By John F. Maddocks
The last time you made a decision did your hand tell you what to do? Or, the last time you took a trip was it your foot or your toe that told you where to go? Of course not! We all know that is not how it works. When it is time to make a decision, in reality when we do any thinking at all, the head is what does it. The head is the housing of our brain. The brain is our command center. I’m sure we would all agree this is so.
Jesus Christ is the head of a body. “And He put all things un- der His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22, 23). “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Eph. 5:23, 24). “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). Jesus Christ’s body is the church. He is not the head of many bodies (churches, denominations) as some today would teach. Ephesians 4:4 says “there is one body.” In a body only the head does the thinking!
Paul, writing to the brethren in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, taught that individually, as part of Christ’s body, we are not all the same. Metaphorically, he described some as hands, some as feet, some as eyes, some as ears, and so on. Each part (individual member) has a function (in Eph. 4:16, Paul says each part is of value). Yes, every part has a function, but, that function is not to do the thinking.
At the transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with Jesus. Peter was prepared to build them each their own tabernacle. God the Father’s reply was, “While he (Peter) was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’” (Matt. 17:5).
In John 6, many of the Lord’s disciples had turned away from him (v. 66). In verse 67 Jesus asked his disciples, “Do you also want to go away?” Notice Peter’s response in vv. 68, 69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
We need to let Jesus do the thinking! What a difference we would see in our world if people would just do this. If instead of, “Well, what I think . . . ,” people would turn to the Lord for a “Thus saith the Lord.” What a difference it would make in our lives if we would just let Jesus, the head, do the thinking!