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In the New Testament economy nothing is more serious than insulting the headship of Christ. In the previous chapter we pointed out that the church is built with Christ as life and with oneness as its ground. There is one further aspect. For the church to be safeguarded, it must be built according to the truth. Of all the truths related to the church, the most important one is the headship of Christ. Life is crucial, oneness is important, but without the headship of Christ the church is not safeguarded. As some of the questions below illustrate, this matter is related to leadership among the saints.
Question: Why do we who follow the churches turn first this way and then that way?
Answer: Too often it is true that we sway back and forth. With no sense of direction eventually we are all disappointed. This needless turning first to the right and then to the left is a sickness in the churches. The cause is the failure to practice the truth. We must all come back not only to life and oneness but also to the truth. Any movement, any direction, or any speaking that leads to a hierarchy is an insult to the headship of Christ; as such, it must be rejected. By practicing the truth in this way, each local church will be safeguarded from fluctuating and be kept to the one goal.
Question: What is the function of a full-time worker?
Answer: According to the Bible, for one to be a full-time worker, he must have a ministry or burden from the Lord that occupies all his time, and he must also be in an environment that can provide him with his living. You recall that Paul was fully occupied by the Lord’s work. After a certain time, however, his environment did not supply his material needs, and he resumed his occupation of tentmaker (Acts 18:3).
Question: How can one serve and even help others to serve in a proper way in spirit and under the headship of Christ?
Answer: With the church service the less direction there is, the better. There is, however, the practical need to know, for example, where the mops and cleaning supplies are. If you can help by saying where they are, such a direction is not an offense to Christ’s headship. Be careful, on the other hand, not to issue kingly directives: “Sisters, you can go clean over there. Then go and help those downstairs to finish.” This is a matter of the attitude of the spirit. If you help others because they need some help, that is good. If you help others in the spirit of being the service group leader, that is poor.
That we should not take the role of head is a far-reaching truth. It governs the elders, the co-workers, the saints, and the churches. It will kill the ambition that is in all of us as fallen human beings.
Question: Then if you see the need and take the initiative, is that in the same realm as taking the headship?
Answer: It is the Lord’s place to initiate. To bring to the Lord what we propose and ask His blessing on it, as is the common practice in Christianity, is an insult to His headship. We must respect His lordship by letting Him initiate; unless He does, we refrain from doing anything.
Question: Suppose when you were in our locality you were not speaking the truth. How would the brothers deal with the situation?
Answer: In order to avoid confusion, the elders would probably not interrupt the meeting. But there would be no second meeting. After that first meeting, the elders would invite me to their home and tell me in a gracious way that I was not speaking according to the truth and that the church could not take it; would I please refrain from going further?
It would not be too good for the administration of the church to step in and stop the speaker, but for a single saint to do so is according to the Bible. (“As to prophets, two or three should speak, and the others discern,” 1 Cor. 14:29.) A saint may interrupt the speaker by saying, “Brother So-and-so, I have a question to ask. You have said such-and-such, but it seems to me this is not according to the truth. Please prove it to me.” If all the churches and all the saints are this alert, think how careful the speaker will be.
On the other hand, a church that takes whatever I say just because I say it is not healthy and does not know the truth. If you follow what I tell you, it must be because you have checked that it is according to the truth. It must not be a matter of following a man but of keeping the divine truth. If what is spoken is checked out by every saint and by the church to see that it is according to the truth, we will be kept from falsehood.
Be sure your questioning is done in spirit. In the church everything must be genuine and true, but it must also be in spirit. If you challenge a speaker, you must do so in your spirit with love. We are not opposing someone; we are studying the truth. Let us go on, then, by growing in life, by keeping the oneness, and by seeking after the truth.
Question: When something is bothering us and we want to take that to the Lord, that is not the same as going to the Lord with a purpose, is it?
Answer: The best contact with the Lord is simple. Whatever burdens or problems I have, I come to Him without any. I lay them aside to come to Him with no purpose. The truth of the matter is that the Lord is bearing our burdens. A number of times I have gone to Him with my burdens, and He has said, “Foolish child, why do you bear the burdens that are on My shoulder? Just enjoy Me.”
This is a basic lesson for our whole Christian life. If we learn to cast our burden on the Lord, we will grow. Do not think that if you do not bear the burden, no one will. The Lord will bear it.
Among any group of people there is a need for organization. Though we say that the church has none, there are practical matters to be taken care of and relationships to be worked out. Who will open the doors of the meeting hall? What relationship should there be among the churches in the Bay Area? Who should take the lead among the elders in a local church? What is the relationship between the church and the work?
All these matters, which apparently concern organization in the church, are related to the headship of Christ. Any relationship that insults or damages the headship of Christ is wrong. We cannot work out these relationships properly without understanding the meaning of His headship.
Of all the members of our physical body, only one is the head. Is the shoulder the head of the arm? the arm the head of the hand? the hand of the fingers? the fingers of the nails? No! There is no subhead in the body, as medical doctors will confirm. The head gives orders even to the fingernails directly.
God will not allow anyone to share the headship with Christ. The elders should be careful about claiming to express His headship; they do not have even an indirect share in that headship. The Catholic teaching that the popes represent Christ as the successors of Peter is a blasphemy. But the denominations and even the small Christian groups also insult the headship of Christ by having a head.
Was not Peter the leader in the early days of the church? Yes, he surely was, but please notice that his leadership was not official, nor permanent, nor organizational. When Peter stood up with the eleven on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14), he was the leading one. When his name is mentioned with the other apostles in the Gospels or in the first part of Acts, it is always first (e.g., Matt. 10:2; Luke 6:13-14; Acts 1:13; 3:1; 5:29). The reason was that during those periods Peter’s spiritual measure exceeded that of the others.
However, notice the order of names in Galatians 2:9: James, Cephas [Peter], and John. Why has James replaced Peter as the first one? Peter, as the rest of the chapter recounts, slipped in his spiritual standing out of fear of the Jews. Though he well knew that there was no difference between the Jewish and Gentile believers, he withdrew from eating with the Gentiles when the Jews came down from Jerusalem. Paul, who was younger in the faith, opposed him to his face for this failure to walk according to the truth of the gospel. At this point the leadership was in the hands of James.
In the account given in Acts 15, again James was the leading one. In that conference Peter had something to say and so did Paul, but it was James who gave the final word in verse 19: “Therefore I judge that we do not harass those from the Gentiles who are turning to God.”
Another example of this shifting leadership is the case of Barnabas and Saul. It was Barnabas who brought in Saul (9:26-27) and whose name was mentioned first when they were called by the Holy Spirit to the work (13:2). But the sequence of names changed in verse 43, indicating that between the two apostles the leadership depended upon the spiritual measure, not official appointment.
“God has placed some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then works of power, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28). Helps refers to the services of the deacons; administrations, to the functions of the elders. Why did Paul list the services of the deacons ahead of the functions of the elders? (Note that various kinds of tongues is last; that is where tongue-speaking always is.) It may be that at Corinth the elders thought too much in terms of rank. Paul wanted them to know that they were not the head. It is best not to say that the elders represent the headship of Christ; the Scriptures do not say so, and they must not think of themselves as subheads.
Peter underscored this in his first Epistle: “Nor as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns of the flock” (5:3). The elders are not leaders but examples. When I was in Scotland, I saw how the shepherds took care of their flocks. Whenever a sheep went astray, the shepherds would order one of the sheepdogs after it to bring it back into line. This is not the kind of shepherding Peter is referring to. If there is some cleaning to be done, for example, the elders should take the lead to do it, not ask others to take care of it.
The Lord said, “Neither be called instructors, because One is your Instructor, the Christ” (Matt. 23:10). “You are all brothers” (v. 8). These verses indicate that in the New Testament economy God does not want any permanent, official leadership.
In the New Testament the eldership is always plural. Which elder will be number one depends on two matters. As the example of Peter illustrates, it is decided according to the spiritual measure and condition. The elders’ positions may vary from week to week. The one who was up last week may be fighting with his wife this week, and the leadership may pass to another elder. Leadership also depends upon spiritual ability. An elder may have ability in a certain area; he will take the lead in that, while in another area another elder will be responsible.
By such a flexible leadership the church is kept from hierarchy. It is also safeguarded from error. If Peter had been an official leader, he might have introduced a wrong concept about Judaism during his time of weakness.
Elsewhere in human society there is no such leadership as this. How wise is our God! This leadership is plural, not single; temporary, not fixed; conditional, not organizational; spiritual, not official. It has position but no rank. “The greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matt. 23:11). If you want to be great among the saints, you must be a servant. For the service of the church you may take the lead to vacuum the carpet, but this “leadership” has no rank.
Hebrews 13:17 admonishes us to “obey the ones leading you and submit to them.” We are to obey the leading ones in serving, but this does not make the leading ones lords, having rank over the saints. That would make them the head and insult the headship of Christ.
For over fifteen years the recovery has been in this country. Throughout this period I have made it a point never to give orders to anyone. I am not a leader and I have no rank, though some of you may so regard me. I am a bondslave of Christ to serve His household. Frequently I have been asked to advise various churches. Individuals have often sought my advice. In fact, many have begged me to tell them what to do. In every case I have refused, because for me to give an order is to insult my Lord and slight His headship. You must receive your orders directly from the Head. All I can tell you is to pray and get your directions from Him.
All the local churches, regardless of their size, are on the same level. Do not think that Anaheim is the lead church. What happened to Jerusalem when the early churches began to look to it for direction? The Lord sent Titus with his army in A.D. 70 to destroy it. There is no ground for any church to be over another.
According to the Bible, the work is regional. Peter worked in the Jewish region, whereas Paul worked among the Gentile areas. These two works in two regions were on the same level and were not merged into one unit. A hierarchy would have arisen if they had been combined. The regions are not to be merged. Regions of the work exist today in Brazil, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In the United States also there are regions of the work where churches have been raised up: Ohio and Texas are examples. If we organize these regions into one unit, it will lead to hierarchy with an official leadership. This would insult Christ’s headship.
How important it is for us all to learn to go to the Lord and take orders directly from Him! God has ascribed the headship only to Him. This truth is a safeguard to the church life. Once a hierarchy was established in Christianity, all kinds of evil, devilish things were brought in. If we take Christ as the content of the church and the genuine oneness as its ground, and are careful to practice the truth, the church will be steady and kept from evil.
