Conclusion–Mutual Submission to Each Other Under Christ, Not a Chain of Command

For unity to be seen in the Church, there must be submission—first submission to Christ as Head of the Church, then mutual submission to each other. A part of this necessary submission is to submit to those God has placed in leadership in the Church. But submission to leadership must come after submission to Christ, and be an aspect of mutual submission to each other. Much division has been caused by leaders who have insisted that they, and other human leaders, should be “in command” of the church. Only Christ is rightfully in command.

As can be seen from the above, none of the five functions named in Ephesians 4:11—apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher—refers to a class of people who is given to the Church to fill the role of Head, the “top of the chain of command.” Certainly, this scripture does not suggest that pastors, the fourth group on this list, are intended to fill this role. Rather, all of these working together should guide the Church, and prepare it to perform works of ministry in the world. Similarly, “bishops” or “overseers,” “elders” and “deacons” are not presented as composing a human chain of command. Christ is the Head, who uses other gifted people to guide his flock, but none of these gifted people are to use their positions to dominate the flock. Only Jesus has dominion.

Beyond what has been discussed above, the New Testament contains no guidance concerning church government. It contains some sketchy examples of how certain churches were run. For instance, the church in Jerusalem first had apostles, then apostles and deacons (the latter being responsible for distribution to the needs of widows), then apostles and elders. The church in Antioch appears to have had a somewhat looser congregational system of decision-making, wherein the whole congregation heard the words of those given to the church in the Ephesians 4 roles and then came to a consensus to take important actions.¹ Paul, as has previously been said, appointed the first “elders” in churches he founded, and instructed his disciples to appoint the first “elders” in churches they founded, but how many “elders” there were in each church, how they exercised their authority, the exact scope of their authority, and how the “elders” that followed them were selected, are facts that are simply not stated. Church history suggests that, in the very earliest period of the Church, local churches had a variety of different forms of organization, which only became standardized as the need for centralized control of the movement came to be felt by those who believed they were “in command.” (See, Wikipedia, “Developing Church Structure“; Latourette, Vol. 1, 112-120, 129-133, 182-185; MacCulloch, Christianity, 130-137, 191-200; bibliography). In any event, the New Testament says very little about the form of church government, including how the human organizations that contain local churches should be organized and how these local organizations should formally relate to each other.

The Scriptures do not appear to either prescribe or prohibit any presently exiting form of church or denominational government. But, as has already been shown, God says a great deal about the substance of the relationships that should go on within any form of church government. It is the substance of the relationships that is important, far more than the form.

For unity to be seen in the Church, there must be submission—first submission to Christ as Head of the Church, then mutual submission to each other. A part of this necessary submission is to submit to those God has placed in leadership in the Church. But submission to leadership must come after submission to Christ, and be an aspect of mutual submission to each other. Much division has been caused by leaders who have insisted that they, and other human leaders, should be “in command” of the church. Only Christ is rightfully in command.

A Few Examples from my own life: 

• My Strangest Prayer and My Personal Experience with Prophecy
• God’s Initial Response to my Strange Prayer for the Gift of Prophecy
• The Period of High Creativity that Followed
• Resuming My Gifts and Callings (God has His Own Time and Way)

NEXT: Heresy is Division in the Church