EPHESIANS: Biblical Headship
EPHESIANS Number 17:
Biblical Headship
Ephesians 1:22–23 (KJV 1900)
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Not only has Jesus been raised and seated in the heavenly realm, but we were told that He is “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.” If He is far above, then it stands to reason that all these things are under His feet. The Book of Revelation is a glorious testament to this fact. It portrays over and over the great power of the Lord Jesus and His victory over evil. Again and again as we read through that wonderful book, we hear the refrain of blessing for he, or they, “who overcomes.” Folks, we are in Christ, so when He overcomes, we overcome. In fact, He has overcome and therefore, we have overcome.
Our passage goes on, however and tells us something profound about the Lord Jesus. It says that He is “the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
This sentence is so packed with spiritual significance that we need to take some time to examine it in detail. Let me begin by listing the points I want to unpack.
The Lord Jesus is “head over all things.”
The Lord Jesus is head to the Church.
The Lord Jesus has a body, and that body is the Church.
The Lord Jesus is the head, and along with His body is expressed in fullness.
The Lord Jesus fills all, in all.
Given what we have read so far about the Lord Jesus being raised and seated far above, well, everything, it should come as no great shock to learn that He is the head over all things.
There is a question that we may perhaps barely dare to raise, however. What is meant by “head.” This is an important question for us to examine now because as our study of this letter to the Ephesians progresses we are going to encounter this concept in a way that strikes very close to home for many of us. In Ephesians 5:23 (KJV 1900) we will need to examine this statement, “the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.” We will not address that directly now, but let’s spend a moment looking at the idea of headship.
The Greek word translated “head” in both of these passages is kephale’. BDAG * gives several meanings for this word. As is usually the case, these are determined by usage and context. The first meaning mentioned is “the part of the body that contains the brain, the head.” This is used of both humans and animals, so guys, don’t let this swell your kephale’. This idea is one aspect of the meaning here. We see this reflected in Colossians 1:18 (KJV 1900), which says, “he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
This passage helps us in understanding another aspect of the meaning of kephale’. Christ has “the preeminence” in all things. BDAG goes on to add a second definition for kephale’, which is “a being of high status, or superior rank.” This meaning is also extended to “things of the uppermost part, extremity, end, point.” We find this use in places like 1 Peter 2:7 (KJV 1900) where we are told (quoting the Hebrew Scriptures) “the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,” which speaks of the chief cornerstone, or greatest extremity of the foundation.
From this we take something important. The head is never separated from the body. The cornerstone is never displaced from the building. If either of these things were to happen, life and building would cease. The Lord Jesus is preeminent. He is the head, but not in the way of the world which makes the preeminent into dictators, tyrants, and oppressors.
Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is His body. This imagery is no accident. The body cannot function without the head, and the head cannot be fully expressed without the body. This is not to say that God needs us for survival, but rather that He is more fully expressed, at least in this world, because of us. Jesus pointed us in this direction in John 14:12 (KJV 1900) when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
When Jesus went to the Father and send Holy Spirit to us, He created the Church, the earthly body of Himself. Some have said, “we are His hands and feet.” There is truth in that. The people of the earth see Christ through us. We manifest Him to others. He is the head and without Him we are dead as He pointed out in John 15:5 (KJV 1900) saying, “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.”
When we get to Ephesians chapter 5, we will look at this again in the context of human marriage. When we do, we will find that one without the other is no relationship at all and headship involves service. We serve a foot-washing God who came to serve rather than to be served. This is the picture we must keep in place if we are to understand God and ourselves rightly.
* “A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature”, William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, 2000”
