Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor

A couple of very interesting scripture passages present themselves when we’re trying to discover what it really means for Jesus to be the Head of the Church, His Body. (That’s us, by the way.)

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22-23) 

As his Body, we are actually the fulfillment or completion of Jesus, the Head! Wow! What does that mean? Think of it like this: (read more) As the body completes the head and responds to the brain that directs its every move, so we, as the Church, the People of God, fulfill and complete Jesus as we respond to his direction and obey him in everything we do.

As our Head, Jesus is also the Supreme Reconciler. Check this out: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  (Colossians 1:19-20)

As God’s fullness was in Jesus, identifying him as being from God, so Jesus’ fullness dwells in us, identifying us as belonging to him.  The intention of the Head is to reconcile all things to himself by making peace!  Let that sink in…  Listen—If we are the fullness, the fulfillment, the completion of Christ, our Head, then we must represent him to our world by making peace, as he did, with our antagonistic world, not by drawing lines in the sand that serve only to gather like-minded people around us and alienate everyone else. Love never retreats behind a barbed wire fence w/a sign that says, “Here’s what we believe. Keep out unless you agree w/us!” Love takes down the fence/sign and says, “Jesus has signed the Peace Treaty in his own blood. He is the Head. Let’s learn from him, follow him, serve each other and let him take us where he wants to take us.” 

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, which is his body. No human leader can usurp the role of the body’s head. As a human body responds to and is in complete sync with its head, so the Church should respond to and be in complete sync with Jesus. In this way, we are the literal completion and full representation of him in our world.

Is this how we really operate?  This is the challenge for the Church in our polarized, divided, frustrated society today. We must seek reconciliation and peace with those who are alienated from us. We must move in the direction of those with whom we disagree. And we must love those who hate us and who think that we hate them.