Derek Prince - Watch Out With Criticizing Other Christians
This is an excerpt from: The Headship of Jesus - Part 1
I want to take this a step further and talk about the headship of Jesus over the church. This is the crux of this subject. Look for a moment with me, if you will, in Ephesians 5:23. Ephesians 5:23. This whole passage is an unfolding of God's plan for Christian marriage but it also unfolds Christian marriage as a pattern of the relationship between Christ and the church. It has a double application. Paul says here: For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and he is the savior of the body.
Notice the parallel which was there in 1 Corinthians 11 also, verse 3? The parallel between the relationship between Christ and the husband, the husband and the wife, and Christ and the church. So, Christ is the head of the church. Now, what does that mean? What should it mean? It should mean that Jesus receives input from the church. When we run into trouble, we don't look for our own solution. We communicate with the head. All right? My right hand would get into a lot of trouble if it wasn't directed by the head. That's why some of you get into trouble! You're not being directed by the head. You're acting as if you were autonomous. You aren't. Secondly, Jesus makes the decisions for the church. The church shouldn't make its own decisions.
Thirdly, Jesus initiates the actions of the church. And fourthly, He gives ongoing direction. When He initiates action, the members should respond to His initiative. Does that give you a picture of the relationship between Jesus and the church? That's the relationship of headship. When the Scripture says Jesus is head over all things to the church, that's the picture that we should form in our minds, that's the relationship that should exist between Jesus and His church. Is that the relationship that actually now exists between Jesus and the church?
I heard second hand about a meeting of John Wimber somewhere in which he did what he sometimes does, gets people together to pray in little groups for one another. And a Catholic lady was asked what she wanted to pray and she said, 'I want to have the same feeling for the church that Jesus has.' Bless her, that was a dangerous thing to say, wasn't it? After that every time the word church was mentioned she burst into tears. When John Wimber was in Britain about a year or two ago, his message was from Jesus, 'I want my church back.' Can you identify with that? See, let me give you a little parable. Here's this fine Christian family, a father, mother and three wonderful children. One day the father sees this old tramp sitting on a bench in the park, shivering, dirty, ragged, underfed, unshaved. He takes pity on him.
So he brings him home, they find a room and a bed for him, they get him cleaned up, they buy him some new clothes and they say, 'You can be a member of the family. You can join in with us.' And he begins to get well fed, respectable. But after a while he begins to take over the family. He begins to tell the wife how she ought to cook, to discipline the children, and in general to act as if he were the head of the house. You see the parable? We were the tramp sitting on a bench in the park.
Jesus took us into His family, cleaned us up, fed us, cared for us. And after a little while we get so arrogant we say, 'Jesus, I think you should do things a different way. If you want to know what I think, this is how you ought to bring up your children.' How many Christians are busy telling the Lord how to look after His children? You need to bear one thing in mind. When you criticize God's children you make Him angry. See, a father can say what he likes to his children but let somebody else talk about those children, that's different. You see my parable? Does it apply?