The fact is that if a church body is acting without being controlled by Christ it is not his body, it has some other head that is controlling it. A church may be under the control of Christ as her head or she can remove herself from Christ and have some man/woman as a head, or some group of people as a head, but if she does that she is no longer the body of Christ.
As parts of the body of Christ we must respond appropriately to our head, Jesus. When a part of our physical body doesn’t respond to our brains we know there is something wrong and we seek medical attention. The same is true when a part of the spiritual body is not acting in accordance with the messages from the head – something is wrong and help is needed.
Jesus tells us how we are to live, think, speak, act, worship, teach, and believe if we are to be part of his body. Of course, any human can during their life do whatever he or she wishes, but if we are going to be part of Christ’s body with him as our head and be pleasing to him we must obey him in everything (Ephesians 5:23-24).
As we go into a new year let’s examine our lives and see what areas we have not fully put under the control of our head and work to be proper body parts that function in conjunction with the other parts of the body to fulfill the instructions of the head. What thoughts, words, and actions are there in your life that Christ our head doesn’t approve?