Episode 204 - "Many members, one body" - 1 Corinthians 12:12-20

1Cor. 12:12 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.

1Cor. 12:14 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.

Are you starting to pick up on a continuous theme throughout this letter? Paul began it by admonishing those who thought of themselves more highly because of their claimed association with Paul, Apollos, or someone else. Later, in chapters five and six, Paul writes that the time when these Christians should separate one member from themselves is when that professing believer is willfully being sexually immoral and refuses to turn away from that. From the beginning, Paul has emphasized the need for humility and unity among believers.

At various times, Paul has used the imagery of the body and its members to speak of the church. Once again, Paul returns to this imagery. Why? In the verses preceding this section, he wrote about gifts given by the Holy Spirit and how God, through the Spirit, gifts believers with a variety of gifts and dispenses them at his will and not the will of the believer. Is Paul changing the subject? I don’t think so.

Paul is moving from the various gifts distributed by the same Holy Spirit to various members belonging to the same body. There is a correlation between the variety of spiritual gifts and the variety of saints within the church. They have differences, but they are to work in harmony. If I’m not mistaken, Paul wants the believers at Corinth to understand that just as each spiritual gift has a purpose to serve the church and God’s mission in it, the members of the church are to each serve the church in a way that unique but mutually edifying to other members.

Paul’s statement that “we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” probably was a shocking statement to some. (v. 13) Perhaps there were Jews who thought themselves as a higher class Christian by virtue of their heritage or some free people, following the culture, looked down upon those who were slaves. Paul argues that we are all one in Christ, and there is no difference. Paul develops this thought a little more in Ephesians 2.

Verses 14-17 make it clear that no one member can assert that they are separate from the body because of who they are or of what gift they may have been given. There are no excuses for not contributing to the body of Christ because God has baptized us all into the same body and, despite our differences, has gifted us differently for the mutual benefit within the body. If everyone were given the same gift or God made us all the same, we wouldn’t be much of a body. That body would be very limited.

Verse 18 reminds us that it is God who has made these choices. He has designed us, led us through various experiences in life, and gifted us in ways different from our brothers and sisters; not a single one of us is more or less important than the next person. There is no room for pride or self-isolation within the body of Christ. What is called for is humility before God and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Secondly, we must seek to find out how we can minister according to how God has gifted us for the edification and encouragement of fellow believers and to serve God’s mission to the world.