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.