Colossians 2:19, commentary and pictures

Christ is the Head from whom the whole body is nourished and knit together by joints and bands, and grows with the growth that comes from God. Not holding the Head means cutting off the One who ministers strength and nourishment, leaving members like branches cut from the vine, without strength to act rightly of themselves. Without Him as Head the body is without direction and cannot grow rightly, but is left helpless for another to guide and control it into deception and delusion. The body grows only as its members are joined together in an ordered whole under Him, bound to Him as the great center and to one another in love, each doing its part in dependence on Him. Those who hold the Head feed day by day upon the truths of God's word and are strengthened for duty and braced for trial, growing to full stature in Christ with expanded mind, strengthened judgment, and elevated character.

Christ the Nourishing Head

Christ is the Head from whom the whole body receives nourishment and, supplied and knit together by joints and bands, increases with the increase of God. He ministers strength and nourishment to every part, joining the members together so that the body grows by God's power and not by any power of its own. Apart from Him the members cannot grow rightly, for they have no direction and no strength in themselves. To reject Him as Head is to deny the very source of spiritual life and growth, leaving the body open to be guided and controlled by another.

He is the source of all true growth and the maintainer of all life. By His Holy Spirit He communicates heavenly principles and furnishes spiritual life. When Christ dwells in the heart, His life circulates through the whole being as blood circulates through the body, as a vitalizing power. Then the life is hidden with Christ in God.

Not holding the Head means denying and cutting off Him who ministers strength and nourishment to the body. It is like branches deprived of the living vine, left without strength and nourishment so they cannot act rightly of themselves. Those in that headless condition are as a body without a head, in the helpless state that leaves them to be guided by another and controlled as Satan pleases. Such self-trusting independence, claiming that the members can act out their own nature and advance to perfection by fixed laws without a head, is vain puffing up of the fleshly mind.

The verse stands as part of a warning against voluntary humility and man-made religious tests. The groveling practices condemned have no sanction in God's Word and are not duties He requires. Christian duties are meant to elevate, not to debase in such outward acts.

Unity of Christ's Body

The body grows only as its members are joined together in an ordered whole, not as disconnected, independent, or randomly operating parts. All lines of God's work are parts of one great whole with one center under Jesus Christ as head over all the institutions God has established. The medical missionary work must therefore remain connected with the conferences and with every other branch, part joined to part in perfect order and relation. The work in all its lines is to demonstrate the influence of the cross occupying the central place as the means of man's atonement, with the methods of its diffusion provided in the same plan of salvation.

The verse sets the pattern for workers in sanitariums and gospel ministry to be united under Christ, with different roles where each is to be respected and to do his own work. Selfish efforts to control others or to claim the chief place oppose this unity, since no man is to be head and no one man's mind and judgment is all-sufficient. Believers are joined to Christ the great center and to one another in love and receive nourishment from the same source. Bound together under Him, each doing a part while cherishing dependence on the Head, they become a power for good.

Holding the Head cures rivalry, jealousy, evil surmising, self-exaltation, and striving to be head over others. Those sent to work together then connect in harmonious action as brethren, yoked to supply the deficiency in one another's character-building, riveted and grounded in the truth to meet the enemy's assaults and to build up the work. They are brought together in an ordered church body to reveal God's wisdom and to carry out His plan for restoring the world.

Holding the Head Daily

To turn from Christ to humanity for help is folly, for from Him as Head the whole body receives nourishment and increase. When Jesus is appreciated and held, believers receive the rich, full, abundant and assuring promises of God and see the salvation of God. When the Saviour is treated indifferently, the door closed against the divine Helper, and man looked to for guidance, power cannot be expected.

Those who hold the Head feed day by day upon the precious truths of God's word and are thereby strengthened for duty and braced for trial. With heart, soul, and body enlisted in the Master's work, affections centered on things above, self denied for Christ's sake and His cross lifted as true disciples, they become strong, well-developed men and women in Christ, true sons and daughters of the heavenly King, with expanded mind, strengthened judgment, and elevated character. They are not novices in saving souls or dwarfs in religious life, but grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, growing in grace through knowledge that builds them up in Him. Working with wisdom given of God, strengthened in conflict with the enemies of truth, gaining precious victories by calling on the mighty Helper, they give all glory to God when their efforts succeed.

Holding to Christ brings shared spiritual understanding connected with true conversion, the Holy Spirit's work in the character, and a life of consecrated service that blesses others. Those who hold Him keep individual holiness and consecration in view, become self-denying and self-sacrificing in true service, and through sanctification of the truth abound in works of benevolence to the uplifting of others. The thankful heart continually overflows in blessings to others like living water springing up into everlasting life, growing with the increase of God to become His helping hand to refresh others.

Without Christ as Head the body is without direction and cannot grow rightly, left as a body without a head in the helpless condition Satan wishes. Holding the Head ministers strength so every member joined together may increase with the increase of God and each person become perfect in Christ Jesus, but cut off from Him as branches deprived of the living vine, members are without strength and nourishment and cannot act rightly of themselves. Then another guides the body and Satan controls the members as he pleases, leaving them to deceivableness of unrighteousness and strong delusion because they did not receive the love of the truth. Not holding the Head is shown by those who lay aside Christ and claim the members can act out their own nature and progress to perfection independently and by fixed laws without a head, and spiritualism is the result of that headless state. This is done by spiritualists who, vainly puffed up in fleshly minds and highly flattered by spirits they believe to be the spirits of their dead friends, the licentious and corrupt and the wicked and vile, trust each member to progress alone.

Not holding the Head leaves Christ out and puts self in His place. Such a person may talk much of faith, the Holy Spirit, and humility and make a noisy, harsh, boastful outward show, but lacks love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, tenderness, and comfort for the weak. His humility is voluntary humility and will-worship that is outward, disorderly and for attention, easily provoked to anger when corrected and jealous when slighted. Supposing himself led by the Spirit of God while controlled by Satan, he becomes a dangerous medium in Satan's hands to mislead the flock.