1 Corinthians 12:22 - Printer Friendly

ESV: On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

NIV: On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

NASB: On the contrary, it is much truer that the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;

CSB: On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable.

NLT: In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.

KJV: Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

NKJV: No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

Are there unimportant jobs in the church? Are there unessential people with spiritual gifts that don't really matter? Paul has written that to think such a thing is as foolish as an eye thinking it doesn't need the hand.

In fact, Paul now adds that the opposite is true. The parts of the human body that seem to be weaker, less exciting, less seen in public, those are the parts that we truly cannot live without. The subtlety and power of this analogy is easy to miss. Consider internal organs that we rarely think about. If a lung or a pancreas or a five-foot section of the intestines was suddenly gone, the body would instantly recognize how indispensable that part was. It's not unfair to say that losing a finger, visible though that may be, is nowhere near as disruptive as losing a kidney—an organ most people think nothing of until it's in crisis.

In the same way, the most essential functions in the church are often carried out by Spirit-gifted Christians who call no attention to themselves. There, again, is a subtlety in this analogy which needs to be understood. A body can better survive with the loss of the "high profile" members, like eyes and fingers, than it can if it loses the behind-the-scenes members like the lungs and organs. The Christian church, in truth, "needs" the deeper and more essential members to perform their roles and cannot be effective otherwise.

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.