Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead… The importance of a military position may be always estimated by the determination with which it is on the one hand assailed, and on the other defended. According to this rule we should conclude that the Church has regarded the Headship of her Lord as the very key of the position. For Christ's crown, and His sole right to rule His own house without Caesar's interference, her costliest and most powerful sacrifices have been made. Peter and John were the first to publicly maintain this doctrine (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). I. CHRIST'S BODY IS THE CHURCH. While all other bodies shall die, this is deathless. "Because I live," etc. This body, paradox as it sounds, is ever changing and yet unchangeable; one undying whole formed of dying parts. Yet not more strange than things in nature. You are not the same person you were a year ago. Look at a river. The exile returns to the haunt of his early years, and there the river flows as it did when he was young; yet the liquidations have undergone perpetual change. And so the stream of time bears on to eternity, and the stream of grace on to glory, successive generations, while the Church herself, like a river fed by perennial fountains, remains unchangeable in Christ's immutability, in His immortality immortal. II. CHRIST'S BODY, WHICH IS NOT IDENTICAL WITH ANY ONE CHURCH, IS FORMED OF ALL TRULY-BELIEVERS, TO WHATEVER DENOMINATION THEY MAY BELONG. Mothers are prone to think their own daughters loveliest, and nothing is more natural than to say of our own denomination, "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." But to foster a spirit of sectarianism is an offence as great as to sin against His truth. In some respects bigotry is worse than heresy; and most hateful of all in God's sight is the haughty Churchism which says, "Stand by, I am holier than thou." III. CHRIST'S BODY, IN A SENSE, EMBRACES ALL THOSE CHURCHES WHICH HOLD THE ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL. There is a broad line between the essentials and the circumstantials of the faith. Yet what unnatural attempts at uniformity have men made, as if uniformity were a law of God! On no such model has God constructed our world. God, while He preserves unity, delights in variety. Why then insist on all men observing a uniform style of worship, or thinking alike on matters non-essential to salvation? You might as well insist on all men wearing the same expression, or speaking in the same tone. How tolerant was Paul of differences! His Church has not followed her Lord's example. Christ drove thieves from the temple, but His followers have cast out their brethren. Divisions are bad things. I have no sympathy with those who, confounding charity with indifference, regard matters of religion as not worth disputing about. Such a state of death is worse than war. Yet divisions are bad things. Therefore we ought to aim to heal them, and where we cannot do that to soften their asperities. "Blessed are the peacemakers." Let us recognize a common brotherhood, and love one another as Christ has loved us. Branches of a tree which is still one in root, stem, sap, flower, and fruit; members of the same family, travellers to the same home, see that ye fall not out by the way. IV. AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH CHRIST IS THE LIFE OF THE MEMBERS. 1. By means of the connection which grace establishes between Him and the believer, He maintains our spiritual life. "Without Me ye can do nothing." All our wishes, words, and works, however expressed in looks, sounds, and movements, are born in the brain, and there is not a good wish, word, or work but Christ was its fountain-head. 2. He is the source of our spiritual life. We must not confound the means of life with its first cause. The life which Christ gave you was His own. If any heavenly fire burns in you Christ kindled it. The spirit life is not hereditary, "not of blood or of the will of the flesh." By His life He now maintains us. V. AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH CHRIST RULES ITS MEMBERS. It is not pain that makes the insect go spinning round and round to the entertainment of the thoughtless boy who has beheaded it. It has lost in the head that which preserves harmony among the members, and prevents such anarchy as there was in the body politic when there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right to his own eyes. Seated as becomes a king, in the highest place, the head gives law to all beneath it. Its subjects never mutiny. Patterns of the obedience we should yield to Christ, the members hesitate not to obey the head even to their own loss and suffering. How happy we should be were our hearts, minds, bodies, as obedient to Christ as the hand and tongue to the head that rules them I What else but this is needed to preserve the purity and peace of our souls, and restore the same to distracted churches? There is no essential difference between the evangelical denominations, and what should hinder them from being as ready to love and help one the other as my foot is ready to run in the service of my hand? VI. AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH CHRIST SYMPATHIZES WITH HIS MEMBERS. "All the rivers run into the sea;" all the nerves run into the brain, and through them mind corresponds with matter, looking through the eyes, etc. Let the foot but touch a thorn, and it is instantly withdrawn. How? Pain thrilling along the nerves flashes the danger upward to the head, which, by another set of nerves, flashes back an immediate order, so that before the thorn is buried in the flesh the foot is withdrawn. Such is the sympathy between Christ and His people. He is in closest communication with them, and by means of lines which pass from earth to heaven the meanest cottage is joined to the throne of God. No accident breaks that telegraph. The lines of Providence radiate out, and the lines of prayer radiate in. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. |
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