In 2:19 Paul speaks of “holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.” The heresy of angel worship distracted the believers in Colossae from holding Christ as the Head. God’s economy is to head up all things in Christ through His Body, the church, thereby making Christ the center of all things (Eph. 1:10, 22-23). The device of the subtle one is to carry the saints away and to cause the Body to collapse. The heresy at Colossae caused the saints to be severed from the Head. This damaged the Body. Paul’s revelation was to uplift Christ and to safeguard and build up the Body. We need to be preserved in Christ for the church life.
To be preserved in Christ for the church life is to hold Him as the Head, out from whom the Body grows with the growth of God. Growth is a matter of life, which is God Himself. As the Body of Christ, the church should not be deprived of Christ, who is the embodiment of God as the source of life. By holding Christ, the church grows with the growth of God, with the increase of God as life.
This growth takes place as all the Body is being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews. Joints are for the supply of the Body, whereas sinews are for the knitting together of the members of the Body. In the church some members are joints and others are sinews. By means of the joints and sinews, the Body grows. This indicates that we cannot grow with the growth of God individualistically; we need to be in the church.
To understand properly what it means to hold the Head, we need to consider Colossians 2:16 and 17, where Paul tells us that Christ is the body, the substance, the reality, of all the shadows, such as eating, drinking, Sabbaths, new moons, and feasts. Based upon this fact, Paul warns us not to allow anyone to purposely defraud us of our prize, the subjective enjoyment of Christ. Those who seek to defraud us are the ones who stand on things which they have seen and who do not hold the Head. Thus, there is a connection between Christ as the body of the shadows and holding the Head. In other words, the Christ who is the reality of all positive things is the One who is the Head of the Body. If we would know what it means to hold the Head, we must know what it is to enjoy Christ as the reality of all positive things. Without enjoying Christ in this way, we cannot experientially hold Him as the Head. Therefore, we can say that to hold the Head is simply to enjoy Christ as the reality of all positive things.
The genuine Christian life is a life of enjoying Christ. We need to enjoy the Lord all day long. Whenever we enjoy Christ continually, we automatically hold Him as the Head. Thus, the best way to hold Christ as the Head is to enjoy Him. There is no better way to hold Christ than to eat Him. Just as we hold food by taking it into us and eating it, so we hold Christ by eating Him.
In 2:16-19 Paul takes a great leap from Christ as everything for our enjoyment to Christ as the Head. As we enjoy Christ as our food, drink, air, and everything, we are uplifted to the height of our experience of holding Christ as the Head. But if we stop enjoying Christ, we immediately stop holding Him as the Head. Only when we enjoy Him do we also hold Him. This is not a doctrine learned from theology books; it is a fact of Christian experience. To hold the Head is to enjoy Christ continually. We are vessels made to contain Him, and we hold Him by eating, drinking, and breathing Him.
Holding the Head is also equal to abiding in Christ (John 15:4). To hold the Head implies that we are not detached, or severed, from Him. At the time that Paul wrote to the Colossians, they had been somewhat detached from Christ by their culture. Culture can be a form of insulation which keeps us from Christ. To hold the Head is to remain in Christ without any insulation between us and Him.
For the Body to hold the Head means that the Body does not allow itself to be separated from the Head. If we truly hold Christ as the Head, we will not be separated from Him by anything. When we live by our culture instead of by Christ, we separate ourselves from Christ as the Head and are defrauded of our prize, which is the enjoyment of Christ.
Furthermore, because Christ’s headship is in resurrection, the enjoyment of Christ spontaneously brings us into resurrection and saves us from our natural being. We all are natural. If we are not brought into resurrection through the enjoyment of Christ, we will remain in our natural person. The more we enjoy Him, the less natural we are.
The enjoyment of Christ also brings us into the ascension. The more we enjoy Him, the more we are in the heavenlies experientially. This means that through the enjoyment of Christ, we become heavenly. We are not only no longer natural but also no longer earthly. The enjoyment of Christ causes us to be both in resurrection and in ascension. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we are in the heavens. Therefore, to hold Christ as the Head is to be in the heavens in our experience. It is also true to say that to be in the heavens is to hold the Head. Experientially, holding the Head and being in the heavens are one and the same.
If in our experience we temporarily abandon Christ and do not continue holding Him as the Head, we will sense that we are earthly. Whenever we are earthly, we are not holding the Head, but if in our daily life we consistently enjoy Christ, we will hold Him as the Head and be in the heavens in our experience. Then we will be a heavenly people.
According to Colossians 3:1-4, our living should be in the heavens, where God’s throne is. On the one hand, Christ as our Head is in our spirit (1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22); on the other hand, He is in the heavens, not on earth (Col. 3:1). Only when we are in the heavens do we hold Him as the Head. To enjoy Christ is to hold the Head, and to hold the Head is to be in the heavens.
We can be experientially in the heavens only by enjoying Christ, the Head, as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” If Christ were only the Head and not the Spirit, there would be no way for us to contact Him or hold Him experientially. But although Christ’s position is that of the Head, in our experience He is the life-giving Spirit. According to 2 Timothy 4:22, the Lord, who is the Spirit, is now with our spirit. In the heavens Christ is the Head, but in our spirit He is the Spirit. Therefore, to hold Christ as the Head is not only to enjoy Him and to be in the heavens; it is also to be in our spirit. If we would hold the Head, we must be in spirit.
In Colossians 2:18 Paul uses the expression vainly puffed up by his mind set on the flesh. The mind is part of the soul, and the flesh is related to the physical body. Anyone who is puffed up by the mind of the flesh does not hold Christ as the Head, for he is in his fleshly mind, not in the spirit. Whenever we are in the mind or in the flesh, we are not holding the Head. But when we turn from the flesh and from the mind to the spirit, we automatically hold Christ as the Head. If we linger in our fleshly mind, we will not be able to touch Christ or hold Him. But if we turn to the spirit, we will hold the Head, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit.
Therefore, in order to hold Christ as the Head, we should enjoy Christ, be in the heavens, and be in our spirit. From our experience we know that these three matters go together. When we enjoy Christ, we are in the heavens and in our spirit, not in the mind or in the flesh. To be in the spirit is experientially to be in the third heaven. According to the Bible, the Holy of Holies is both in the third heaven and in our spirit (Heb. 10:19; 4:14, 16). Whenever we turn to the spirit, we are in the heavens enjoying the Lord. This is the way to hold the Head.