A young brother who has been saved only a short time may approach some older brothers with a spiritual question he has been unable to resolve on his own. He may want to know whether or not he should go swimming at the beach, participate in sports, go to movies, or drink beer. If the older brothers have learned the lesson to honor the headship of Christ, when a brother opens to them in this way, they will immediately say, “Brother, we cannot tell you what to do because we are not the Head. We are not the Lord, and even you are not your lord. Jesus Christ is our Lord; He is the Head. Even if we know the answer to your question, we still cannot answer you because we do not have the position to tell you what to do. We must look to the Lord.” To answer in this way is to honor the headship of Christ. However, our practice in the church life is usually not like this. We often tell people what to do and what not to do; we even stir up arguments. This is altogether wrong. Our telling others what to do is an insult to the headship of Christ. We need to practice to honor and respect the headship of Christ.
Ephesians 5:22 says, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands.” A sister who keeps this word by submitting herself to her husband may ask him whether or not they should take their children to a certain place, allowing him to make the decision. Concerning spiritual matters, her husband may turn to the Lord, but concerning such practical matters, he may unconsciously insult the Lord by making decisions on his own. If a brother has learned the lesson, he will tell his wife, “Although I am the husband, I am not the Lord. We need to refer this matter to the Lord. We honor Him and respect Him as the Head.”
Failing to honor Christ as the Head could be the reason that a husband and wife who pray together still may not know the Lord’s will. On one hand, they pray to the Lord; on the other hand, they may not give the headship to the Lord, respecting the Lord as their Head. They may still consider themselves as the head. This may be the reason that the Lord has not answered many of our prayers. If this is our case, we need to change our attitude. When a sister asks her husband something, he should not give his feeling or make any decision. Instead, he should say, “I am not the Lord. Let us look to Him. We give our honor and our respect to the Head, the Lord Jesus.” If this is our attitude, our prayer will probably be answered. This is a great matter. The headship of Christ should not be merely a doctrine; it needs to be a daily practice. We need to honor Christ’s headship in our daily practice.
We need to honor Christ as our Head in the church life also. The elders in a local church should not consider themselves as the head. Neither should the saints in the local church consider the elders as the head. Among all the churches the saints should not consider an apostle as the head. An apostle is not a head. We have only one Head, Christ. This is according to the truth.
Suppose one day a brother comes from another locality and tells us that he is the representative of the church in that locality and has come to make an arrangement with us. We should not accept such a one because, according to the truth, the way he speaks is wrong. We do not have representatives in the churches. Likewise, if a brother travels to another locality claiming to represent another brother, we need to tell him that according to the truth there is not such a thing. According to the New Testament, there is no organization in the churches.
In the New Testament all the local churches are on the same level—not one is higher than any other. However, our human mentality always thinks that certain churches are ranked higher than others. This concept is wrong. In early times many churches considered the church in Jerusalem to be the head church. It was difficult for the Lord to remove this wrong concept. Regrettably, this concept damaged Jerusalem, for it was one reason that God sent Titus and the Roman army to destroy Jerusalem in A.D. 70. God does not allow there to be any head other than Christ; even a head church is not allowed. We should not consider any church today to be the head church. All the churches are on the same level. There are not first generation churches, second generation churches, and third generation churches. All the churches are of one generation. There is no lineage among the churches.