The System vs. The Organism: Why Religious Structure Fails

I want to share something that might make you uncomfortable, but it's a truth that desperately needs to be told: much of what we call "church structure" and "biblical order" isn't biblical at all. It's actually a counterfeit system that has replaced the living organism God intended.

Let me be brutally honest about my own experience, because I lived this deception for years.

When I Served a System Instead of the Living God

I actually served in a large marriage ministry devoted to traditional teaching on submission and headship. I was teaching other couples about biblical marriage while my own marriage was falling apart behind closed doors.

Here's the painful truth: I was hoping that by submitting more perfectly and by pouring into other marriages, I could somehow transform my own. But after twenty years of trying to make the "system" work, that marriage ended.

I put on the happy face. I meant well. But you know what? The rules don't fix marriages. Structure can't change hearts. Only love can do that, and love can win.

I feel for families who try very hard to do it all right and to live up to a standard of holiness, believing that the rules will bring transformation. But structure won't bring that. Rules won't bring that. Only when we are truly submitted one to another and laying down our lives—that's what brings transformation.

The Spirit Systems That Control Us

Paul warns us about something in Colossians 2:8:

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8, NASB)

That phrase "elementary principles of the world" is translated from the Greek word stoicheia. It's a difficult word to translate, but it conveys the idea of a system that has become the dwelling place for a spirit. These are spirit systems—and probably the best way to understand it is that they're demonized systems.

Paul is saying there's this spirit system that defines the world. We call it "the system"—you can't fight the system, right? But it's a spirit system, and it can be a university system, a hospital system, a political system, or a religious system.

Any system where humans get together can become demonized. It becomes filled with spirits that begin to manipulate human behavior, because that's how principalities and powers gain control over the earth—they have to do it through wherever humans are active.

The Difference Between Systems and Organisms

Paul contrasts the world's system with something called an organism—the body of Christ. What's the difference?

A system is almost like a robot. It's artificial. It's constructed. It's operating off of electrical current, but it's not alive except that it's being manipulated by spirits. It's actually a dead system being controlled by evil spirits.

But the body of Christ is meant to be a living organism.

The difference is crucial: a system requires a formula. It requires precise behaviors. "This is how you do this. This is how you do that."

But an organism can never be reduced to a formula. It's like trying to script your meals for the entire week: "These are the meals you're going to have on Monday. These are the meals you're going to have on Tuesday." Until Wednesday, when you're hungry for something totally different, and your body's craving something the system doesn't give you.

You cannot reduce a human organism down to a system. A human being has systemic elements—the reproductive system, the pulmonary system, the limbic system—but you can't reduce a human down to just a system.

The Kiss That Lost Its Life

It's like a scientist analyzing a kiss. When you take all the life out of it and turn it into a formula—"Here's what you do at three seconds in, here's what you do at five seconds"—you've sucked all the life out of it.

This is what Paul is saying about the difference between religion and God's Kingdom. When things become power-oriented, they start being reduced down to formulas, and then they become demonized.

Can you take the pulmonary system out and have the organism survive? No. Can you take the reproductive system out and have the species live? No. It actually has to work with the life force that's in it, all in unity together.

The Tragedy of Religious Formulas

Sadly, this is what we see in our churches today. And this is what's been breaking down families—not the empowerment of women, but the substitution of dead systems for living relationships.

We've created a culture where it's about position and hierarchy rather than life and connection. We've made Christianity about following rules rather than following Jesus. We've turned relationships into organizational charts rather than living partnerships.

I cannot tell you how many people I have met who were beautiful servants, but they were always striving to become an elder. That was where they felt they needed to arrive. When you create that pyramid power structure, the higher up the chain you go, the closer to the powerful ones you become, the more significance you have.

And then you create envy and strife and hypocrisy. "How are you doing, brother?" "I'm blessed and highly favored." You could be melting down, but instead of just being vulnerable and saying, "I'm having a rough day," you can't do that because somehow it goes against the idea that you have to be perfect to be in those positions.

It creates a cesspool where the enemy gets to laugh and play in the background and diminish our true power because we're vying for human structure instead of flowing in God's life.

The Freedom of Organic Life

Look at what Paul says happens when we try to live by religious systems:

"If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 'Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!' (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." (Colossians 2:20-23, NASB)

The whole point is that when you do that kind of stuff, you disconnect from the head. The minute we start following all the dos and don'ts of religion, we're not following the flow of the Holy Spirit in us, where we can trust love in us to love the other person.

What Organic Christianity Looks Like

But when we're connected to the head, when we're part of a living organism rather than a dead system, everything changes:

"...not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is of God." (Colossians 2:19, NASB)

It's God's growth. It's all the joints being connected together. If we're the body, we're supposed to be in union with our head. And when we're connected with Him and He's connected with us, it's a spiritual connection.

It's not about my role or my function, whether I'm under you by three tiers or four. We flow together. But we get tripped up because we don't know how to have structure without making it a power-based hierarchy.

The Beautiful Alternative

It doesn't mean there's no structure. The problem is when we make the structure preeminent, when we make the structure power-based, and when we use it as a substitute for the living God.

In God's Kingdom, structure serves life rather than controlling it. Authority flows from love rather than position. Leadership emerges from gifting and calling rather than gender or rank.

This is what I've discovered in my marriage with Gregory. We have structure, but it's organic structure. It flows from our gifts, our seasons of life, our callings, and most importantly, our love for each other and our connection to Christ.

When we're connected to the head, we don't need artificial systems to make us work together. We don't need rigid rules to create harmony. We don't need power hierarchies to prevent chaos.

We need life. We need love. We need the Holy Spirit flowing through us, connecting us to Christ and to each other.

That's the difference between a system and an organism. That's the difference between religion and God's Kingdom. That's the difference between trying to follow rules and learning to follow Jesus.

Time to Choose

So here's the question: Are you living in a system or an organism? Are you following formulas or following the Spirit? Are you trying to maintain position in a hierarchy, or are you flowing in the life of God?

The spirit systems of this world promise control, predictability, and safety. But they deliver death, division, and hypocrisy.

God's Kingdom organism promises something different: life, unity, and authentic transformation. It's messier than a system, but it's also more beautiful. It's less predictable, but it's more powerful.

The choice is ours. We can keep trying to perfect our religious systems, or we can surrender to the organic life of God's Kingdom.

I know which one I choose. The question is: which one will you choose?

Have you experienced the difference between dead religious systems and the living organism of God's Kingdom? What does it look like when structure serves life rather than controlling it? Share your thoughts—I'd love to hear about your journey.

Blessings,
Susan 😊