For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ.
Paul has just listed the many gifts the Spirit gives. Now he explains why that variety never splits the church: a body has many limbs and is still one body. What startles the reader is the last clause — he does not say "so also is the church," but names the whole thing Christ. (Older translations read "so also is the Christ"; the ESV renders it "so it is with Christ.")
Paul pushes the comparison further than we might expect. He does not just compare the church to a body, or link it to Christ. He gives it Christ's own name.
Scripture does not only say the body is united with Christ. It says the body is Christ Himself — "so also is Christ." The limbs, so to speak, are simply attached to the Head. The Head gives motion, life, and character to the whole, so the whole thing goes by the name of the Head. It is not easy to grasp the full force of this remarkable language. It seems to lose the Church in Christ, so that He alone is seen, and the Church looks like only a part of Him.
That one name covers both the Head above and the members below:
Paul is clearly speaking of the Head in glory and the body here on earth. Together they make up one spiritual "man": Christ is the Head, and all the members are the body. When he says, "So also is Christ," he gives that one mystical man a single name — Christ.
The verse states the fact. The next verse tells us how it happened.
Verse thirteen explains the statement made in verse twelve. It gives the nature and origin of the wonderful truth of verse twelve, which is this: though we are many members, we are one body, and that body carries the name Christ.
One writer rules out two common ideas of how unity comes about:
We, the members, do not build this unity ourselves. It does not come from each one losing his individuality and merging into the others. That is not how the body is formed. What forms it is the connection of the members with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some treat this body as something only heavenly, or still future. The answer runs through the whole chapter.
Look at 1 Corinthians 12:12 to the end. No one in his right mind can fail to see a body on earth here. Paul compares it to our natural body... But it is by one Spirit that we are baptized into one body, and this took place on earth... Which of these gifts are to be exercised in heaven? The whole passage is as clear as language can make it: there is a body formed on earth.
This body is bigger than any one local church. Even so, the local church has a job to do about it.
Our human spirit controls how our bodies work. In the same way, the Spirit of God is the animating power of every member of the body of Christ. The body is one. It has many members, yet together they are one body. "So also is the Christ." This is not just local. It takes in the whole body of Christ worldwide, though the local assembly is meant to give expression to it.
One sentence holds two truths, and each keeps the other in balance.
"For just as the body is one and has many members" — this is diversity in unity. "And all the members of the body, though many, are one body" — this is unity in diversity. "So also is the Christ." We are united in one body, the Christ, and yet every child of God has his own appointed work, which no one else can do for him. Each one receives a different service. I cannot do yours, and you cannot do mine.
The teaching cuts two ways at once. It stands against a few doing everything, and against anyone acting alone.
This side of the truth guards us from clericalism, and also from independence. Every member of the one body is needed. Where the gathering does not quench the Spirit, He works through the members for the profit of all.
- One Spirit — no agreement of ours builds the body, and no merging of members makes it. One Spirit joins each one to Christ.
- One name — Scripture puts the Head in glory and the members on earth under one name: Christ.
- One earth — these gifts are used here and now, so the body is real on earth today, not only in heaven.
- One scope — the reach is worldwide, and the local gathering exists to give visible expression to it.
- One task each — inside that unity every believer has a service no one else can do. So neither a clergy class nor a go-it-alone spirit fits the body.
For also in [the power of] one Spirit *we* have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit.
Here Paul says why the many members are one: one Spirit made them so. That raises three questions — is this water baptism, when did it happen, and what does it mean to be "made to drink" of one Spirit?
The word "baptized" makes many readers think of water. One writer rules that out and points to the Spirit's own act:
Of much importance is verse 13... This refers to the formation of the body. The baptism mentioned in this verse is not water baptism. Water baptism does not save, nor can this ordinance put anyone as a member into the true church, the one body. The baptism is the baptism of the Spirit. It took place on the day of Pentecost. On that day the Spirit was poured out, and while He filled every believer, He also united them into one body. Then the body of Christ was formed once for all by this baptism... Many Christians speak of repeated baptisms by the Spirit and point to certain experiences as new baptisms. In the light of this verse all this is incorrect. Scripture knows only one baptism.
One writer draws a careful line between faith and the Spirit's coming:
Note this carefully: faith did not form this unity, precious and mighty as faith is. The Holy Spirit formed it, sent down in person from heaven. Faith is individual; it does not unite, though it fits for union morally. One believes the gospel for one's own soul... But the baptism of the Spirit is something more than life. So it is not given to the dead unbeliever, but to those already made alive. The result is the one body.
How do later believers get in? One writer answers with a picture:
Picture a lake with water as smooth as glass. Someone picks up a pebble and flings it into the centre. What is the result? A circle forms, and it widens and widens until every reed in the lake stands inside it. From the day of Pentecost until now, every soul born of God is brought into that unity, sooner or later, when he receives the forgiveness of his sins and the Holy Spirit.
The picture inside the word "baptized" explains why Paul names Jew and Greek, slave and free:
In baptism a man is submerged and figuratively buried. Here is the basis on which the one body was formed and we are brought into it. We are natural men, children of Adam, with all our personal quirks and rough edges. And we have been submerged in the one Spirit. So all our natural distinctions have disappeared in the one body. There was no greater national distinction than Jew and Gentile. There was no clearer social divide than slave and free. But these distinctions and divides, and all others like them, are gone in the one body.
The second half of the verse is not a repeat of the first:
We have all been baptized in one Spirit into one body. But there is more: each of us, separately and for ourselves, has been made to "drink into (or, of) one Spirit." This seems to be a reference to John 7:37-39. Each member of the body has personally received or drunk of the one Spirit, so that He characterises and governs each. So unity is produced in this twofold way. Each has been submerged in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in each by a personal drinking in.
An older wording of the phrase reads "made to drink into one Spirit." One writer takes it as a mark of shared character:
"We have all been made to drink into one Spirit." This is characteristic... They are all of one mind, all set on the same thing; heart and soul they are seeking the same object... What is that Spirit? It is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit which produces likeness to Christ.
But what about the divisions and failures we see?
God formed it by an act in the energy of the one Spirit, and that guarantees its integrity. Man cannot violate or destroy it, and neither can satanic power. But the visible display of it during its stay on earth may be marred, and has been. The thing itself, divinely formed, remains, and will be perfectly displayed in glory.
Corinth showed that marring, and it repeats:
Had the Corinthians paid attention to this, how much sorrow and shame would have been spared!... It is a state that is always ready to repeat itself. It shows up most where knowledge takes the place of love, and believers stoop to form cliques with a favourite leader.
- One Spirit acts — water baptism did not form the body. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost did, once for all.
- One life given — faith is personal, and it does not unite. This baptism comes on top of life, to those already made alive.
- One circle widening — the act happened once. Every soul since who receives forgiveness and the Spirit comes inside that circle.
- One level ground — baptism means being submerged; the old self goes under, and with it Jew and Greek, slave and free.
- One drink shared — each member takes in the same Spirit, so unity is shared and inward at once. Cliques and favourite leaders only spoil the display of what man cannot destroy.
For also the body is not one member but many.
Paul has just said that one Spirit baptised all believers into one body, whatever their background. Now he points to the obvious fact about any body: it has many parts. He uses that fact to correct a church that was tearing itself apart over gifts.
The statement sounds too plain to need saying. One writer explains why this mark is essential, and why it applies to the church on earth now:
The great and most obvious mark of the body is that it consists of not one member but many. This is so essential to its nature that it could not be called "the body" if it consisted of only one member and not of many. It would be a monstrous shape. It would lack the beautiful unity with diversity seen in the human body, and in every other living structure. It is exactly so with the assembly of God. It is not only His house. It is also Christ's body, because one Spirit has baptised all the believers into one, whatever their background and their otherwise irreconcilable differences. This unity exists now, not only later. It is on earth, not only in heaven.
Many members means many different members. Remove that difference and the body stops working. That is the danger when one member envies another's place:
First, we are reminded that in the human body there is diversity in unity. "The body does not consist of one member but of many." Suppose each member neglected its own function out of envy of members that perhaps have a higher function. Then this diversity would be completely ignored, and the most serious disorder would follow. If the foot began to complain that it was not a hand, or the ear that it was not an eye, the work of the body would stop. Complaining members stop working well for the good of the body.
The Corinthians had real gifts, and were using them to compete:
Sadly, some were misusing what God had given, so that they could exalt themselves. Others, giving their support to one leader or another, helped along a party spirit. This had led to envying, strife and division — marks of man in the flesh rather than of those "sanctified in Christ Jesus". Here in chapter 12 he shows that their behaviour clashed with the truth that the members of the body of Christ depend on each other.
The flesh spoils the body from two opposite directions:
If a humble member of the body were to complain that he was not put in a more exalted place, is he not part of the body? There are two ways the flesh acts: the first is discontent with oneself, and the second is contempt for other people. Each is to be content with his place. The ear would like the position of the eye; there is discontent... but the full blessing of the body normally depends on these differences.
The body has many parts. So building church life around one person contradicts the picture Paul draws:
Suppose I now looked to my head or my hand to perform all the functions of the body — it would be nothing less than folly. But the folly is still greater when you look to a "minister" to carry out all the functions of the body of Christ. I do not deny his gift, or gifts: he may be very gifted. But he cannot do the work of all the members of the body gathered there. All of them have gifts that differ according to the grace given.
The verse also frees you from wishing you were someone else, somewhere else:
If everyone realised that the body is not one member, there would not be this desire for uniformity in the things of God. There is unity, but not uniformity... The apostle wants each believer to realise that he has a part to play for all God's people. That part is not only in relation to the church everywhere, but right where he lives... It is so easy to want to be something other than what we are, and to be somewhere else. We imagine that we would then be of greater service. Whatever gift has been given to us, whether it looks important or not, it is for use. It may be of much greater value than we imagine.
- One body. A single member could never be called a body at all. "Many" belongs to its very nature. This unity exists now, on earth — not only in the future.
- Many members. The differences are not flaws to iron out. The full blessing of the body depends on them.
- Two failures. The flesh denies this truth in two ways: discontent with your own place, and contempt for someone else's.
- No solo body. No one person can carry every function. That is as foolish as asking your hand to do the work of the whole body.
- Your place, here. Unity is not uniformity: the gift you think too small is for use, in the very spot where God has set you.
If the foot say, Because I am not a hand I am not of the body, is it on account of this not indeed of the body?
Paul draws a strange picture: a foot arguing itself out of the body because it is not a hand. The question the verse forces is whether a member can opt out of a place God gave it — and whether saying so makes it so.
The complaint here comes from a lesser member looking up at a greater one.
Suppose a humble member of the body complains that he was not given a higher place. Is he not still part of the body? There are two ways the flesh acts. The first is discontent with oneself. The second is disdain for other people. Each one should be content with his place.
The opposite fault runs the other way.
Here it is not the lower part wanting to be something greater. It is the higher part looking down on the lesser one... Let us be thankful for the grace that has given us any place at all. Let us throw ourselves into the work God has given us in the body of Christ. And let us value and make the most of every other member — not least those whose place is completely different from our own. Let disdain be as far from us as discontent.
The foot's speech changes nothing about the foot. What it damages is the practical link between that member and the rest.
No one person, no one member, can cut himself off from the body and stay independent... What makes this spirit of independence so serious is the attempt to break off practical connection with the body of Christ. A foot that claims to have no connection with the hand injures the hand. But the harm does not stop there: it reaches the whole body.
Commentators word Paul's reply differently. Some read it as a question: is it therefore not part of the body? Others read it as a flat statement. Either way the answer is the same.
Belonging is not the end of the matter. A member that exists but does not act still costs the body something.
If the foot or the hand were cut off from the body, the relations would be different. But each one forms an essential part of the body. What is the body without the foot? It is incomplete. A body that has lost a part is imperfect, and its well-being suffers... If the foot does not act, what use is it? It still exists as part of the body, but it is a useless member. It gives no help, and it affects all the members.
Envy does not gain the higher place; it forfeits the lower one God gave.
Whenever someone uses the gift given to them, blessing always follows. But take the one with a humble gift, the kind pictured by "the foot." If he covets what he does not have, he loses his own proper work by ignoring his own place in the body. The whole idea dishonours God.
The foot's excuse assumes that one kind of service counts and another does not. But the arrangement was never the members' to make.
Can the foot excuse itself from use because it is not the hand? Does walking have no place because it is not work? Whether someone is prominent or not makes no difference. God has set every member in its own place in the body — not by our preference, but as it has pleased Him. If I wanted a different function, let me remember this: if I could change, I would very soon want something else. God knows better what is good for me than I do.
Few ever say the foot's words out loud. One writer argues the attitude is far more common than the speech.
It is so easy to want to be something other than what we are, and to be somewhere else. We imagine we would then be of greater service in the things of God. Many may be saying "I am not of the body" by the attitude they take; their actions say it more plainly than words... They are content to let others do the service God fitted them for. They give little or no thought to their own place in the body.
- Complaint. The foot's words are discontent with self. Its twin is disdain for others. Both are the flesh at work among God's people.
- Denial. Resigning from the body is impossible. The speech does not unmake the membership — it only breaks the practical connection.
- Damage. A member that exists without acting is a useless member, and every other member suffers for it.
- Decision. The placing was never ours to choose. God set each one where it pleased Him, and He knows better than we do what is good for us.
- Duty. Use the gift given, in the place given. Coveting a higher one forfeits the work entrusted to you.
And if the ear say, Because I am not an eye I am not of the body, is it on account of this not indeed of the body?
Paul compares the church to a body. Here one part looks at another, feels second-rate, and decides it does not belong — but can a member really cancel its own membership?
The ear is not being modest. It is measuring itself against the eye and refusing its own place. Commentators trace it to the flesh, which acts in two ways.
There are two ways the flesh acts. The first is discontent with oneself, and the second is disdain of other people. Each should be content with his place. "If the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body'"... The ear would like the position of the eye. There is discontent.
William Kelly adds that this attitude is not limited to the small and overlooked.
Here we plainly have discontent with what the Lord had given... if the one with a humble gift, like the foot, covets what he does not have, he loses his own proper work by ignoring his place in the body. The whole thought is therefore dishonouring to God. So again in verse 16... It may run through the members, the highest as well as the lowest.
Older translations put the second half as a question: is the ear therefore not part of the body? Either way, membership was never the member's choice, so it is not the member's to withdraw.
The foot or the ear cannot help themselves; they are part of the body. They may deny it. They may reject all connection with it. But they cannot get free from it except by amputation, which would be a loss to the body and death to them. The members have no choice about it. They are in the body. Just so it is with Christians and the body of Christ. They may not know it. They may refuse to learn about it. They may reject all connection with it. But they cannot get out of the body.
The ear judges its worth by how visible it is. But seeing and hearing take in different things.
Because the ear is not as prominent as the eye, is it therefore unnecessary? Is receiving a report unimportant because it is not personal observation by sight? These verses show that no child of God ever has any excuse for not functioning in unity with the rest of the body of Christ... Suppose I preferred a different function. Let me consider this: if I could change, I would very soon prefer something else. God knows better what is good for me than I do.
Because the members belong to one another, a part that opts out does not only shortchange itself.
The blessedness of the body is in each member doing its own function. It is not merely my ear that hears, but I that hear; nor is it only my eye that sees, but rather I who see. It is the man. This is what gives such a sense of unity. It is a real means of blessing to every member, the least just as much as the greatest. They all contribute; and indeed there would be a very noticeable loss if the least member failed to do its part.
Few people say out loud that they do not belong. One writer says people say it by their behaviour instead.
Many may be saying "I do not belong to the body" by the attitude they adopt. Their actions speak more loudly than words. The clerical system exists largely because of those who are in effect saying "I do not belong to the body." They are content to let others do the service God has fitted them for. They have little or no concern about their own place in the body.
Verse 16 is only half of the problem. Kelly sets the opposite error beside it.
It is not the inferior part that wants to be something greater, but the superior part that disdains the lesser one... Let us be thankful for the grace that has given us any place. Let us earnestly carry out the functions God has given us in the body of Christ. But let us prize and make the most of every other member, not least those who have a place wholly different from our own. Disdain should be as far from us as discontent.
- Compare — The ear's complaint starts with a comparison. Measuring itself by the eye, it concludes it does not belong.
- Cannot — The complaint changes nothing. A member may deny the connection, but it cannot get out of the body. Only amputation could separate it, and that would kill it.
- Contribute — Hearing is not lesser than seeing, only different. Taking in a report is as needed as seeing for yourself.
- Cost — When the least member fails to do its part, the whole body feels it. The body's blessing depends on each part working.
- Counterpart — Discontent below has a twin above: the greater part that looks down on the lesser. Commentators treat both as the flesh at work.
If the whole body [were] an eye, where the hearing? if all hearing, where the smelling?
Paul has just pictured a foot and an ear complaining that they are not a hand or an eye. Now he turns the complaint around. What would a body look like if that member got its wish? The answer shows that the differences between members are not a flaw in the body. They are what make it a body.
Paul answers the wish by letting it run to its end.
Next the passage shows how absurd such wishes are. If one member had the right to want some special place, so would all the rest. The result would be the ruin of the body. "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?" The wonderful coordination of the various members in the one body, each in its proper place, would be at an end.
What Paul insists on is not sameness.
If everyone realised that the body is not one member, no one would want uniformity in the things of God. There is unity, but not uniformity. There is diversity in the unity, and unity in the diversity.
Eye, ear and nose are not three grades of the same ability. They are three different doors, and closing two of them would leave the body poorer, not simpler.
These verses show that no child of God ever has any excuse for not functioning in unity with the rest of the body of Christ. And verse 17 adds that if the eye is essential (observation), so is the hearing (communication), and the smelling (perception). Whether one is prominent or not makes no difference. God has set every member in its own place in the body. He did it, not by our preference, but "as it has pleased Him." Suppose I wanted a different function. If I could change, I would very soon want something else. God knows better what is good for me than I do.
The senses in the verse each have a match among God's people.
There is the hearing, the seeing, the smelling, and the many other necessary functions of the body, which have their matching parts in the body of Christ. Some are specially fitted with a discerning eye. Some can hear and judge so clearly. Others have such developed spiritual senses that they can tell sooner when things are right or wrong.
Hearing is never a private benefit belonging to the ear alone. That is why the smallest member's failure registers everywhere.
The blessing of the body is in each member doing its own work. It is not just my ear that hears — I hear. It is not just my eye that sees — I see. It is the whole person. And this is what gives such a sense of unity. It is a real means of blessing to every member, the least just as much as the greatest. They all contribute, and there would indeed be a very real loss if the least member failed to do its part.
The wish behind the question has a twin. One member wants to be higher; another looks down on those below it.
There are two ways the flesh acts: the first is discontent with oneself, and the second is disdain of other people. Each is to be content with his place… The ear would like the position of the eye; there it is discontent. "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?" The same holds if the whole body were an ear. But as a rule the full blessing of the body depends on these differences.
The same mistake shows up in how a church meets.
Suppose I looked to my head or my hand to perform all the functions of the body — it would be nothing less than folly. But the folly is greater still when you look to a "minister" to discharge all the functions of the body of Christ. I do not deny his gift, or gifts. He may have many gifts. But he cannot do the work of all the members of the body who gather there, since all have gifts differing according to the grace given.
- Design — A body made of one repeated member is no body at all. Its parts would have nothing left to coordinate.
- Difference — Eye, ear and nose are separate doors. Take two away, and the body loses what nothing else can bring in.
- Dependence — The ear hears for the whole person. So the least member's work blesses everyone, and its failure costs everyone.
- Danger — The flesh spoils this in two ways: discontent with your own place, and contempt for someone else's.
- Duty — Expecting one gifted person to be the whole body repeats the same error. Every member has a function to use.
But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased [him].
Paul has just pictured a foot sulking because it is not a hand, and an ear because it is not an eye. Verse 18 answers that complaint by naming God as the one who arranged the body. The members did not arrange it.
What settles my place is God's will, not my preference and not other people's choice.
This is not a question of a true theory or of a wise practice, but of the divine will. God has so ordained it, and those who wish otherwise are fighting against His word... The assembly follows God's design and constitution, so God sets each member in the place He arranged in the body of Christ, and gives a gift to suit it. Neither self, nor man, nor the church, but God, can and should set the members... He determines for the least as well as for the greatest.
Older translations read "God has set the members" where the ESV reads "arranged." The Greek word behind "set" appears elsewhere when God puts someone into a place of service.
In 1 Timothy 1:12, "Putting me in the ministry," the word is tithemi — to place. The same word appears in Acts 20:28, "over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers," and in 1 Corinthians 12:18, "God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it pleased Him." Every one of these passages records God's act: putting the apostle into the ministry, placing elders over the church at Ephesus, setting all the various members in the body according to His pleasure.
The variety is deliberate, and it keeps any one member from towering over the rest.
How then is disorder prevented among the many members? By the recognition that it is God who has "set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased Him." So in the body of Christ God has given each member his appointed place and function. The result is that no member is pre-eminent. If one member were pre-eminent, there would be no body at all. "If they were all one member, where would the body be?"
Refusing your place shows itself in two different ways.
There are two ways the flesh acts: the first is discontent about oneself, and the second is disdain of other people. Each is to be contented with his place... The ear would like the position of the eye; there is the discontent... but the full blessing of the body ordinarily depends on these differences.
Contentment begins the moment you see who placed the other person.
The moment I see that God has set that brother in his place, and this one in his, I am content, and say, Thank God for that servant and his ministry! It is his place, not mine, so, if I am right, I neither imitate nor copy it, being just satisfied with my own place and niche in the body.
Because the choosing was His, the verse is a comfort. Because the fitting was His, it is also a claim.
What rest for the heart to know that man did not choose our place in the body — neither we ourselves nor anyone else! God marked out that place for us in infinite wisdom, and with perfect love. God has placed us where our part could best serve His will for the good of His church. In divine grace He has fitted us perfectly for that part. There is therefore no room for envy, no room for self-seeking... God has fitted no one else for the part He has given us. So if we do not serve God where He placed us, the saints of God will lose something.
If God does the placing, then membership is not a matter of joining, and the body contains no one He did not put there.
Only real believers are members of the body of Christ — those who are born again, with the Spirit of God living in them... God has set the members, each one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him. It is inconceivable that God would put in the body any who are not genuine believers in Christ. The body is OF CHRIST and derives FROM Him... It is a living organism.
- He placed. The body's arrangement is God's act. You did not pick your place, and no one else picked it for you. He decides for the least as well as the greatest.
- He fitted. He places each one where his part best serves His will for the church, and He equips him in grace for that very part.
- He varied. God designed the differences, and they stop any single member towering over the rest.
- So no envy. The flesh works two ways: discontent with yourself, and disdain of others. Both die the moment you see that God set that brother in his place, and you in yours.
- So no vacancy. God has fitted nobody else for your part. If you do not fill it, the saints lose what only you can give.
But if all were one member, where the body?
Paul is writing to a church that had lost sight of what a body is. His question here is not a request for information. It shows that sameness would wreck the very thing the Corinthians claimed to belong to.
One commentator traces the trouble back to envy. A member wants another member's place and stops doing its own work.
The body's diversity would be entirely ignored, and the gravest disorder would arise, if each member neglected its own function. That happens when a member envies members that may have a higher function. Suppose the foot began to complain that it was not a hand, or the ear that it was not an eye. Then the work of the body would stop, because complaining members stop working well for the good of the body. Only one thing prevents such disorder. We must recognise that it is God, and not man, who has "set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him". He gives each member its appointed place and function. The pre-eminence of one member would do away with the body. "If they were all one member", there would be no body.
Verse 17 made the same point another way. Kelly compares what each of the two questions proves.
Another writer remarks that the earlier proof of absurdity (v. 17) appealed to the concrete, while this one appeals to the abstract. I would add this. The first shows that forgetting the truth would destroy what makes each member distinct. This one shows that it would destroy the completeness of the body. "But now they are many members, and yet one body." (v. 20.) The unity of the body fits perfectly with diversity in the members. The diversity of the members fits that one body. And in fact this is according to God's mind.
A common objection follows. Does one body mean that everyone must be the same?
Some object that in all God's works there is variety. They say that people's minds differ, and that you cannot shape everyone to the same monotonous pattern. Does the oneness that Scripture insists on so strongly mean a lifeless uniformity? The very picture constantly used to describe it proves the exact opposite. In the human body no two parts are alike. The endless differences in its bones, veins, muscles and ligaments all contribute to the healthy action of the whole. Difference of action does not involve schism and division.
Your place in the body is God's choice, not your own. That brings rest, and it brings responsibility.
What rest for the heart to know that man did not choose our place in the body — not we ourselves, and not anyone else. God marked that place out for us in infinite wisdom, and with perfect love. He has placed us where our part could best serve His will for the good of His church. In His grace He has fitted us perfectly for that part. There is therefore no room for envy; no room for self-seeking... God has fitted no one else for the part He has given us. So if we do not serve God where He has placed us, the saints of God will lose something.
This verse has a sharp edge for church practice. Where one person does all the visible service, the body's blessing is lost.
The blessedness of the body is in each member doing its own function. It is not merely my ear that hears, but I that hear. It is not only my eye that sees, but I who see. It is the man... They all contribute; and there would indeed be a very real loss if the least member failed to do its part. This is what the Corinthians had seriously lost sight of. We are in just the same danger as they were. Indeed our danger is special, because we have come out of systems where there was only room for the priest or the minister, and we naturally tend towards it.
Kelly saw the same failure repeated in practice: all the gifts crowded into one person, "the eye and head merging in the one sole minister."
- Many, or nothing. Strip away the differences between members and you do not get a purer body — you get no body at all.
- God places. He set each member in the body as it pleased Him, so no one picks their own place and no one else picks it for them.
- Rest and duty. God chose your place in wisdom and love. That leaves no room for envy, and no excuse for sitting idle.
- Unity, not uniformity. No two parts of a body are alike, and difference of action is not division.
- Every member counts. No single member has the pre-eminence, and when the least member fails to do its part, the loss is real.
But now the members [are] many, and the body one.
Paul has been comparing the church to a human body. Verse 20 is where his argument lands: the many parts are real, and so is the one body, and neither cancels the other. The writers below say "members" where the ESV says "parts" — both mean the limbs and organs that make up one body.
The two halves of the verse guard each other. One writer shows what is lost when either half goes:
The unity of the body agrees perfectly with diversity in the members. And the diversity of the members agrees with that one body. This is in fact according to God's mind. The departure from this is what mainly makes up the disorganised state of the church we now see in Christendom. For the most part all the gifts that can find expression must be in one member in a congregation. And there is not one body, as far as the facts show, but many bodies, differing and opposed.
Does "one body" mean everyone is the same? One writer sets God's oneness against the kind people manufacture:
If verse 13 teaches that all true believers have been baptised into one body, the next verse again stresses the matching truth. The body is made up of many members. Do not confuse the unity God has established in the one body with uniformity. Uniformity marks much of man's work, especially in our day, but not God's work. Man invents machines. They turn out articles by the thousand or the million, exactly the same in every respect. In God's handiwork we see the utmost diversity in unity — unity in the most marvellous diversity.
The oneness is a fact, not something people arrange. One writer traces it back to its maker:
In 1 Corinthians 12 the key point about the body is its oneness. This oneness rests on the truth that one Spirit forms the body. The body is therefore organic, with nothing artificial about it. The one body is therefore the fruit of an act of God. It is His workmanship. We did not make ourselves children of God. We were born "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). In the same way, we did not make ourselves members of the body of Christ. That too was not of the will of man but of God. So it comes under the statement that applies to all God's spiritual works: "whatever God does endures forever" (Ecclesiastes 3:14). No human opposition or failure can touch it. It stands today.
Paul wrote this to a church split by rivalry. It corrects a specific behaviour:
Here in chapter 12 he shows how far their behaviour was from the way the members of the body of Christ depend on each other. He illustrates his point from the human body (1 Corinthians 12:14-26). There is both a diversity of members — "the body does not consist of one member but of many" — and an essential unity. Paul clearly had the divided state of the Corinthians in view when he wrote that "the members may have the same care for one another". Understanding and valuing "There is one body" would stir up this mutual care in place of self-exaltation and favouritism (Ephesians 4:4).
What does this mean day to day? One writer applies it to our ordinary dealings with other Christians:
It is well to remember the precious truth of one body, formed and energised by one Spirit. This truth is not merely something we express on certain occasions. It is what should shape and fashion all our ways in relation to Christ and His members. We need every member of the body, and each member needs us. We are bound together in mutual care and activity for each other's good. We are members one of another. Each member depends on the Head, and is never right unless right with Him. Yet the Head acts through the various members to build up the whole body.
A gift used in one place still serves the whole body:
All gifts, whether apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers, were for building up the body of Christ. Some of these gifts might never be used outside one assembly, yet they are for the whole Church.
- One body — made. People did not organise this oneness; one Spirit formed it. It is God's workmanship, and it stands today.
- One body — not uniform. God's unity holds the widest diversity. Uniformity is the mark of machines, not of His handiwork.
- One body — many parts. Unity agrees with diversity, and diversity with unity. Lose either, and you get the divided church world we see today.
- One body — mutual care. In a church full of rivalry, this truth replaces self-exaltation and favouritism with the same care for one another.
- One body — everywhere. God gives every gift for the whole church, even a gift never used outside one assembly.
The eye cannot say to the hand, I have not need of thee; or again, the head to the feet, I have not need of you.
Paul has been picturing the church as a human body. Now he turns from the member who feels too small to the member who feels too grand. Notice how the verse forbids contempt. It does not say the eye must not speak this way. It says the eye cannot.
Earlier the fault belonged to the lesser member. Here it runs the other way.
Here the apostle puts down disdain — the higher members looking down on the lower. He puts it down even more strongly than he put down discontent in the lesser member toward the greater. The highest cannot do without the least. God has made nothing, gives nothing, in vain.
One writer notes that both attitudes come from the same root, wherever they show up:
Here it is disdain, not discontent. Earlier it was the lower member discontented because it was not the higher. It is only flesh, no matter where it shows up. This is what is rebuked and set aside.
Envy and contempt do not spoil the same thing.
We have seen that envy of one another would break up the diversity; now we learn that disdain would break up the unity. If the eye treats the hand with contempt, and the head sneers at the feet, all unity of the body would be gone. What meets this danger? Again, recognizing God's own work. God has fitted the body together in such a way that no member can do without the other... in a word, every member is indispensable.
Each pair sets something valuable next to something it cannot work without.
The eye lets in the light. But is light — even spiritual light — enough by itself, without the matching actions of the hand? The one may grasp a true principle, but the other is needed to put it into practice. Or can the head do without the feet? In other words, is intellect enough, apart from a consistent walk? Indeed, to reject one member would be to cripple the body.
Commentators differ here. Some hold that Paul is drawing only on the picture of a human body:
He is using the comparison of the body, but not speaking of Christ. The fact is, this chapter does not present the Lord Jesus as the Head on high; here he is looking at the church on earth, and he calls it "Christ" — that is, the identification of the whole.
Others read the same words as a glimpse of Christ Himself, brought in indirectly:
In Corinthians we see the Church in its order, fellowship, and service. It is the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), and so Christ is its Head. But the Head is not brought before us directly here, only in passing: "nor again the Head to the feet, I have no need of you." I see no difficulty in applying this to Christ.
The verse is not only about how we speak. It shows what we lose when we write other believers off.
We cannot do without every member... Because of the disorder in the church of God, we certainly cannot make use of the help of every member of the body of Christ. But even though we are largely deprived of their help and service, we cannot be independent of one of them without suffering loss. The members of the body are bound together that closely... The Corinthians, when split up into parties, were robbing themselves of the gifts given for them all.
The test of a large gift is not how much room it takes, but how gladly it makes room.
He is looking here simply at the body, and bringing out the moral force of the comparison: the highest gift cannot treat the lowest as if he had no need of him. I am sure you will find that where there is spirituality as well as gift, the greater the gift, the more hearty the desire to see the least gift at work — the gift God has given for the good of the church. There will be no such thought as this: that because one person has a superior gift, all others must keep quiet while he is present. The spring of blessing in the church is God Himself, not any one member of the body...
- Cannot, not should not. The eye is not just told to stop dismissing the hand. It cannot say this at all, because the highest member cannot do without the least.
- Two ways to spoil a body. Envy in the lesser member breaks up diversity; disdain in the greater breaks up unity. Both are flesh, wherever they appear.
- Light needs hands. The eye stands for light, the hand for action, the feet for a consistent walk. Holding a true principle is not the same as living it.
- Contempt robs the one who feels it. Writing off other believers does not shrink them. It cuts you off from gifts God gave for the good of all — as the divided Corinthians found.
- Greatness makes room. Where gift and spirituality go together, the greatest gift welcomes the least. God Himself, not any one member, is the spring of blessing.
But much rather, the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
Paul has just told the eye it cannot dismiss the hand, or the head the feet. Now he turns it around: the parts that look weakest are the ones the body cannot do without — but in what sense is a weak part necessary?
The chapter warns against two opposite dangers. This verse answers the second one.
If there are many members, we must remember there is only one Body. But the unity of the Body would be in danger if the higher members looked down on the lower. We have seen that envy of one another would break up the diversity; now we learn that disdain would break up the unity. If the eye treats the hand with contempt, and the head sneers at the feet, all unity of the body would be gone. What meets this danger? Again, the recognition of God's own work. God has tempered the Body together in such a way that no member can do without the other. The greatest member needs the least.
The word "seem" matters here. What looks strong and what the body cannot do without are not the same thing.
An instinct planted in us tells us this. We feel that the most attractive features can do without the care we freely give to the less attractive ones. Yet we know that some parts of the body seem weaker and are still necessary to its wellbeing, or even to its life. That is not true of some parts that have show and strength and a good place, though they are not so essential.
Paul does not just give the weaker members a place. He calls them necessary — the word older translations use where the ESV has "indispensable". That holds even when they are hard work.
The main thing is this: the lesser members are not to want a greater place than they have. And the greatest ones are not to act as if they could do without the least. They are all precious in the assembly of God. It is not that they just have their place; "they are necessary." At times they can be hard to bear. They may show all too clearly the feebleness of people who cannot rise above their circumstances and surroundings. But still, "they are necessary."
The strong do not just carry the feeble. The feeble are the reason the strong have anything to do.
This comparison drawn from nature checks the tendency of gift to exalt itself. At the same time it cheers the humbler believer with fewer gifts, who might imagine that honour belongs only to prominence in ministry. But in God's household honour follows duty, and the measure of duty is ability. A shepherd without a flock would be nothing but a name. In the same way, the Spirit's gifts only prove themselves when the body holds people those gifts were sent to help. So that the strong may make right use of their strength, the feeble must exist.
Some of the most necessary members are never seen at all.
The most faithful and advanced Christians feel their dependence on God, and on all saints. Paul's apostolic gift depended in one sense on the prayers of the saints. God meant it to be that way, so that love would bind the church together. The apostle was in a prominent position. Yet he may have received power through the prayers of a poor bedridden woman. All hidden fruit will come to light in the last day… If my heart, which no one sees, does not beat, I cannot run. Some people are the real heart of the church. What we can see is not often what is most precious in God's sight.
So where should our encouragement go?
Our concern for the parts we cover shows that we should care in the same way for every weakest member of the body of Christ. We should give them honour, if no prominent gift or public role has already brought them honour. The more quiet and obscure the gift, the more encouragement we ought to give that person; those more publicly gifted do not need the same encouragement, though they need our prayers.
- Seem. A part can look weak and still be the part that life depends on.
- Necessary. They are not just tolerated. Paul calls them necessary — even the difficult ones.
- Needed. The strong cannot use their strength without the feeble. So honour follows duty, not prominence.
- Hidden. The unseen heart keeps the runner going. Quiet prayer may carry a public ministry.
- Honoured. So the quieter the member, the more encouragement we owe. That is how disdain never breaks the body's unity.
and those [parts] of the body which we esteem to be the more void of honour, these we clothe with more abundant honour; and our uncomely [parts] have more abundant comeliness;
Paul is still arguing from the human body. Here he turns to the parts nobody displays — the ones we cover and protect. The verse asks a searching question of any church. Where does your care go: to the parts on show, or to the parts that need it?
The proof comes from a habit everyone already has.
Take the face, for instance. It needs no attention, since it is of itself a presentable part. But we naturally take more care of the part that lacks that quality — the foot, for example.
Notice the wording. The lower rating is one we assign; it is not God's verdict on that member.
Do I own that I am a member of the body of Christ? That member may be an "unpresentable" or "less honourable" one, yet it is infinitely precious and necessary to the Head. The more "unpresentable" and "less honourable" it is in the sight of men, the more honoured by Him. And God set me in my right place in that body, as it pleased Him.
At Corinth the gifts themselves fed the problem.
There was to be no self-exaltation. Among the Corinthians there certainly was, because they had so many gifts, especially the sign-gifts. They looked down on other members who were less prominent. And this caused the division that threatened the body.
So which gifts really carried the most honour?
The most dignified and most useful gifts in the local assembly were not the ones that drew the most attention. They were the ones that brought real blessing to the saints. Gifts of healing, miraculous powers, speaking with tongues and other sign-gifts were like the ornaments we put on our bodies. The gifts of greatest value built up, encouraged and comforted the saints.
Clothing is the picture behind the verse, and clothing conceals.
When we dress our bodies, we use every skill we have to give them a beauty that nature has denied. So it is also in the Church. The more abundant grace given to some should find its happy opportunity in hiding what others lack. Love covers many sins like a garment. And the patient, diligent ministry of grace makes the beauty of Christ appear in many a soul. Without such care, that soul might waste away, unnoticed by every eye but that of the great Shepherd of the sheep.
So who needs this honour most?
We cover most of our visible members with clothing, to give them more abundant honour. Our concern for them is a witness that we should care in the same way for every weakest member of the body of Christ. We should give them honour, if no prominent gift and function has honoured them in public. The more quiet and obscure the gift, the more encouragement we ought to give that person. Those with more public gifts do not need the same encouragement, though they need our prayers.
We did not invent this duty. It follows the pattern God built into the body He made.
Here we plainly see that our responsibility flows from what God has done. He has tempered the body together, fitting all its parts for mutual help and blessing, and we are to act in line with His purpose... Is there no danger of forgetting this truth? Do we care mainly for prominent members and splendid gifts, and neglect the members we think to be less honourable? Very often the assemblies with the most distinguished gifts are spiritually the weakest.
- God's ranking. The low rating is one we assign. The member men count less honourable is the one God honours more, and that member is precious to the Head.
- God's design. He tempered the body together and fitted every part for mutual help. Our duty simply follows what He has already done.
- God's measure. The showy sign-gifts were like ornaments. The gifts of greatest value built up, encouraged and comforted.
- Our honour. To honour someone is to clothe them, not expose them. Grace hides what another lacks, so the beauty of Christ can appear.
- Our test. The quieter the gift, the more encouragement it should get. Where churches prize the prominent instead, the assembly with the most splendid gifts is often the weakest.
but our comely [parts] have not need. But God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to [the part] that lacked;
Paul has been arguing from the human body: the parts we think least of are the ones we cover and care for most. Now he turns from what we do to what God has done, because the balance of the body is God's own arrangement.
Some parts of the body are already presentable, so they need no extra attention. One writer illustrates this with the face and the foot.
Take the face, for instance. It needs no special care, because it is presentable in itself. But we take more care of the part that is not as presentable — the foot, for example. So here we find God's aim: "But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body."
Where the ESV says God "composed" the body, older translations say He "tempered" it together. The word means to mix or compound (Morrish Bible Dictionary). It is a deliberate act of blending, not a loose collection of parts. One writer draws out what that asks of us, and what it shows about God.
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The quieter and more hidden the gift, the more encouragement we ought to give that person. Those with more public gifts do not need the same encouragement, though they need our prayers. It is God who has tempered the body together. He fits each member into its own place, where it depends on all the others and works with them. In doing so, He has shown real care for the weakest member.
We assume the visible, impressive gift must be the important one. Paul says the opposite.
The apostle never presents the gift with the outward, visible sign as the most valuable and important one. He states the exact opposite, and he separates the two kinds of gift.
This had a sharp edge in Corinth.
No doubt this had special application to the conditions in Corinth when the apostle wrote. The most dignified and most useful gifts in the local assembly were not the ones that drew the most attention. They were the ones that brought real blessing to the believers. Gifts of healing, miraculous powers, speaking in tongues and other sign gifts were like the decorations we add to our bodies. The gifts of greatest value were the ones that built up, encouraged and comforted the believers.
Two opposite faults can split a body. The small member envies the great; the great member despises the small. Here God's own work shuts out the second.
There are many members, but only one body. That unity is in great danger if the higher members look down on the lower ones. Envy of one another would break up the diversity; disdain would break up the unity. If the eye treats the hand with contempt, and the head sneers at the feet, all unity of the body would be gone. Only one thing shuts out this disorder: recognising the presence and power of God. He has tempered the body together so that no member can do without the others.
Because the adjusting is God's work, the caring becomes ours. Forgetting this leads to a common failure.
Here we see that our responsibility flows from what God has done. He has tempered the body together. He adjusted it in all its parts for mutual help and blessing, and we are to act in line with His purpose and preserve what He has made... Is there no danger of forgetting this truth? Do we care mainly for prominent members and splendid gifts, and neglect the members we think are less honourable? Very often the assemblies with the most distinguished gifts are the weakest in spiritual life. Their danger is losing their sense of dependence on the Head and on one another, and looking too much to the gifts they admire.
Seeing God's hand in another believer's place changes how you feel about your own.
The moment I see that God has set one brother in his place and another in his, I am content. I say, Thank God for that servant and his ministry! It is his place, not mine. So, if I am right, I neither try to rival it nor copy it. I am satisfied with my own place and niche in the body.
- Blended — To "temper" is to mix. God did not just assemble the parts; He blended them into one another.
- Compensated — He pours extra honour where honour was missing, so no part is neglected.
- Reversed — The gift that draws attention is not the valuable one. The gift that feeds and comforts is.
- Guarded — God's design shuts out disdain from the top and envy from the bottom. Either one would tear the body.
- Imitated — God has already done the adjusting. Our part is to care for the least, not to crowd around the prominent.
that there might be no division in the body, but that the members might have the same concern one for another.
God arranged the body in the verses before this one, and here He states His aim. So what is the "division" He rules out, and what does that care look like in practice?
One writer reads the verse as God's design for the body, and then adds a sober note.
We have seen, then, that God has made the body of Christ like the natural body. He formed it so that there would be no division of interest. Instead, the good of each lies in the good of all, and each member cares for every other. It is His aim, but may not be the fact.
The word behind "division" here is schism. Elsewhere in this letter it describes parties forming among believers.
The word is translated "divisions" in 1 Corinthians 1:10 and elsewhere. It refers to divisions caused by parties in the church. Given the unity of the Spirit, schism can only be sin… Scripture does not teach the modern ideas of "agreeing to differ" or "unity only in essentials." It teaches the opposite.
At Corinth the danger was not a shortage of gifts but a use of them that looked down on others.
There was to be no self-exaltation. But there certainly was among the Corinthians, because of the gifts they had in such abundance, especially the sign-gifts. They looked down on other members who were less prominent. And this was responsible for the threatening division in the body.
One writer points to a subtler version of the same failure:
…and not least where knowledge takes the place of love, and saints stoop to form cliques with a favourite leader, to help them on in the sorry work of jealousy and running others down. Is this the members having the same care for one another? Or is it not schism, against which God tempered the body together so that there should be none?
Knowing that God gave you your place guards against two opposite dangers.
Every member has his own special place in the body, given to him by God… Knowing this for certain keeps us from self-occupation, pride, and envy. Suppose our place looks brilliant. Then, unless we are very watchful, the vanity of the flesh stirs. Instead of being tender and considerate toward others, and using what we have received to build up the body, we will most likely turn haughty, hard, and domineering. We will be an annoyance rather than a comfort to the saints. On the other hand, suppose our place is neither prominent nor brilliant. Then the tendency is to shrink from any service given us to do, and the whole body loses the ministry no one but ourselves can give.
One writer sets this care against rules and regulations, and ties it to the table earlier in the letter.
…not a slavish subjection to hard "ecclesiastical" prohibitions and restrictions, to rules and regulations, but a tender care for every member of that one body… I believe this is part of what the Apostle means when he says, "when you come together to eat, wait for one another" (chapter 11:33). That means more than waiting until everyone has arrived. It means the spirit of patience, consideration and compassion that those bound together by such a bond should show each other as they gather in the fellowship of the Lord's death.
Commentators differ in emphasis. Kelly, above, calls this God's aim, which "may not be the fact." Another writer presses the other side:
God has taken care that "there may be no division in the body." The strictest discipline of the house of God can never touch, in the most remote way, the unity of the body of Christ. That unity is absolutely indissoluble. A clear understanding of this would answer a thousand questions and solve a thousand difficulties.
One writer turns the verse into a question the reader has to answer.
Yes, God could not speak more plainly, not only about what He condemns, but also about what His will is as to what is right… Man says there should be sects, and would have me join one or help to grow it. God says there should be none, for the body is one. Shall I obey God or man? Judge for yourselves.
- Aim — God tempered the body together with a stated purpose: no division of interest, the good of each in the good of all.
- Cause — Division starts when gift becomes self-display and the prominent look down on the rest.
- Cure — The same care for one another. Knowing that God gave you your place keeps the gifted from pride and the obscure from shrinking back.
- Proof — Care shows itself at the table: patience, consideration, and waiting for one another.
- Choice — Man builds parties; God says there should be none, because the body is one.
And if one member suffer, all the members suffer with [it]; and if one member be glorified, all the members rejoice with [it].
Paul has just said the body's parts should care for one another. Is the next line a command to try harder, or a description of what is already true of everyone who belongs to Christ?
Start with the verbs. William Kelly shows how far this reaches, and why we may feel so little of it.
It is not said merely that they ought, but that they do. Whether it is good or ill, all that is according to God in one Christian goes out for blessing to all the rest. And when a saint on the other side of the world falls into evil or scandal, its shadow and its suffering reach every other one in these lands. We consciously suffer or rejoice, one may add, in the measure of our spiritual power. But the effect is real throughout the church. It is a body — the body of Christ — and as a whole it feels in joy or sorrow: otherwise it would not be a real organic unity. Its present condition, with denominational barriers that split the saints into independent groups, reduces spiritual sensibility to the lowest. Still, it survives these sad hindrances by its own life, which flows from the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in the church.
Human friendships end at the grave. The tie in this verse is of another kind.
No part of the human body suffers in isolation; the suffering of any one part affects the whole body, and every individual part of it. It is the same where the truth of the one body in Christ is known and taken in. Any trial or sorrow that comes on one saint of God is felt by every other member of the assembly. We suffer with them because a divine unity binds us together. That unity holds us closer in life and affection than any other bond of fellowship in this world. The ties that bind people together here are bonds that death snaps. But in the one body the Holy Spirit binds the saints of God together in a unity of divine life that death cannot touch.
One person's spiritual state is never private. Edward Dennett puts it in kitchen terms.
If one member is suffering spiritually — from lukewarmness, from backsliding, or through falling into temptation — all the members will be affected, though they may not know it. The state of the whole is the state of its individual members. Take a basin of hot water, and if you add only two drops of cold, the temperature of the whole will be lowered. It is so in the Church too. Let one person in the assembly be cold at heart, and the tone of the whole will drop. All suffer with the suffering member.
Samuel Ridout reads this verse beside the warning against division just before it.
We must not lose sight of the truth of the one Body. Just before this verse, in verse 25, we read: "that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another." A member of the Church of Christ in Africa is just as truly linked with us as one we see every day.
Sympathy with pain comes naturally. The second half of the verse is the one that tests us.
It might be comparatively easy to suffer with each other; our compassion, our feelings and our hearts go out to those who suffer in whatever way the suffering is known. But it is a different matter to rejoice with each other. Someone is moving forward. Someone is being blessed. It is plain that the Lord has laid His hand on him and he is growing spiritually. How easy it is then for the seeds of envy to spring up in the heart and mind. "But," says Paul, "we are to rejoice with each other." Can I do that? Yes, we can all do it in the Spirit's power. It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Shared feeling is not meant to stay a feeling.
We must not suppose that fellowship is limited to the privileges and blessings we enjoy when we meet together. It reaches into all the details of the state and circumstances of every member of the body… We are all urged to "rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep," and to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
- Fact. Paul does not say the members ought to feel with each other. He says they do, even when we notice nothing.
- Bond. The tie is not shared interests. The Holy Spirit makes it, and death cannot snap it.
- Spread. One cold heart lowers the temperature of the whole, as two drops of cold water cool a basin.
- Reach. Distance changes nothing; a believer in Africa is as truly linked to you as the one you sit beside.
- Test. Weeping with the suffering is the easier half. Rejoicing when another is honoured exposes envy — and the Spirit produces that fruit in us.
Now *ye* are Christ's body, and members in particular.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.