Think of the wide variety of people in your church and thank God for every one.
Four key items stand out in this section:
12:14-16. Every Christian is a necessary member of the community. The use of analogy drawn from the interdependence of the human body is not new. Already in the Stoic philosopher Epictetus we meet the saying: “You are a citizen of the world and one of its limbs.” Paul’s treatment, however, is far more insistent on the impossibility of one member becoming amputated from the rest of the whole body—even if that organ, now personified, wanted to cut itself off. And certainly—and this is the apostle’s point driven home to the Corinthians’ predicament of mutual rivalries and jealousies—it is foolish for one member (the foot or the ear) to want to detach itself from the corporate whole because it is not some other member. Every part plays a necessary part in the harmonious functioning of the whole.
12:17-22. Every Christian needs the help of every other Christian. Again, Paul’s insistence is double-edged. As in the human body, each part cannot function on its own and, at the same time, if it fails to do its job, the whole body feels the effect of this breakdown. Exactly so in the church. Individual believers are likened to “a single organ” (12:19) with a specific part to play, but not in splendid isolation from the rest of the fellowship. And if that one member fails in their responsibilities, the entire family of God is affected. Romans 14:7 well illustrates the interrelation and reciprocal dependence which makes a “solo performance” type of Christian living unthinkable according to New Testament standards (Ephesians 4:25b, which may well be a motto to be held in constant review, both in our local congregations and ecumenical relationships).
12:23-25. Particular respect should be shown to those members of the community who appear to be less important than the rest. The key thought is: “that there may be no discord in the body” (12:25), applied here to a situation in which social haughtiness and spiritual superiority were a prevalent malaise. Proud Corinthians, richly endowed with spiritual gifts and material possessions, were looking down on the poorer brothers and sisters as “inferior” (12:24), a word Paul picks up and throws back at these snobs with devastating effect!
12:25-26. Every Christian is sympathetically involved in the prosperity or misfortune of their fellow Christians. Perhaps this is the one place in Scripture where “care” or “anxiety” (Greek merimnan: the same term is used negatively in Matthew 6:34; Philippians 4:6) is positively commanded as our duty: be anxious—about fellow Christians; when they are suffering, sympathize, and when they flourish, rejoice in the honor they have received (12:26).
