The Lord is gracious, to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” — I Peter 2:3-5.

 

           That Christ is the only head of the Church is so clearly and constantly taught in the Holy Scriptures that no intelligent and honest student of the Bible can doubt the fact for a moment. To quote the scriptures which say that Christ is the head of the Church would seem unnecessary. If he is not the head and lord and ruler and supreme teacher of the Church, who is? But let us have a few words from Holy Writ on this subject. Jesus himself says: “I am the true vine.” Here he hints at the fact, which must have been known to him, that men would arise claiming authority to teach and rule the Church. “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” Paul, writing to the Church at Ephesus, says that God “raised” Christ “from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things unto the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” Again, to the same Church he writes: “Christ is the head of the Church.” To the Colossians he writes: “He” — meaning Christ, as you will see if you look at the 18th verse of the first chapter — “is the head of the body the Church.” In the book of Revelation the Apostle John describes a beautiful vision which he had on the Isle of Patmos. He saw Jesus, in his glorified body, standing in the center of a circle of seven golden candlesticks, holding seven stars in his right hand. John wondered what it all meant, and so Jesus himself explained the mystery. He said: “The seven stars are the angels” — I think he meant pastors — “of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.” What a beautiful conception of the relation of the blessed Savior to his people here on the earth. Each church is a candlestick, or lamp-stand, shedding forth the light of truth on the darkness of the world. Jesus walks around among the churches, trimming the lights and supplying fresh oil. At the same time, he holds and carries the pastors in his right hand. How absurd and blasphemous for any one of those stars, no matter how brilliant, to claim to be anything but a star in the hand of him who is the Head of the Church.