1 Corinthians 12:21 - Printer Friendly

ESV: 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."

NIV: The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don’t need you!"

NASB: And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; or again, the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'

CSB: The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, "I don’t need you!"

NLT: The eye can never say to the hand, 'I don’t need you.' The head can’t say to the feet, 'I don’t need you.'

KJV: And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

NKJV: And 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.”

Scripture has been describing a reason for discontent among some members of Christ's body, the church. Perhaps this was going on in Corinth. Some Christians didn't think the service-role given them by God was valuable or interesting or visible enough. They were discontent with their Spirit-assigned part in the body of Christ. It's possible they did not understand how essential it was to the church for them to fulfill the function God had gifted them. As Paul has stated before, a functioning body must have these diverse parts. It cannot function without them.

Now Paul identifies a separate problem, but one closely related to the first. Some Christians felt they didn't need the service provided by other Christians who were gifted by the Spirit to provide it. They mistakenly believed that they were important to the body of Christ while other believers were unimportant because their gifts did not serve exciting or visible functions. While some were bitter about their spiritual gifts and did not want to use them, these believers were arrogant about their gifts, and didn't think others needed to use theirs.

Paul writes that this is like an eye saying to the hand, or the head saying to the foot, "I have no need of you." Any eye or head that would say such a thing clearly does not understand how bodies work. The brain might think itself more important than the stomach, but it cannot survive without what the stomach does. As Paul explains in upcoming verses, it's often the body parts we sneer at which perform the most vital roles! Any Christian that would think such a thing of a brother or sister in Christ—that their God-given role is unimportant or irrelevant—does not understand how Christ's body works.

First Corinthians 12:12–31 continues Paul's teaching on the spiritual gifts as they cooperate to empower God's will for the church. The Christian church is like a human body. It is one individual organism made up of many different parts that serve a wide variety of functions. All those functions matter. Nobody should decide they don't like their gift or their role in the church and try to quit. The body needs each member to do its part in order to work properly. We must respect and value each other for the vital roles we serve in the church.

Apparently in response to further questions from Corinth, Paul describes what spiritual gifts are, who receives them, and what they are for. His emphasis is that particular spiritual gifts do not make believers spiritual. Every believer is spiritual because every Christian has God's Spirit with him or her. In addition, the Spirit gives one or more spiritual gifts to each believer to be used to serve the church. The church is like a body, in which every part is needed, and all the parts exist to serve one another. Every believer must discover how they are gifted by the Spirit and value the function they serve in Christ's body.

After tackling the issues of head coverings for women and the Lord's Supper in the previous chapter, Paul moves to the issue of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul insists that the display of spiritual gifts does not make one believer more spiritual or important than another. Every believer in Jesus has the Spirit, and the Spirit gives to every believer one or more spiritual gifts. The gifts are given for the common good, and the church is like a human body. Each gifted function in the church represents a body part, and all the parts are essential. This sets up a description of love, as defined from a Christian viewpoint, and famously recorded in chapter 13.

First Corinthians is one of the more practical books of the New Testament. Paul writes to a church immersed in a city associated with trade, but also with corruption and immorality. These believers are struggling to properly apply spiritual gifts and to resist the ungodly practices of the surrounding culture. Paul's letter gives instructions for real-life concerns such as marriage and spirituality. He also deals with the importance of unity and gives one of the Bible's more well-known descriptions of love in chapter 13.