The Body of Christ

Paul says the body is one though it has many parts, and that this is how it is with Christ, because all believers were baptized by one Spirit into one body and given one Spirit to drink. He then shows that a member cannot disqualify itself by comparing itself unfavorably to another, since God has arranged the members according to his own design and the body needs its many parts to be a body at all.

T¹²he body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. ¹⁵If 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. ¹⁶And 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. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Neither, Paul says, can the prominent parts reject the others, because the parts that seem weaker are indispensable and the less honorable are given greater honor. God has composed the body this way so that there will be no division, but rather mutual concern, so that suffering and honor are shared across all the members.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.” ²²On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, ²⁴whereas our presentable parts have no such need. ²⁵But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.