The church and its head, hierarchy in the church
The head is the part that directs the whole body, which we also recognize in other areas. This is the name of the department director in my work "head of the department" (department head) or as we say more "head of family" or head of state. What we mean in these expressions with the term "head" is that person, who is responsible for directing, making decisions at work, with family, in the country, etc. There is no direction if there is no head, or if they are under the head, they do not obey what the head says.
The Bible, the written Word of God, tells us that we are members of the body of Christ, the church. With the term "church" I do not mean the Bible, nor the buildings or other human constructions, but the sum of all those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10: 9). Everything that believes the above, it is a member of the family of God, the body of Christ, the church. The Bible also tells us who the head is, the director of the body; which is none other than the Son of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's see the following.
Ephesians 1:22
"And all things under the feet of Jesus Christ," and gave him to head over all things to the church "
Ephesians 4: 15-16
"Only follow the truth in love, let us grow in everything that is the head, that is, Christ, whose whole body, well concerted and united between all the joints that help each other, according to the activity of each member, He receives his growth to be built up in love. "
Ephesians 5:23
"Christ is the head of the church"
Colossians 1: 17-18
"And he is before all things, and all things in him subsist, and he is the head of the body that is the church"
And here are some passages that make it clear that we, those who believe in the Son of God, some members of the body, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the head.
Romans 12: 4-5
"For as we have many members in one body, but not all members have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and all members one of another. "
1 Corinthians 12: 12-27
"For just as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Because by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether they were slaves or free; and we were all given to drink from the same Spirit. In addition, the body is not a single member, but many. If the foot says: Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is that why it will not be of the body? And if I say the ear: Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is that why it will not be of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would the ear be? If everything were heard, where would the smell be? But now God has placed the members each one of them in the body, as he wanted. Because if everyone were a single member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but the body is one. Neither the eye can say to the hand: I do not need you, nor the head to the feet: I do not need you. Rather the limbs of the body that seem weaker are the most necessary; and to those of the body that seem less worthy to us, we clothe them more with dignity; and those who are less decorous in us are treated with more decorum. Because those who are more decorous in us have no need; but God ordained the body, giving more abundant honor to the one that lacked, so that there is no disagreement in the body, but that the members all care for one another. So if one member suffers, all members grieve with him, and if one member receives honor, all members with him rejoice. You, then, are the body of Christ, and members each in particular. "
Ephesians 5:30
"Because we are members of his body, his flesh and his bones."
In these two pages of the New Testament Scripture, three questions give answers as clear as water:
. Body of Christ: is it one or many?
There is ONE and only one body of Christ. "Church" is the body of Christ and is only one.
"Church" is the body of Christ and is only one. I refer to the universal Church of Christ and not the local church and / or in each city. Without the intention of making a parenthesis, in each city, locally speaking, there is in the Scripture ONE and only one church in the city, it was the church in Corinth, the church of Colosse, the church in Jerusalem etc. There is nothing in the Bible that supports what we know today: many churches, unrelated to each other, in the same city. Also the concept of denominations is totally unknown in Scripture; there is no Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecost, Orthodox, Catholic or any other denomination. What comes in Scripture is one simple thing: only Christians "and the disciples were called Christians for the first time in Antioch" (Acts 11:26). To summarize, what we see in Scripture is a body which includes everyone who believes that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10: 9). What we also see is that there is only one head in that body, the Son of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.
. We in the body of Christ: Is there a top-down hierarchy in the relationship between believers?
What was also made clear in the previous passages of the New Testament is that we are members of the body of Christ, members of one another. Therefore, the relationship of one with the other is not hierarchical, exactly as the relationship of the members in our own body. The foot does not say "I am the boss here" or the hand does not say that it wants to be up as the ear. The foot is happy to be standing, because God created it that way and put it in the place it should be. It is also pleasing to see that the hand does what it is supposed to do. The foot and the hand are both members of the same body, for which they are connected with each other. The hand can not live by itself outside the body; It has life and function only within the body. In the same way it applies to the members of the body of Christ, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship with one another is not in a top-down hierarchy where the believer X has a higher position than the believer Y and still needs to reach the believer Z. There is also no competition within the body. Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his resurrection has been placed by God himself in the body of Christ with a specific function and all members are valuable. As Paul said above:
"Rather the limbs of the body that seem weaker, are the most necessary."
. Head of the body: who is the head, the leader of the church?
Finally, and this we have noticed from the beginning of the article, it is clear that the Scripture recognizes one and only one Head of this body; which is nothing more and nothing less than the Son of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head, the director of the church, the one who is above all, he directs the church, His body, for which it is to Him that the body must ask for instruction and direction.
SOURCE:
www.jba.gr
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Conclusion:
All of us very often prefer to trust in human hierarchy to decide for us. All of us often stand aside waiting for someone else, a "professional in the field" to do what we are supposed to do ourselves or to tell us what we should do. We look for church mortals to tell each one individually what they should do, as well as if they were the department head in the working world we know. Our working world as well as its practices are copied very often in the church. However, we have to note one thing, the Scripture says that God gave Christ "head above ALL THINGS to the church." Above all things means ABOUT ALL THINGS. I do not think we need a manual to establish some basic truths about the church that are found in Scripture.