No voting for kings

 This week's verse is Colossians 1:18:

"He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things."

 
We often try to find some way to rule over our own lives and define them based on something other than God. Pastors, bosses, lovers, spouses, careers, social media. We're conflicted. We dabble in loyalty. We nibble at obedience. We want to be constrained, but we don't want to be limited. All sorts of passions take us captive, but none manage to rule us in a way that gives us all we were meant to have. 

A true king is uncontested. Nobody votes for a king. A king simply rules.

Jesus is the head of the body, the ruling part, the command center of it all. But we don't really know what it is to be the head of something, to be a king or to live under one. We live in an egalitarian society. We speak up and talk back. We vote. We protest. But that's not the world of the Bible.

Jesus is in charge. He is king. He is our example and our standard of what Godhood and Godliness are. He is the reason the universe exists. And he holds it all together. He is irreplaceable, perfect, flawless, and of the highest value. Do you believe it? Would you reject the other things that rule over your life and live under his rule?

It's not as easy as it sounds. Would we be as reluctant to disobey his commands as we would those of one of our chosen worldly rulers? Would we as callously ignore what our worldly "kings" tell us to do as we sometimes do with God?

If police officers with guns drawn asked you not to flirt with your neighbor's wife, would you do it with the same flippant disregard as you might if God said "do not covet?" 

If you were looking for a promotion and your boss said he wanted to have a half hour meeting in the morning to touch base, would you blow him off as easily as you might if God was calling you to pray?

If you did something wrong that upset or hurt someone you were in love with, would you brush it off and move on as nimbly as we do when we sin?

Jesus is first. We come after him. He is the first being to raise himself from the dead. The first of the new creation. Are we willing to follow him? To die and be reborn? We pay attention to the "reborn" part, but we nervously tiptoe past the dying part. Death is the end of freedom. The dead have no options.

In a way, dying and submission are the same thing. When we die, and when we submit to the rule of a king, our passions and hopes and dreams and interests are no longer the most important things for us. 

If you love the king, or you fear the king, and the king forbids killing swans, what does it matter if you like roasted swan? Is it worth his wrath and punishment? If you like football, on the day you die what does it matter if your team wins the season? Are you going to cheer from the grave?

Take an inventory this week of the different kings you serve in your life. Who do you follow? Who is first? If you died, would any of them save you from hell? Make Jesus your king instead, and declare him king over the kings you previously followed. And follow him through that death into the only path to eternal life.