The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.

gr/

Church (ecclesia) and her Head

The head is the part that directs the whole body. We recognize
this in other settings too. Thus the director of my department at work
is called the head of the department. Or we speak for the head of the
family, the head of the state etc. What we mean with the term “head”
in these expressions is that part, that person, that is responsible to
give directions and to make decisions at work, the family, the state
etc. There is no direction if there is no head or if those that are under
the head, do not obey to what the head says.
The Bible, the written Word of God, tells us that we are
members of the body of Jesus Christ, the church, the Ecclesia. With
the term ecclesia or church I don’t mean here – nor the Bible means
- buildings or other human constructions but the sum of those that
believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and God has raised Him from the
dead (Romans 10:9). Everybody that believes this is automatically
member of the family of God, of the body of Christ, the church, the
Ecclesia. The Bible also tells us who is the head, the director of this
body. This is no other than the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let’s see this:

Ephesians 1:22
“And He [God, the Father of glory, (verse 15)] put all things under
His [Jesus Christ’s] feet, and gave Him to be head over ALL
THINGS to the church”

1
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

Ephesians 4:15-16
“but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into
Him who is the head––Christ–– from whom the whole body,
joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to
the effective working by which every part does its share, causes
growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Ephesians 5:23
“Christ is head of the church ;”

Colossians 1:17-18
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He
[Christ] is the head of the body, the church..”

And here are also some passages that make clear that we, the
believers in the Son of God, are members of the body, whose Head
is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:4-5
“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do
not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in
Christ, and individually members of one another. ”

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ….. For

2
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body––whether Jews or

Greeks, whether slaves or free––and have all been made to drink
into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If
the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,"
is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I
am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the
whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has
set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But
now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye
cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head
to the feet, "I have no need of you." No, much rather, those members
of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those
members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these
we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater
modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed
the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that
there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should
have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all
the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the
members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and
members individually.”

Ephesians 5:30
“For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”

3
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

In these two pages of New Testament Scripture, three

questions are given crystal clear answers:

i. Body of Christ: is it one or many?

There is ONE and only ONE body of Christ. Ecclesia is the body
of Christ and is ONE. I’m speaking here about the universal
Church of Christ and not about the local church in the individual
cities. Without wanting to make a digression, in each local city
there is in the Scripture ONE and only ONE church in the city. It
was the church in Corinth. It was the church in Collosai, the
church in Jerusalem etc. There is nothing in the Scripture to
support what we have today: many churches, with no
relationships to each other, all in the same city. Also completely
unknown to the Scripture is the concept of denominations. There
is no Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic or
any other denomination in the Scripture. What there is in the
Scripture is one simple thing: just Christians. “And in Antioch the
disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). To sum it up:
what you see in the Scripture is ONE body that includes everyone
that believes that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised Him from
the dead (Romans 10:9). What you also see is one Head of this
body, the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.

4
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

ii. We in the body of Christ: is there a top-down hierarchical

relationship between believers?

What is also made clear from the above given New Testament
passages is the fact that we are members of the body of Christ and
members of each other. The relationship therefore with each other
is not a hierarchical one, exactly as the relationship of our
members in our own body is not a hierarchical one. The foot does
not say I’m in a greater position than the hand but still need to
catch up with the ear. The foot is happy to be foot, because that’s
what God made it to be and placed it in the body to be. It is also
happy that there is a hand to do what a hand is supposed to do.
Foot and hand are both members of the same body and are
therefore connected to each other. The hand cannot live alone,
outside the body. It has life and function only within the body. So
is with the members of the body of Christ, the believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They do not relate to each other via a top-down
hierarchy where the X believer is in higher place in the hierarchy
than the Y believer but still needs to catch up with the Z believer.
There is also no competition in the body. Everybody who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His resurrection has been
placed by God Himself into the body of Christ with a specific
function. And all members of the body are valuable. As Paul said
above: “much rather, those members of the body which seem to
be weaker are necessary.”

5
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

iii. Head of the body: who is the head, the leader, of the
church?

Lastly, and this we have noticed right from the beginning of

this article, it is clear that the Scripture recognizes one and only
one as Head of this body. This is no other than the Son of God
Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head, the director of the
church, the top one. He directs the church, His body, and it is
Him therefore to whom the body should look up for instruction
and direction.

Conclusion

This is a very short article and though it still needs a lot of

completion, I don’t think we need a book to lay out some basic
truths found in the Scripture about the church. We all too often
prefer to rely on a human hierarchy to decide for us. We are all too
often waiting in the sidelines for somebody else, a “professional”, to
do what we are supposed to do or to tell us what we are supposed to
do. We are looking and searching for mortal church CEOs that will
take each individual and tell him what he is supposed to do like head
of the departments do in our business world. Our business world
with its practices is all too often copied into the church. We need
however to notice one thing. The Scripture says that God gave Christ
to be “head over ALL THINGS to the church”. See this “OVER

6
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, http://www.jba.gr/

ALL THINGS”. Now guess what ? Over all things means OVER
ALL THINGS. There is nothing left out from this “over all”! Christ
and not a mortal man – however well intentioned he may be - is the
boss, the master, the CEO, the “over all” in the church.
See also that the body grows as “every part does its share”.
EVERY PART! Again, guess what? “Every part” means EVERY
PART. There are no exceptions here. There is nothing in the Bible
that suggests that one part does everything and the other parts do
nothing. All of us have to go to the Lord and ask Him, as the Head,
the manager of this organism called the church: “Lord what do you
want me to do? You are the head. Direct me as you want, where you
want”. Let us stop look out for mortal men to get directions. The
directions can only come from the head and the head is one:
CHRIST! To Him let us turn for directions and Him let us seek!

Matthew 7:8
“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to
him who knocks it will be opened.”

Tassos Kioulachoglou