HEADSHIP
HEADSHIP
JT I suggested this chapter because it presents headship in its fullest sense. It is said, that Christ is given to be Head over all things to the assembly, which is His body. Therefore the assembly, in that way, is linked with Him. He is not only Head to it, but the church is linked with Him in the headship, inasmuch as she is said to be His body.
WCR Would the headship of Adam, as having dominion over all things, be typical?
JT I think so. In Old Testament characters we have headship presented in some form. Other things are presented, of course, but we shall find the idea in some form, in Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon.
EHT What do you mean by headship?
JT It has to be distinguished from lordship and apostleship. The idea of headship is that it is in One in whom divine wisdom is expressed.
JLJ Is it on behalf of God, in setting forth God?
JT It has in view the labyrinth of evil that exists in the world on account of sin. It is in the Head that a way is made out of that. Adam typified the purpose of God, but the phases of headship seen in those who came after him contemplate the effects of sin. The end in view is to recover all to what was foreshadowed in Adam and Eve. Ephesians answers to this.
LTE Does the idea of direction enter into it?
JT Yes. Headship is a very wide idea in its bearing, but in order that it should take form you must have divine wisdom expressed. It is seen in [p. 135] One in whom divine wisdom is; that is, divine wisdom in a Man.
RSS By wisdom you mean resource.
JT Yes. So that the Head is not simply a mouthpiece; He is Himself the thing He expresses.
JD This supposes Christ as Man.
JT Quite so. It is in man that headship is to be set forth. To indicate the difference between authority, or apostleship, and headship, I would cite Moses. In his earlier books. Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, it is almost invariably said, “As the Lord commanded Moses”. That is the way things are expressed, or, “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying”. Every paragraph is introduced in this way, and the point in that is, that God would assert His authority. What is presented carries divine authority, and Moses is the mouthpiece. Now, when you come to the book of Deuteronomy, it is what Moses says. “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel”, (Deuteronomy 1:1). In other words, the book of Deuteronomy suggests headship, because now it is Moses speaking, as it were, from himself. If it is looked into, you will find that to be true. It is Moses now speaking out of affection for the people, knowing the divine thoughts about them, and seeking to prepare them for the great position that God had destined for them. Of course, God’s authority is always in evidence, but Moses is seen more as marked by divine love and wisdom. He knows what is suitable to God, and he has love for the people; he desires that they should be formed for the position which God had destined them for.
RSS The blessing of Moses, the man of God; would that illustrate your point?
JT Yes, in a remarkable way. Compare, too, his song in chapter 32. You will find that Deuteronomy speaks of a second covenant in chapter 29:1. It is an additional covenant to that given to [p. 136] the people at mount Horeb, but it is largely what Moses, under God’s authority, of course, unfolded. Therefore it is a result of headship. The same thing appears in David. He also represents the authority of God as king. He is anointed to carry out the authority of God, but having brought the ark to Zion, everything now is ordered by him, and you hear nothing of “as the Lord commanded David”. It is David acting as head according to the wisdom that he had.
RSS Not exactly as king there.
JT No. After 1 Chronicles 15 it is David acting as head; therefore, it is not what Moses inaugurated, but an entirely new order of things established, not on the principle of divine command, but on the principle of headship; that is, of wisdom in David. Therefore we have a great many new features to those which we get in the economy established at mount Horeb. For instance, we get twenty-four courses of priests and twenty-four courses of Levites; and the people, even the congregation, are divided into courses of twenty-four thousand for each month of the year. That is, it is entirely a new order, and yet it is not said to be what “the Lord commanded David”, but what David enjoined. The scripture shows, that it was according to God, because these things are alluded to later as having spiritual significance. David had divinely given understanding as to them. See 1 Chronicles 28:11 - 19.
BTF In connection with what you have said as to David, do you mean, that he was acting of himself as head? Was he not acting under God?
JT That is fully owned. He was king before he was head.
BTF Comparing it with God’s people now, is not the thought set forth that they should be so acquainted with Christ that they should act as those [p. 137] who have been in His company. Is that the thought you were putting forth regarding David, now?
JT No; I was speaking about him as head as distinct from his kingly position. As king, he is there on behalf of God to enforce the divine will, but the idea of a head is that he acts from wisdom in himself, which, of course, is divinely given; only when you come to Christ, the Antitype, He is wisdom, so that when He speaks it is wisdom speaking.
AFM What you say would indicate the way in which we become acquainted with the Lord; first as Lord and then as Head.
JT Quite so. You come to the truth that this Person has all wisdom. You do not seek it elsewhere. That is a thought beyond the kingdom. I think Mary of Bethany, sitting at His feet and listening to His word, was recognising the Head. She had come to see that all wisdom was there and she wanted to get it.
GAT What is the difference between Lord and Head?
JT It is what we have been saying. Moses was king at the outset. The people came to Moses for judgment, Exodus 18. Moses had to judge the difficulties that arose among the people. That presents the king to us. Every one recognised that God had placed authority in that man, so that he was king in Jeshurun. That is one side of the truth. The other side of the truth is that Moses, in Deuteronomy, as knowing the mind of God, teaches it to the people. He is on their side, so as to prepare them for God’s land. That is headship.
ARS Does headship imply communion? If we are in communion with the Lord, we will know His thoughts and mind. Is that the way we are in accord with it?
JT I think so. You are in touch with the Lord, and you move here in relation to Him.
ARS I understand by what you have been [p. 138] saying, that Christ is our Moses and our David. Everything is vested in Christ today, so that if we would own Him as Head there must be communion, and subjection to His thoughts, and in that way He will lead us out of the labyrinth of evil.
JT No one not in communion knows headship. Persons not in communion might do what the Lord told them to do, but for headship you must be in communion.
WGR The Colossians were in danger of turning to other wisdom, “philosophy and vain deceit”. It was man’s wisdom.
JT That is the point. The epistle to the Colossians is to establish the saints in the truth of headship. It was imperative that they should recognise Christ as Head. They needed not to go to any one else for anything.
RSS It might be well to have brought out more clearly the distinction between the lordship and headship of Christ; it was said that we learn Him as Lord first and then as Head.
JT What I was saying about Moses helps in that way. The people came to Moses for judgment; that is an illustration of lordship. Every difficulty in your soul, every problem, you recognise the Lord in it; for whilst we are in the wilderness the lordship of Christ is always in evidence. The authority of Moses went on to the banks of Jordan, beyond the brazen serpent. But then headship, fully exercised, takes you out of the wilderness.
AMcB The Head was introduced in view of another place.
JT It is first attested in a scene of evil and darkness. It is intended really to lead us out of that into a sphere of order and blessing. The best illustration of that is Noah. He was really the head in God’s mind for one hundred and twenty years before the old world was set aside. God, in that way,
[p. 139] indicated His forbearance with the world by bringing in a new head. He raised up a new head and in him He set forth His mind. There was light in Noah, and all that there was in Noah was for any who might avail themselves of it.
LTF There was not exactly authority with him, but there was light.
JT Noah does not represent authority before the flood. He does afterwards; but headship was there.
AFM That helps in regard of Christ being the Head of every man. There was what any one could avail themselves of in Noah’s day.
JT So now the Head of every man is Christ. Thus men are tested. The four gospels show what Christ was, and so they are a test. If people do not avail themselves of such a Head, it only proves their folly. Men are convicted of folly because they do not accept that Head. The gospels show that Christ was the personification of wisdom.
JD Does your thought as to what was seen typically in Moses, lordship and headship, involve the incarnation, particularly in Deuteronomy. Is it, that what God had in mind for man in eternity, comes close to man in Christ?
JT Yes; we have in Christ both apostleship and headship. Apostleship is authority, headship is divine wisdom in a Man, who is on the side of men. Both are seen in Christ. Christianity is established in this world on the ground of authority, but then it is also established on the ground of wisdom. You cannot improve upon it.
JD You connect it with the last Adam.
JT Quite so.
ABS We were speaking about “the Lord said unto Moses”, and then Moses after that speaks himself to the people in Deuteronomy. The idea seems to be that in Exodus the Lord told Moses [p. 140] certain things to speak to the people, but in Deuteronomy he had God’s mind, and spake accordingly to the people.
JT I do not say that Moses did not have wisdom from the outset, or that he was any wiser in Deuteronomy than at mount Horeb, though his experience had doubtless made him wiser; but at mount Horeb the point was divine authority; “See ... that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount”; (Hebrews 8:5) and almost every paragraph is introduced or ended by “the Lord spake unto Moses”, or “as the Lord commanded Moses”. You will scarcely find that in Deuteronomy, because Deuteronomy is the expression of Moses’, affection and wisdom, divinely given, of course.
WB-s In Exodus he speaks as for God, but in Deuteronomy we have more the result of his own exercises.
JT Christ is both Apostle and King, and these two things have to be distinguished. In Him there is divine authority, because He is the Apostle and the King. But then He is also the Head.
EHT Is the thought of the head intelligence?
JT Wisdom marks the head.
GAH In the kingdom you may be a very good subject, but not very intelligent.
AAT Do you think that we learn wisdom by pondering the Lord’s path as seen in the gospels; and the way He met evil?
JT I think so. The gospels present wisdom, and the epistles the children of wisdom. Take, for instance, the record in the Acts. You will find what is recorded is what the apostles did; not exactly what they were told to do, yet the Lord’s authority is there; the fact that they are called apostles implies that.
AAT The body is seen in the epistles. His wisdom comes out in His body.
JT [p. 141] No doubt, and that only bears out what I am saying. What the apostles did was right. You cannot improve on anything the Lord did and said in the gospels. In the Acts what strikes you is the perfection in which things were done in the main, and yet the record does not show that they had specific commandments for everything.
BTF What leads up to the apprehension of headship in the history of the soul?
JT In Mary of Bethany you see it. She discerned, that in that Person there was wisdom, and she sat at His feet.
BTF So the truth of the kingdom precedes that of headship; that is, we are first translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love; and then we see that the Lord has wisdom, and He becomes our Head.
JT That is right. We must know the kingdom first. What I was saying about the Acts is important. It is a question of wisdom’s children. The Lord said, “wisdom is justified of all her children”, (Luke 7:35) and the book of Acts shows that those who learn from Christ justify Christ. All that they did was a justification of Christ.
AFM They were “holding the Head”.
JT Quite so. They were wisdom’s children. The Acts is a record of the actions of wisdom’s children.
GAT The Acts gives us the Head in heaven and the body carrying out His mind here, and this is in accord with what He did when He was here.
JT So they were not acting under specific commandments, but in wisdom, because they had learned it in Christ. We may see in chapter 1, that although the Lord had been forty days with them after He rose He had not appointed an apostle in the room of Judas. They were only eleven now. That was a problem! They had no directions what to do.
[p. 142] The Lord might have settled the matter by appointing an apostle, but He did not. Had Judas’ defection occurred in the early days of the Lord’s ministry, He would necessarily have appointed another, but the defection occurred at the close, when His ministry was over, so that the twelve were no longer needed as far as His ministry on earth was concerned. The coming of the Holy Spirit would inaugurate a new order of things, and twelve apostles would be connected with this, hence the appointing of the twelfth was a very great test.
EHT Did they act under headship or authority in that?.
JT I think they acted wisely. They availed themselves of all that was available, and that was wisdom.
AAT Do you mean the Scriptures?
JT The Scriptures and prayer. If the parents are withdrawn from the household and the children are left to act for themselves, what are they going to do? The question that would arise in every right-minded child’s mind is, What would their parents do? That is what I understand to indicate the road to wisdom. The apostles might look at it that way, and they did. How did the Lord act? The Lord recognised the authority of the Scriptures, and we read of Him as being often in prayer. In fact. He prayed a whole night before He appointed the apostles. They were wisdom’s children; they acted rightly, and their choice was endorsed by the Lord, for Matthias is alluded to in the next chapter as one of the twelve. “Peter standing up with the eleven”. (Acts 2:14)
AFM In regard to the choosing of the seven deacons we have a similar thing.
JT And all the way through. Take the opening of chapter 2; they were together with one accord. The Lord really had taught them how to be united.
[p. 143] It was He who taught them how to be together in unity. In Christianity we get wisdom’s children, and so the assembly is Christ’s, body. God “gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body”. The body acts according to the Head.
LTF Is not that what characterises Christianity rather than commandments?
JT That is just what I have been thinking.
ARS Would not headship produce unity? I suppose that Christendom has lost the idea of headship altogether.
JT Christendom has disregarded the Lord’s authority. If His authority is disregarded, there can be no idea of headship.
JD Is the idea of the body testimony?
JT The great thing to see is that it is Christ’s body. The assembly is His body. In order to be that the body must be formed in wisdom. Take, for instance, Psalm 133, brethren dwelling together in unity. That is a very happy thing, but it is also a very wise thing. It is a great thing to see that Christianity is the best thing that wisdom can devise.
ARS I think it was the truth of headship that first of all came to Mr. Darby. The Spirit made known to him that he had a Head in heaven, and that if so, every other Christian on earth has a Head, so the body must be on earth.
JD I have thought that the body was for God with a view to testimony.
JT In order to be Christ’s body the assembly must be formed according to Him. Ephesians affords us the most complete thought of the body.
AAT Is wisdom expressed by the saints collectively or is it individual?
JT Its fullest expression is in the body. The manifold wisdom of God is seen there. How can you [p. 144] have that expressed apart from the members being formed, individually in wisdom?
AAT Is it not learned individually?
JT It must be learned individually, and hence the importance of reading the gospels; you learn Christ there. The gospels present wisdom personified. In order to understand the book of Proverbs truly you must understand the four gospels. At the end of Proverbs you have four things that are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. These speak of Christians; true Christians are small outwardly, but they are wise. And then in the last chapter you have the corporate thing, the “virtuous woman”. It is not stated that she is commanded to do anything, but what she does is right.
RSS So that authority is connected with the lordship of Christ, but as Head He influences us.
JT That is it. There is a sphere influenced by Christ as the “wisdom of God”. In the book of Acts you are introduced into a sphere dominated by wisdom.
RSS So that in a household he who is at the head of it is not lord, but it is the sphere of his influence.
JT The Lord’s supper suggests headship: it was instituted in a family circle. The Passover was connected with the households in Israel. The Supper supposes the Lord’s absence, but it calls Him to mind..
GAT In which of our meetings should we recognise Him as Head?
JT He is Head of the assembly, and this is an abiding fact; but the Supper introduces us into the good of His headship in a very special way.
BTF Do we get Christ as Head connected with the company Godward?
JT Yes. He is leader. As I was saying, “These ... follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”. (Revelation 14:4) He is the Leader of the company.
AAT I can see how in a scene of evil great wisdom is needed to know how to act for God. Shall we need that same wisdom when out of the scene of evil?
JT You will not need it in the same way, but the assembly is the great body in which wisdom will be set forth in the future. He is given to be Head overall things to the assembly, which is His body. The millennial world will be governed according to the principles of wisdom. Everything will be absolutely and infinitely right.
AAT Are we being prepared for that now?
JT Yes. Wisdom is tested in us in the midst of evil here before it comes into display in the future. Noah was tested for one hundred and twenty years in a wicked world, and then he is seen as the head of a new world.
JD Even now there are heavenly intelligences who are being instructed in the all-varied wisdom of God in the assembly, as seen in the scene of contrariety.
JB Does not wisdom bring in light and blessing and all the things that continue?
JT Look at Joseph. The wisdom of God was expressed in him beforehand in view of the evil that was coming; and then Pharaoh rightly decides that there is no more fitting man to be head than he. He proved his wisdom both in regard to the butler and the baker, and in regard to Pharaoh also. Pharaoh’s judgment regarding Joseph was right.
Now we are tested; how are we going to act when a difficulty arises? Suppose a complicated difficulty arises in your locality, what are you going to do? You may read up what Mr. Darby says; but how are you going to act? I have often thought, that what tests a man’s spiritual ability is to give him [p. 146] a case of discipline to decide upon. There are a great many people who are negative, they do not do anything. That is safe to a certain point, but the man of God is fitted to act for God in a positive way in a crisis.
RSS Is it not a principle in Scripture, that would apply in every case, that if you have a spiritual person, he knows what to do?
JT Yes, indeed.
WB-s I would like a little more to be said in connection with the Lord’s supper, and as to lordship and headship in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. When we have to do with evil in any way, is it connected with headship or with lordship?
JT I think lordship relates to evil. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. (1 Corinthians 11:30) There the Lord acted according to His authority over His people, it was His discipline. But if you give the Lord His place as Man according to His love expressed in the Supper, you have His headship.
EHT I would like to ask a question as to Corinthians. We have been speaking of the manifold wisdom of God and the principalities seeing it in the assembly. In Corinthians you get the Supper as showing forth His death, till He come. Ought the bread and cup to be covered?
JT No, I do not think so.
BTF You get Christ in two aspects before us in the morning meeting. Prior to the breaking of bread it would be more as Lord, but then in His joining us it would be more as Head.
JT Quite so. In order to enjoy assembly privilege fully you have to recognise the Head.
AMcB We seem to be very defective as to the appropriation of the Head. How can we gain on that line?
JT I would recommend a study of the gospel [p. 147] prayerfully in order to know what wisdom really is, how wisdom, acted in different emergencies that arose; and then you know how to act. You are in accord with the Head. That gives you qualification for the assembly.
AAT We get testing to that end.
WLP Is affection connected with headship?
JT Christ becomes endeared to you as He is known as Deliverer. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. (Romans 7:25) In Luke 7 the Lord became endeared to the woman because of forgiveness. She loved much because she was forgiven much. A soul having been brought so far would be led on farther, and I think this is indicated in chapter 10. The next woman we are told of is Mary of Bethany, and she is sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to what He is saying. Affection leads her to listen to Him; it is really in that way we acquire wisdom and knowledge.
RSS And then she goes farther and anoints Him for His burial.
AAT We read of “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. (Colossians 2:3) What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
JT It is not easy to define the difference. Knowledge is more what is acquired; wisdom is resource and skill. It is augmented by acquired knowledge and experience, but it is more what a person is.
Rem Proverbs says, “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright”, (Proverbs 15:2) indicating that wisdom is shown in the manner in which you use knowledge.
JD In connection with wisdom may we say that the body being in the life of the Head, wisdom is still here?
JT All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in the mystery, and that is an allusion to the body [p. 148] of Christ.
JLJ What is the meaning of the “spirit of wisdom and revelation” in (Ephesians 1:17)?
JT That is what we have been considering. It is distinct from knowledge; it is “the spirit of wisdom and revelation” that God gives to us.
JB Will you say a word on Christ as Head, not of but to the body?
JT I think the point is to show the greatness of the assembly’s place in God’s counsels. Christ is not simply Head over all things by Himself alone, but His headship works out through the assembly. She is said to be the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
LTF That involves that the assembly is allied with Him as Head over all things.
JT And what He is is reflected in the assembly, which is the vessel through which headship is expressed. That shows how important it is for us that we should learn now. We are being prepared now for that.
AFM Now as to the gain of this at the breaking of bread: I suppose if we had learned Christ as Head individually, we should be better qualified when we come together on the Lord’s day; we are then exposed as to how little we know of headship.
JT I think when the Spirit gives the Lord His proper place in our souls, then He is free to act as Head.
AFM After we have broken the bread we find practically very little recognition of Christ as Head. It is often disappointing; sometimes too much activity and sometimes too much silence.
JT I think all that arises from the want of knowledge of the Lord and communion; it is the result of not being in communion.
GAH If He were recognised, He would lead in the assembly.
JT Those in the good of His headship “follow ... whithersoever he goeth”. “The tribes go up”. (Psalm 122:4) What we look for in the assembly is ascension. That is what is normal. What precedes the Songs of Degrees, Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, is Psalm 119, which coincides, in principle, with the Lord’s supper, because there you have the will of God expressed. “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) It was in the Lord’s body when here that the will of God was fully carried out, and we are in accord with that. Psalm 119 is really the writer’s expression of his delight in the will of God. It is a remarkable psalm.
RSS I like the connection of Psalm 119 with the Supper and the Lord’s body. Taking a body, He said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God”. (Psalm 40:8)
JT Psalm 1 is the demand for the godly man. He delights in the law of the Lord. Then in Psalm 40 the Lord comes to do the will of God, and in Psalm 119 the remnant have learnt that. They delight, as He did, in the law. The blessedness of a man was in his delighting in the law. That was seen in Christ. The Lord’s path was a path of infinite suffering, but a path of infinite blessedness. Those who saw Jesus saw that; they learned it in Him; so that in Psalm 119 you have the expression of the remnant’s delight in what they saw in Christ, and every letter in the alphabet is employed to express their exercises. In such a man God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
ARS Does the thought of ascension, or going up, mean that the Lord elevates you from your plane to His? It does not mean that the Lord comes down to your plane.
JT I think He comes to our side and leads us in, but this implies elevation. It is a great thing to see that we are entitled to ascend.
ARS Is not that the nearest thing to heaven?
JT Quite so. The title to ascend is in Psalm 119.
If a man carries out God’s will where everything is opposed to it, that man is entitled to be elevated. So the Songs of Degrees are really songs of ascension. “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord ... . Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel”. (Psalm 122:1; Psalm 122:3,4) I think we see in that what is proper to the saints after the Supper.
RSS That is very important. “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”; (Matthew 6:10) and I was thinking that the man who does it is therefore qualified and fit to go to heaven; he has learned to do the will of God here.
JT These Songs of Degrees are steps, they come after Psalm 119. The man seen in that psalm is entitled to ascend, and he shows in all that he says that he is fully in accord with each step till he reaches mount Zion.
BTF So we have in the hymn, “That way is upward still”. (12:6)
GAH Psalm 40 is what we were dwelling on last Year — the true God and the true Man. But in order to ascend you must be in accord with “him that is true”.
JT In John 20 the Lord shows to the disciples that His God was their God; that is, He brought them on to His own platform as having carried out the will of God here. So now He says, My God is yours. He solved the problem for them, but they have to be brought into accord with that, and Psalm 119 sets forth a man delighting in the will of God. Now in the Supper the Lord’s body is seen as the vessel for the will of God; and on the other hand it is “my body which is for you”. (1 Corinthians 11:24) It had been for God here, but in the Supper He says it “is for you”. In this sense He devoted His body to the assembly. That should have a profound effect on our [p. 151] hearts.
AFM He was here for the will of God, on the one hand, and then for the assembly.
AAT What is the objective point in ascending?
JT It is that the assembly’s place is a most exalted sphere. Of course, in the Psalms it is mount Zion, which is the centre of all God’s thoughts as regards the earth. But the assembly is exalted morally.
WCR The Lord said in John 20 that He had not yet ascended. Does that mean that He wanted to bring them on to His side of things?
JT I think so. He said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”, (John 20:17) as much as to say. When I have ascended, you can have part with Me there. “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. (John 20:17) In that I think we have title to ascend, for He links us up with Himself. If He has gone up we have title to go up.
GAT You were going to say something about connecting the Supper and ascension.
JT I think if you give the Lord His place He will lead you upward. It is not physical, but moral. These shall “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”. (Revelation 14:4)
JLJ What about His coming to our side?
JT “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song of Songs 8:5). He supports us out of wilderness circumstances into the sphere of blessing and privilege.
GAT Do you get that with regard to the two on the way to Emmaus?
JT He set them going towards Jerusalem where the company was. Going towards Jerusalem involved going up.
WLP “My body ... for you”. That is what produces love for Him in our [p. 152] souls.
AFM The last sentence of the Songs of Degrees is: “The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion”. (Psalm 134:3)
JT I think it is very beautiful. All blessing issues from that point, from the highest point.
AFM It illustrates the assembly’s present place in administration.