1 Corinthians 12 English Standard Version (ESV)

One Body with Many Members

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ 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? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, ²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

REFLECTION

• If time allows, read the whole chapter. Then read the passage for today.
• Paul used the image of the body to explain our relation to one another. We’re all parts of the body of Christ. Whoever you are or whatever your spiritual gifts are, you are “indispensable” (v22) to the others in your church, and in the Church.
• What might make some members of your church feel useless or envious of other parts of the body? According to Paul, how can you make every part of the body feel special?
• What is your reaction when some other Christian gets recognition and honour? Or when someone is suffering? Do you rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep? Or are you jealous of those who rejoice and apathetic to the weeping?