Father God, the Ruler of the Church

God rules the Church of Heaven, so God also rules local congregations of the Church. Most churchgoers seem unfamiliar with the concept of church rulership, so on several occasions when I have asked church members, “Who rules your church?” my question has been met with confused looks and blank stares. Do you know who has created the laws governing the spiritual realm? Do you know who rules your spiritual life? Do you know who rules your church?

Rulership is a simple concept, but it has been muddled in contemporary cultural euphemisms. I have a T-shirt which says, Old Guys Rule! but I can guarantee you that I do not rule anything. Your friends may claim that surfers rule, that dogs rule, that hot chicks rule or that any arbitrary group might rule, when, in fact, such individuals or creatures seem to operate outside of any code of law whatsoever. In a society where good is bad and bad is good, we should not be surprised that those who are lawless are attributed rulership. In the Church of Heaven, however, it is very important to know who the ruler is. Unless a congregation has a clear understanding about rulership, that church will likely be very confused about what laws to follow.

A ruler, by definition, is the one who makes the rules. The rules, or the laws, are the means by which a ruler rules. A ruler rules by making and enforcing rules. Basically, rulership is no more complicated than that. A ruler is sovereign. A ruler rules over all. Rulership is the highest function in any government. Therefore, it should be obvious that the Ruler of the Church of Heaven is God. Since the Church has been set in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Eph 2:6) no man has the ability to even see the Church, let alone rule it. God alone has the ability to create and enforce the laws of the spiritual realm, particularly the laws which bring the members of the Church into harmony with God and with one another. God the Father is the One Who makes laws for the churches, so the Father is the Ruler of the Church of Heaven.

The apostle James knew Who rules the Church, but most churches have lost sight of God's sovereign role. Churchgoers may assume men rule their church, but the Bible says, "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." (Jas 4:12) The King James translators even capitalized the “L” to make sure every Bible student knew that God is the Lawgiver to Whom James referred. God rules the Church, so He has created the laws which govern the Church, and He has recorded those laws in the Bible, so every believer knows how to conduct his or her life in the Church. God revealed those laws through His Son, when Jesus walked the earth as a Man, and the apostles wrote them down in the New Testament, so every generation of believers would know how to conduct themselves in the Church. God is the Lawgiver for the Church, and His laws not only apply to the Church in heaven, but they also apply to every local assembly of the body of Christ.

Let me be clear that I am saying that God rules the Church. I am not saying that God rules the world. The world has rejected God's rulership and installed Satan as the prince of the power of the air to rule the world. Churches must remain separate from the world. Churches may only function according to the rulership of God. When believers assemble for fellowship, we only conduct ourselves according to the laws of God. Churches should never submit to any laws of man. However, when the meeting is adjourned and the members return to their lives in this world, only then do we submit ourselves to the "higher powers" of civil government. Only then do we submit ourselves to human laws. We live by the laws of God in the local church, but in the world we may conform ourselves to the laws of man according to biblical direction.

The laws which govern a congregation can only be found in the Bible. Any laws outside the Bible do not apply to a faithful congregation. Most churches are governed through by-laws created for nonprofit corporations and the rules set forth in a church administration manual, but those laws are human laws and are rendered invalid in the Church of Heaven. Corporate laws, which require the church to obey civil law, and biblical laws, which require the church to obey God, are often contradictory. Churches which conform themselves to obey civil law cannot obey the laws of God.

Confusion will reign when it is not clear who rules, and churches have become confused regarding rulership. A very long time ago theologians lost sight of the Ruler of the Church and, since that time, they have assumed that men ruled the churches. Later, when the Bible was translated into English, the translators also assumed that men ruled the churches, and they translated their paradigm in the text of scripture, resulting in a multitude of mistranslated verses, particularly Hebrews 13:17. The inspired statement in the Greek text of this verse says nothing like “obey them that have the rule over you.” Consult a Greek dictionary to confirm that the words “obey” and “rule” do not appear here in the inspired Greek text.

The confusion about rulership can be compounded, because most Christians understand that we have been freed from the law of Moses. Some may be misled into thinking that there are no laws at all for us as Christians. Churchgoers today simply do not think in terms of rulership. Some Bible students fail to see that love is called the royal law in scripture. (Jas 2:8) Others may not realize that faith is a law which must be obeyed. (Rom 3:27) Liberty is also called a law under the New Covenant, (Jas 2:12) because Christians must be free from human rulership in order to obey God. A church must be God-directed through Jesus Christ every moment of our lives in the Lord.

The rules, or laws, for the Church are found in the New Testament. There are indeed a multitude of laws in the New Covenant, but they represent a different type of law. New Covenant laws are descriptive laws. New Covenant laws do not prescribe certain actions in certain places at certain times but rather require Christians to be a certain way at all the time. Christians must be Christians and do everything they do in a godly way. Christians must be loving. Christians must be faithful. Christians must be honest. Christians must be holy. Christian laws are “be” laws. Christian Law is all about who we are, not about what we do. If a Christian fails to be what he or she ought to be, that Christian has broken God’s spiritual laws, and the salvation of such a Christian is in jeopardy. The laws of the New Covenant are just as valid today as the laws of the Old Covenant were then, but New Covenant laws render the Old Covenant laws obsolete, because they set forth a much higher standard than the Old Covenant laws could achieve.

God gave Israel a prescriptive law, which required Israel to do certain things in certain places at certain times. That prescriptive law is known as the law of Moses. The law of Moses does not apply to the Church. Today, God rules through a new Law, Who is entirely different in nature. The Law for the Church of Heaven is not another law written on stone tablets with prescriptive do’s and don’ts, but rather God has given us His living Law to live in us and direct us from within. Jesus Christ is the Law for the Church. The living Word of God is the Law for all New Covenant believers. God rules the Church today through Jesus Christ.

Since God rules the Church and only one ruler can govern any given group of people at any given time, it should be obvious that no man can rule the Church. God has reserved the privilege to create laws for the Church entirely to Himself. Anyone who makes rules for a church stands in the place of God and makes himself a god. God will remove anyone who stands in His place and makes rules for a church. God alone is the Ruler of the Church of Heaven. The Father is the sovereign Ruler of every faithful congregation.