What’s proclaimed from the high places of human popularity and honor is often distorted by the effort to maintain the supposed dignity and distinction of those spaces. Truth is often twisted and distorted to support whatever will bring respect and praise to the people occupying those positions.

That’s the problem with top-down human leadership. People will say what the leader wants to hear instead of what they really think, to the point that life becomes a charade created to fit the comfort zones that maintain the status quo. This tendency can even be seen in the church position of clergy where people often feel a need to say and do what will keep the pastor happy and the pastor feels a need to keep the people happy as well, to the point that truth can easily be ignored or even denied.

The solution to the temptation to twist the truth in order to keep a human hierarchy high and lifted up is to embrace and surrender to the literal Headship of the living Jesus. Jesus is the truth. When we let Him live in and through us and be our living Head, we’re no longer caught in awe of and/or fear of human hierarchy. Thus, we are free to take the lowliest position and “consider others better than yourself” freely “speaking the truth in love.” Then as Romans 8:14 says, we are led by the Spirit and are the children of God.

The challenge of Christianity is to respect the risen Jesus enough to listen to and obey Him throughout the day. When pastors and Christian leaders try to control what happens in church, they act like they think the Holy Spirit is incompetent. He’s not. Let Him be your constant leader!