7.3 Christ the Head
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Paul is the only one who uses the word “head” in regards to Jesus as the Head of the body of Christ, mostly in Ephesians and Colossians.
I do not draw from 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 for three reasons. First, in the letter of the word, it does not fit with anything else found in the Bible, especially Paul’s gospel. Second, it comes out of Aristotle – and although God speaks even through donkeys, yet, third, every instance where this passage is applied outwardly in the church, it turns God’s people into false directions. I am perfectly free in God to leave that portion of Scripture entirely alone because Jesus is not making it alive as Himself through me right now.
Command and Control
Every instance I have ever heard or read regarding Christ as the Head of His body, that relationship was defined entirely as command and control. That Christ commands each member of the Body, “Do this,” or “Do that,” that each member must “decide” to obey, and that if members are “disobeying” the Head, then the body is in disarray. More than that, the whip of God’s displeasure rests upon all these disobedient members.
This entire concept is 100% of the evil one. Satan created “command and control” by twisting the covenant between God and angels into his own hatred and manipulation over all the angels who followed his envy.
A Devilish System
Command and control is not found inside of nature, inside any system of order created by God. Command and control is found only among demons and among psychopathic humans, filled with demons, who do not regard Christ in anyone else. Command and control is human political government, the curse of death upon Adam’s race.
Yet over and over, in almost all realms of the church, I have heard this same devilish system of “government” presented as God’s Kingdom and as the operation of the Body of Christ. Command and control is the testimony of conviction that Christ is NOT living as you.
A Will of Their Own
“Seek God’s will for your life” sounds pious, but it is not only un-Biblical, it is central to the spirit of anti-Christ. God’s word to us is “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The two phrases are in direct opposition; we are doing one or the other, but never both. We cannot serve two masters.
The one who is “seeking God’s will for his life” is declaring that he or she has a will of their own, a will in rebellious opposition to God’s will. They see themselves, then, as split-soul, double-hearted and double-minded; they are putting on the old man. This person, by their every effort to “find God’s will” are, in fact, driving Jesus far away from themselves, separating themselves from Him entirely, putting off Christ.
Christ by Faith
We, on the other hand, speak Christ as our only life. In full faith in Christ, that He IS living as us in all things, we take every step IN the Love of our Father for us. And if we make a “mistake,” it is our Father carrying us in all things, making all things good as one Pperson with us. We honor Christ as Head by faith, by accepting that He IS.
There is NO command and control of any kind in the human body. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:14). Again, this is speaking of a realm of reality that has nothing to do with “obey, do not disobey.”
Know Your Place
Let’s return to our picture of every pixel finding its place inside the wonderful image on my computer screen. “Know your place” is one of the darkest words of cursing coming through human lips. It is the power words of all aristocracy, racism, and enforced class division. Yet it was also the essence of what we believed in the communities in which I lived about “finding one’s place” inside the Church of Christ, a “place” we imagined to be referring to an hierarchy of command and control. And it came out of the wrongful use of 1 Corinthians 11.
The power of “Know your place” is something I have overcome in my own self only with your gentle encouragement to me.
To Life or to Death
We set this extreme contrast, because we cannot know what “Jesus as Head” might mean unless we eliminate from our minds this false command “know your place.”
Consider these words that are the truth of God. “Bloom where you are planted.” Consider these words that are the whips of evil in the church. “Bloom where you are planted.” One use of this same line is to life and the other is to death.
One view of Jesus as Head of the Body is to life; the other view is to death. You see, Jesus IS living as His entire Body in all ways right now! – Whether we believe it or not.
Our Perfect Rest
Those of us who believe that Jesus is Head live and walk every moment knowing that Christ is as us, as all of us together. Those who believe that Jesus can be Head only by “obey, do not disobey,” live and walk every moment imagining themselves to be utterly separate from Christ. They are convinced Jesus is NOT the Head.
You see, in every attempt I make to enable you to understand that Christ IS a many-membered Body and that our walking together in love as the Community of Christ is the only revelation of Jesus Christ, I have no thought of ejecting us out of our perfect rest in knowing that we are right now exactly as Jesus wishes us to be and where He wishes us to be.
Freedom to Be
My purpose in laying before ourselves such an understanding of Christ is so that we will know what is happening as God gathers us together according to His living purposes in the days ahead.
The brain is not the head. The spirit is not the head. The Head of the Body is found in the freedom of each individual member moving entirely in what it is and what it loves to do, moving together with other members in proximity, moving in one Holy Spirit with all, as each member sings from its own heart – the Head of the Body is revealed by the ONLY way God lives – SYMMORPHY.
The Head as Each One
But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Note the underlined words: “Grow up – INTO – the Head.” I heard a word preached, once, on our becoming the head, that is, Christ, in maturity – but that picture was entirely in the definition of “head” as the center of command and control.
There is no such center. The “head,” is each one moving as it is, that is, Christ.
In Every Part
Modern medical darkness has alighted on the assertion that the entirety of what we are as humans and the entirety of the “intelligence” of the body is found only inside the bio-chemical processes occurring in the physical brain. This ignorant yet dogmatic belief is being blown to pieces in every direction, though most “doctors” still argue the belief.
I just read a statement that present science is way beyond the beliefs held by the medical profession. And present science is showing what natural health practitioners, both ancient and modern, have known all along. The entirety of body, soul, and spirit work together as one whole, and the head of the body is found in every part.
Symmorphy
The Head of the Body is Symmorphy. Christ is Symmorphy. This wondrous mystery of two walking as one, of One walking as many, of the joy and delight of singing out from one’s own heart, knowing that it is Father singing through you.
Yet we are social creatures. We love gathering together; we love doing things together. What orders our gathering and our doing things together? The fear of pain and punishment? Or the joy of life? The joy of life is symmorphy.
Freedom
The assignment you will do for this session is to watch the PBS documentary The Gathering Swarms. This documentary explores the beauty and awesomeness of flocks of birds and swarms of insects and schools of fish, many individuals, all moving together as one, yet in perfect freedom. As broken humans have observed these phenomena in the past, they have assumed that, because every honey bee was working only for the good of the hive, there must be some sort of “hive mind” controlling everything, some hidden “command and control.” No there is not. The real “hive mind” is found only in command and control, the hierarchy of power as found in such entities as the army, that is, slavery producing ruin.
Order
As you watch this documentary think of these things. NOTHING forces any individual in any of these swarms to do anything but what that individual WANTS to do entirely inside its own nature and delights. Every swarm is a picture of 100% freedom, individuals doing only what they want to do, but in conjunction with others wanting to do the same, that is, perfect order.
The “Head” of the flock is every individual member doing what it wishes. And every member wishes to do something together with nearby members. Yet amazingly, the whole flock moves together as one. This is Symmorphy; this is God’s perfect order. God moving in joy as His own creation.