Day 322

Of the Church.

Chapter 26, Paragraph 4.

“The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, in whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or Government of the church, is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner,…”

Scripture Lookup

Colossians 1:18

Matthew 28:18-20

Ephesians 4:11,12

Reflection

How much thought do we give to church government?

When chatting about spiritual matters, how the church is structured doesn’t tend to come up. Why is this? Perhaps we’ve just come to accept how our churches are set up because it is what we grew up with, or we’ve accepted that those who arranged it knew what they were doing. But why do we have the offices we have? How many levels of hierarchy should there be? These questions ought to be examined, as it affects who has authority in our local church, and how much authority they have.

In learning how to order the church, to whom do we look for guidance? If we were to learn how to build a new gadget, it would make sense to look to the company that created that gadget for instructions. Just as we look to the creator of a machine to tell us how to assemble it, we look to the Creator of the church to learn how to set it up.

Jesus is the creator of the church. He is the One who through His mediatorial work enabled all those who are justified to be counted as children of God. He is also the head of the church. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). He rules His church supremely, and is the ultimate voice in how His church is to be governed. No one else can claim the authority that is Christ’s alone.

Questions to Consider

• Can you explain why your church government is structured the way it is?