(By Theanna Joyce)
Where’s your head?
Have you ever been asked where your head is? Mine is currently where it belongs, firmly attached to my shoulders. (If you’re reading this, I assume yours is too.)
A head is supposed to be attached to the body. It’s supposed to be one with the body. Of course, they are distinct — the head is at the top of the body and the brain sends out commands and directs the body. But the head and the body are one and if they ever cease being one, the immediate result would be death.
The Bible talks a lot about Christ as our head, and the church, that is you and me, as the body. This is true in a collective sense in that God is head of the universal church and the local church, and it’s also true in an individual sense in that Christ is your head (Eph 1:22-23; 4:15; Col 1:18; 2:19; 1 Cor 12:27).
I think we do a great disservice to the gospel when we don’t properly accept or realize the oneness of the head and the body, of Christ and His people.
This analogy of a head and body is used often in the epistles, and the unity it points to can be seen in Jesus’s high priestly prayer. Right before Jesus’ arrest, He prays to His Father “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). The “they” in the verse is all who would believe in Him — it means you and me. Jesus wants us to be one in Him, absolutely united in Him.
This seems almost too big a truth to wrap our heads around, yet there are two key implications that stand out. First, if Christ is our head, who are we to disobey Him? Second, how utterly incredible that God desires this sort of closeness with us!
For the first implication, Romans 6:5-11 discusses how as Christians, we are united with Christ in His death and His resurrection — we have died to the old self and are now alive in Christ. Moreover, since our old self is crucified, it is not us who lives but Christ who lives in us and our lives no longer belong to us but to God (Gal 2:20-21; 1 Cor 6:19-20). Do we have this perspective in our daily lives?
Do you act as though your life is not your own in the details of your day, the way you talk with others, do menial tasks at work or home, and make big decisions?
If we believe that Christ is our head, then we, His body, must listen for His voice and obey it.
Scripture tells us plainly what we are all to do: to love, to be slow to anger, to be patient, etc. And as we walk with God in prayer, we learn to distinguish His voice in more specific situations: speak to this person, move here, do this.
There is risk involved in following the leading of Christ, our head. Our obedience will surely lead us into places that are uncomfortable and where our strength is not enough; yet His strength always is, and He is faithful.
For the second implication, I encourage you to take the time to read through John 17:20-26 and consider Jesus. Consider how great His love for you is and how much He longs for you to be united with Him.
Your head is Christ and you are firmly attached to Him. Marvel at the lengths He went to so that you could have such closeness with Him.
My prayer for you this week is that you would follow Christ and praise Him because He is your head and that you would experience the incredible unity with Him that He longs for with you.
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I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:20–26
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