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27-28; Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:11). Because Peter became weak and did not uphold the truth, he lost the leadership.
Acts 15 also shows that Peter was not always in the lead. There was a conference among the apostles and the elders to fellowship concerning the matter of circumcision. In verses 7 through 11 Peter spoke based upon his experience, and then in verse 12 Paul spoke based upon his experiences, but no decision was made. Verse 13 says, “When they finished speaking, James answered, saying, Men, brothers, listen to me.” In verse 19 James concluded, “Therefore I judge that we do not harass those from the Gentiles who are turning to God.” The final word in the conference was given not by Peter but by James. In human terms James presided over the conference. This proves that by that time James was higher than Peter. Thus, Galatians 2:9 and Acts 15 nullify the entire structure of the Catholic Church.
Peter was never a unique, permanent, organizational, official, or positional leader. He was temporarily a leader according to his spiritual capacity. When he had the highest spiritual capacity, he was the leader. When he lost his spiritual capacity, he lost the leadership. This proves that the leadership among God’s people is not official, organizational, positional, or permanent. Rather, it is always dependent on spiritual capacity. If a brother has the capacity, he should take the lead. If he does not have the capacity, another should take the lead.
The organization of the Catholic Church begins from parishes, or local assemblies, which have deacons and priests as their leaders. All the parishes in a certain region are part of a diocese, which is led by a bishop. Actually, the title bishop comes from the Greek word that means “overseer.” In the New Testament this term refers to an elder (1 Tim. 3:2; Acts 20:17, 28). Thus, according to the New Testament, elder and bishop are two terms denoting the same person. The word presbyter in Greek refers to one who is older and experienced and is translated as “elder.” The term elder denotes an elder’s person, and the term overseer denotes an elder’s function. In the second century Ignatius taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder, a presbyter. He taught that the elders oversee local assemblies and that the bishops oversee larger districts. The Catholic Church went further in this error by placing archbishops above the bishops, the cardinals above the archbishops, and the pope above the cardinals. This hierarchy with the pope as the head insults the headship of Christ. Because a hierarchy always has a head, any hierarchy in the church is an insult to the headship of Christ.
The Protestant denominations are the same as the Catholic Church in principle; they are different only in scale. State churches have the head of government as the head of the church and are therefore an insult to the headship of Christ. The Church of England does not have a pope, but it has the king or queen of England as its head. Below the king or the queen are the archbishops, then the bishops, and so on. This is the same hierarchical structure found in the Catholic Church under the pope. Therefore, the whole Church of England also is an insult to the headship of Christ. Other state churches include the Church of Sweden, the Church of Norway, and the Church of Denmark.
There are also many private churches, such as the Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Lutheran Churches. In principle these are the same as the Catholic and state churches — they have an organizational structure that leads to a head. Therefore, all the organizations in Christianity are insults to the headship of Christ. Free groups are not an exception. The difference is only in scale; the principle is the same.
The Lord’s recovery does not have an official, permanent, organizational, or positional leader. The only leader in the Lord’s recovery is Christ. One day James and John’s mother, who was the aunt of Jesus, requested of Jesus, “Say that these two sons of mine will sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your kingdom” (Matt. 20:21). She had two sons, and she knew that there would be two positions next to the Lord in His kingdom. However, the Lord told James and John, “My cup you shall indeed drink, but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father” (v. 23). Then the Lord told the disciples, “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave” (vv. 25-27).
In Matthew 23:8 the Lord told His disciples, “Do not be called Rabbi, for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.” This verse is the source of the name of the Brethren assemblies. In the early days the Brethren were absolutely right. Because they saw the error of organization in the church, they dropped all organization. They do not consider that they have any leader; they are all only brothers.
Although Peter was the leader for a time, he was not a leader officially, permanently, organizationally, or positionally. He was a leader only instantly, temporarily, and according to his spiritual capacity at a particular time. Because he had the highest spiritual capacity on the day of Pentecost, he certainly should have been the leader. However, because the leadership was not official, permanent, organizational, or positional, another one rose up when Peter’s spiritual capacity waned and he became weak. James became the leader at that time. This is strong proof that among God’s people in the New Testament age there is no official, permanent, organizational, or positional leadership.
The case of Paul and Barnabas also proves that the leadership in the New Testament is not permanent. When the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13:2, Barnabas took the lead. When they were on their evangelical journey, however, Paul suddenly became the leading one (v. 9). This case also proves that the leadership among the apostles was not official or permanent but temporary and according to the spiritual capacity.
In the Old Testament God ordained that there be only one king among His people. However, in the New Testament there is always more than one elder in a church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). The plurality of the eldership is very significant. The New Testament also shows that there is never one elder who is first among the other elders. If there were only one elder, he would surely be the leader, but because there are always several elders, it is difficult to say who the leader is. Any definite, positional, official, or permanent leader is an insult to the headship of Christ because in the New Testament economy God regards the headship of Christ to the uttermost. In the entire universe there is only one unique Head. Therefore, according to God’s New Testament economy, there is no permanent, official, or positional leadership among God’s people today. It is God’s wisdom to have not one elder in a church but a number of elders.
Some may wonder how the eldership can be practiced if no elder is ranked first. The cases of Peter, James, Barnabas, and Paul show that all the elders have the same status, but at a certain time or in a certain matter one may have a higher capacity than the others and will therefore take the lead. At another time or in another matter a different brother may have the greatest capacity; hence, he will be the leader at that time. Through the plurality of the eldership, there is no definite leader, and the absolute headship of Christ is regarded, preserved, and respected.
According to the human concept, our bodies are arranged in such a way that the shoulder is the head of the arm, the arm is the head of the hand, and the hand is the head of the fingers. Thus, our concept is that a body has many heads. However, according to medical science, there is only one head, and it gives orders directly to every member of the body. The head gives orders to the fingers in the same way that it gives orders to the arms. The shoulder, the arm, the hand, and the fingers are all equal in receiving orders directly from the head. This thought nullifies our human mentality. Paul, the greatest apostle, received orders directly from Christ the Head, and we, the smallest members, also receive orders directly from Christ the Head. This honors the Head. The headship of Christ does not allow for there to be any other heads or subheads. Any other head is an insult to Christ. Therefore, in the church there is no head other than Christ. Our physical body has many members but only one head. If one brother is a shoulder in the Body of Christ and another brother is a little finger, the first brother should say to the second, “Do not exalt me. I have the same standing as you. You are not the head, and neither am I. You receive orders directly from the Head, and I do too.” In Christianity today and even among some of the local churches this truth has been almost completely lost. We know how to receive orders from higher brothers, but we do not know how to receive orders directly from our Head. This is wrong.
The church is constituted absolutely not according to the human mentality or worldly organizational methods but with Christ as life and with Christ as the unique Head. In the church, the Body of Christ, there is no other head. Regardless of his or her location or function, every member is related directly to the Head; every member has the same standing. There are no intermediary members, contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church that the so-called holy mother mediates between the believers and Jesus. We all know that this teaching of the Catholic Church is wrong, but in our actual practice we may consider that certain persons are intermediaries between us and the Lord.
We need to be cautious of this hidden error. On the one hand, we must never be an intermediary between God’s people and the Lord Himself. We need to allow the Lord’s people to receive orders directly from the Lord. By the Lord’s mercy, in all the times that saints have come to me for fellowship throughout the years, I have never given them a decision, an order, or a commandment. Instead, I always tell them, “You need to go to the Lord. Pray to seek the Lord’s leading directly.” On the other hand, we must never take someone else as an intermediary between us and the Lord. Because most believers are weak, they prefer to depend upon others rather than going directly to the Lord. Some say, “How good it is to have a spiritual brother among us. We can rely on him; he will tell us what to do and what not to do.” This is terrible; it is according to the Catholic concept that the believers are too low to contact the Lord directly and that they need to pray to Mary so that she will contact Jesus for them. We do not like this teaching, but we may practice it in principle. This teaching is heretical. The worship of Mary is the greatest blasphemy to Christ’s headship. Regrettably, something has secretly crept in among us to cause some members to become intermediaries between the saints and the Lord. We need to be cautious of this.
By the Lord’s mercy, since the beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us over fifty years ago, the Lord has shown us the truth that every member is related directly to the Head. Brother Watchman Nee was the first to practice being careful not to come between any member and the Head. He was very cautious in this matter. I was with him for many years and saw many cases. He never told anyone what to do or what not to do. Many of us begged him to tell us what to do, but he would never say a word. He made it clear that he was not the head or the leader but only a brother with a burden to minister God’s word to His people. When we were with him in mainland China, no one knew who would be the leader. How shameful it is that some among us today claim to be the leader or the future leader! The fact that many saints accepted such claims indicates that we do not know or practice the truth. My burden at this time is to share with all the young saints in the Lord’s recovery concerning the constitution of the church. In order for the Lord’s recovery to be strong and in a good order today, we must be clear about the constitution of the church.
The constitution of the church is according to the fact that Christ is the unique Head. There is no other leader. Regardless of how great our gift or our commission from the Lord is, we are all only members, not leaders. No one among us should accept anyone as an official, unique, or permanent leader. In carrying things out, there is the need for leadership. The Bible shows that on the day of Pentecost there was the need for someone to rise up to declare the gospel to the people. Peter took the lead to meet this need, but he was not an official, permanent, organizational, or positional leader. His leadership was instant and depended on his present spiritual capacity. At that time Peter had the greatest capacity; therefore, he spontaneously took the lead to carry out that ministry. However, when he later became weak, another one was raised up to accomplish God’s purpose. The leadership in the Lord’s recovery today must be the same. According to my portion from the Lord, I currently share in the leadership, but this does not mean that I am an official or permanent leader. Perhaps in a year someone may have more capacity in a certain matter. At that time and in that matter that person will take the lead to accomplish God’s purpose. By practicing in this way, we will have no official or permanent leader among us. We have only one Leader — Christ. The plurality of the eldership and the apostles prevents any human leadership that would insult the headship of Christ.
Not only are all the members equal, but also all the local churches are equal, regardless of their size. The church that has the most members is not the head church. Regardless of how small a local church may be, it has the same status as the biggest church. There are no “parent” or “children” churches. All the churches have the same standing.
The churches should not be organized into one unit. In other words, they should not be united in one organization. If this occurs, the churches will immediately become an organization and form a hierarchy with a leader at the top, which will insult the headship of Christ. In each local church there is no head, and among all the churches there is no organization, for this would lead to a hierarchy with a head. Any kind of organization with a head would insult the headship of Christ.
In the New Testament there are different regions of the work. For instance, Peter worked among the Jews, and Paul worked in the Gentile world. These were two different regions of the work. The New Testament shows that all the regions of the work have the same standing. Many Bible students have tried to discover whether Peter’s work or Paul’s work was higher, but no one can tell because there is no organization or rank in the Lord’s work. The apostles’ work among the Jews and the Gentiles was never organized into one work. It is appealing on a human level to merge two regions of work into one, but such a merger would result in a hierarchy. Therefore, there is no such merger in the New Testament.
To summarize, in every local church there is not a head; rather, there are several elders with no permanent leader. Among the churches there is no organization, for this would lead to a hierarchy with a head other than Christ. Finally, among the regions of the work there is no merged work, which also would lead to a hierarchy and produce a head other than Christ. Among God’s people there is only one Head — Christ. This constitution keeps all the saints, all the churches, and all the regions of the work in direct contact with the Lord. Thus, there is no need of any kind of intermediary. This is the spiritual way, the way of life that keeps every believer, local church, and region of the work in life and without any organization or human leadership.
That there is no organization or human leadership in a local church does not mean that there are no leading ones in a local church. The elders are the leading ones. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey the ones leading you and submit to them.” Notice that this verse does not say that the saints should obey the one leader. Besides the elders, among the churches there are the apostles. In the New Testament, when functioning in their capacity, the apostles have the position to say a word according to God’s economy to the churches, and the churches need to listen to their word. On the one hand, there is no leadership in the church; on the other hand, there are leading ones in the local churches whom the saints need to obey, and there are apostles among the churches whose word, which is according to God’s economy, the churches need to receive. This keeps the churches locally and universally in a good order. This is the constitution of the church that respects the headship of Christ to the uttermost.
Question: If an elder in a church decides to lead the saints into something that some do not feel is the Lord’s leading, perhaps something worldly, what should the saints do?
Answer: Every local church has more than one elder. It is easy for one person to be misled in any matter, but it is not easy for a few to be misled together. If at least three or four elders pray and seek the Lord’s leading in a matter, they will not be misled. In every local church the saints should obey the leading ones (v. 17).
Question: If I go to the Lord and pray about something but do not get an answer, should I go to the elders?
Answer: We all need to have direct contact with the Lord to receive a word directly from the Lord. This is the basic principle that we all must practice. However, it is often difficult to become clear concerning the Lord’s leading when we pray by ourselves. Therefore, we need to fellowship with other members in the church, including the elders.
