Colossians 1:18 - Head Of His Body

“He also is the Head of (His) body, the church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand first and be preeminent].” Colossians 1:18

Christ, the head of His body, the church. There are many ways to look at this word ‘head’ but we are going to focus on two:

1. The position or rank of a leader

2. Mind, intelligence

There is no doubt in most of our minds that Jesus Christ holds the top position as “head” leader of the church body. There is no one who compares to Him or who could ever have done for the church what He has done. That He deserves our every respect and thanksgiving should be without saying yet often we need to be reminded of this. Jesus Christ is the head of the church - not us. Sometimes we need to be reminded of this fact so that we can bring ourselves before Him daily subjecting ourselves to Him and seeking the will of the “Head” over the will of the body. Amen? Amen.

In Colossians 2:18-19 we read, “Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [the claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notion and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit, and not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” Paul is warning the church that there will be those out there who will try to lead you astray in their teachings but that they are not leading you in the ways of Christ but rather by their own flesh. We are to hold fast to Christ Who is the Head and not to the teachings of man. Christ Jesus alone is the head of the body and only He can knit it together and, by His Father, supply all that is needed for the body, the church to grow. Praise be to God! Want to advance in your walk with God? Go to Jesus! Too often the body of Christ looks like a chicken with it’s head cut off, flapping it’s wings all over the place with no vision or truth destination other than death. Oh, Lord have mercy! We need Christ Jesus in place as our head, our leader and authority. This is what Scripture has to say about this in Colossians 2:10: “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power,” so why would we want to separate ourselves from Him and allow another to lead us or even try to walk on our own without Christ Jesus as our head? There are many so called ‘chicken hunters’ out there who would gladly sever our bodies from the Head of our Lord knowing that death will soon ensue though not in our spirits, surely in our souls. Shouldn’t common sense tell us that we need to be under the head of Him Who has principality and power over all? Goodness, if we are honest with ourselves, we find that our flesh struggles against this concept, wanting to take authority away from Christ Jesus in our lives and take it as our own, doing what we want, going where we desire to go saying what we please to say and we often do it under the guise of “Christianity.” So often Jesus wants to take a step to the right and we have moved so far left without realizing that we have left Him behind and like that preverbal chicken, we are found wondering around without our Head!

Oh, Lord, forgive us and bring us back to You. Help us to acknowledge You as our head, our Commander in Chief Who leads us on the path of righteousness and that only in You is found safety and protection, only under Your Headship is the kingdom of God found in our lives. Though we are in the world we are not of it for we belong to Your kingdom and our hearts are burning with a desire to live this truth daily. Apart from You can are and can do nothing. Our glorious is the grace of God that He would send You to redeem us and become our Head. Father, many thousands years ago the people cried out to be ruled by a king that they might be governed by him and You gave them Saul. Today we cry out to You once again, recognizing that we need the Head You have given us, Your most precious Son, Christ Jesus and we ask that You help us give Him the place in our lives as King of Kings, the Head over all Your church. Help us to accept His authority that we might relinquish our rights to Christ Jesus and His ways for we know there will be no headless horsemen riding with Him on that glorious day of His return and that He will not be looking for a headless church and we ask this in the name above all names, the name of Our Lord, Christ Jesus. Amen and amen.