Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=1Corinthians+012
CHAPTER 12 (ESV)
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:
- 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 is my reaction when some other Christian gets recognition and honour? Or when someone is suffering? Do I rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Rm 12:15)? Or am I jealous of those who rejoice and apathetic to the weeping?
PRAYER:
May God shape my life, enabling me to possess more gentleness and kindness to comfort those who are grieving and suffering. May God grant me greater humility, goodness, and tolerance in my interactions with fellow brothers and sisters in the church. May God unify our church, harmonizing us like many branches attached to the same vine, continuously drawing nourishment from God and bearing the fruit of life.
HYMN:
We Are the Body of Christ – youtu.be/1yo9gMsscVY
