Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Ohio, A human body is the best illustration of the Body of Christ with its function and the relationship between members. There is no hierarchy in the human body.
When you think hierarchical, you rank. When you rank, position comes in. Then struggles follow. Fortunately, all the elders I've known never exhibited a hierarchical mentality. They did exercise authority but not because of positional power. Actually, I experienced spiritual authority most of the time from members who were not elders. That is the way it is when the Body functions. The eyes do the seeing, the ears do the hearing, the hands do the grasping, and so forth. That's the biblical illustration.
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I don't understand the difference between submitting to a church elder because he is an elder and saying he has rank over you. Eldership even in the LCM is a position. It's official. That's a rank.
I totally agree that our dynamic moment-to-moment functioning in the Body should be according to the Spirit. Paul said Ephesians 5:21 we all should submit to each other. What did he mean? How can that be? He meant that at any moment the Lord could lead through any member. Yet, at the same time there is a official organization in effect that everyone should recognize. Everything can't be spontaneous all the time. The human body is dynamic, but it is also organized in a particular way. The foot just can't turn into a heart. That doesn't happen. Yet, the human body has the freedom to react in several ways to stimulus. There is some spontaneity. But there is also position. But a seemingly more crucial position does not imply an individual superiority. This is what Paul implied in 1 Cor 12.
Here's an example. The elders are meeting in a room because they are the elders. They know they have that rank. Everyone else knows it too. They meet to decide courses of action. Most of the time they follow the inputs that come from their elder circle. But today a young brother comes to deliver refreshments and says something. The elders realize that God is speaking to them through that young brother. Because they practice the commandment to submit to one another, they hear and recognize the Lord's speaking and obey it.
So there you have it. The spontaneity of the Body operating within the organization of the Body. That's really the way it works. It isn't either/or. It's both/and.