THE OPERATION OF THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST

J. Wright

Colossians 2: 18, 19; Ephesians 4: 15, 16

I would seek help, beloved brethren, to say a little as to the way the headship of Christ operates. We had it before us on Lord’s day. It seems to me that it operates where there is the evidence of some correspondence to Himself. We were reminded that He is the Head of the body. The body is an organism which takes character from Christ, and I was thinking of the need to hold fast the Head as we have in Colossians. Colossians represents a critical situation and condition among the saints. There was nothing wrong with the outward order of the assembly there, things were orderly,

and there was much that Paul was able to commend. But the exercise would be as to whether we will go on to the fulness that there is in Christianity. I was struck with the reference that Paul makes, “Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize”. I wonder what that was. It is clear that they had not yet reached the full heavenly position. We know that this epistle brings out exercises that are on the way to it. It is linked with the way that the saints in the old dispensation had crossed the Jordan and were at Gilgal, but the full position of the land had not yet been reached.

Beloved brethren, there is a fulness in Christianity that is to be reached. Ephesians would be that, the full height of our calling, and the full height of our heavenly inheritance in association with Christ; which is to be reached. There is always something more in Christianity. Paul could say in Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained the prize”

(Philippians 3: 12); he was ever stretching out, even the apostle was going out for something more, something further and deeper. If we are content with the position or situation in which we are, we are in grave danger of going back and losing what we have. Laodicea was close to Colosse, and I seek grace to encourage us to go on, and to go further in divine things. I think the way the headship of Christ operates would help us so that we are to hold fast the Head.

How do we hold fast the Head, the One from whom all these divine resources come? They come through Christ as Head, and do not need anything of man to be added. Indeed that was one of the dangers at Colosse of adding something of man to it.

There is a reference earlier in the chapter to the circumcision of the Christ, bringing out how fully and totally man has been set aside in the death of Christ. But on the other hand there is the greatness of Christ Himself and His attractiveness brought before us in this epistle. I think the great secret, beloved brethren, of progress in divine things is the attractiveness of Christ, that He is becoming more and more to us. Holding fast the Head would involve an intimate

relation of affection for Him, so that we receive things from Him and we are intelligent as to His mind. Holding fast the Head would mean that we become intelligent as to the mind of Christ in what He has before Him. The wife who knows her husband and the headship of her husband would know what to do when he is not there; she knows his mind and his desires.

So beloved brethren as near Him there is this bond of affection, as holding fast the Head, “from whom all the body, ministered to and united together”. Everything that comes from Him has an edifying and uniting effect among the saints. “Ministered to and united together by the joints and bands”. What are the joints and bands? It would raise the exercise with me.

Am I a joint and band? Not only is there progress and growth but there is something operating organically which is uniting us together. The full truth of Christianity, the heavenly inheritance as brought out in Ephesians, cannot be known unless we are together in this way.

It says, “united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”. What is that? I do not think it is an increase in numbers, it is increase in divine love, formation in love. That is the increase which is of God, and it is only God who can give that increase.

Where there are these conditions God delights to give the increase. Paul speaks in Corinthians of Paul planting and Apollos watering but God giving the increase. If there is increase, beloved brethren, it is a tribute to God Himself and we are thankful for it. We are glad to see increase as we come among the saints; we are thankful to God to see increase, the increase which is of God.

In Ephesians we have the thought of “holding the truth in love”. That is the only right way to hold the truth; not to hold it mentally but to hold it in love. That would involve that what we hold we hold for others, and we love God and we love the truth, and we hold it in love. The truth has been set out in the Lord Jesus Himself and the way that God has made

Himself known is the truth. In Thessalonians it speaks of those who “have not received the love of the truth”, 2 Thessalonians 2: 10. But there is the need of the love of the truth, and holding it in love. You treasure it and you want others to be in the gain of it. “Holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things”, grow up to Christ in all things. It has been suggested that in every circle in which we are, we may grow up to Christ and become more like Him; at work, or at school, or in our family, or in the assembly, we are growing up to Him in all things. You cannot exclude one department of your life from that.

Christianity is practical, it is real, it is not a theory, “we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ—from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply”. You have the thought of being fitted together. It is a great matter in the epistle to the Ephesians of being together, being fitted together, and being built together. Here we get, “fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply”. There is something coming from Christ, flowing from Him; it is flowing through the saints but it is coming from Him.

This means direct contact with Christ, there is no intermediary between Christ and the saints. There is something flowing directly from Him. It is not getting things second hand, there is something flowing from Him. There is a joint of supply but it is having a binding effect, a building-up effect “according to the working in its measure of each one part”.

We all have a measure, and not all our measures are the same, but we all have a vital and living part in this as holding fast the Head and holding the truth in love. It says, “according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. That is what is working out in the body. It works for itself the increase of the body, increases those organic features in the organism, what is like Christ. It is increasing to its self-building up in love. We have been told that it is a result of the gifts having done their work. Is that working among the saints? It is not a question of gift here but it is a question of the body working and building itself up in love. I just suggest these thoughts, beloved brethren, and trust they will be for our help, in the Lord’s name.

Word in meeting for ministry, Denton
17 April 2006