1 Corinthians 12:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: 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.

NIV: Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

NASB: For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

CSB: For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body--so also is Christ.

NLT: The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

KJV: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

NKJV: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Paul has written much about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians. Now he uses the illustration of a human body to show how Christians, each with their individual spiritual gifts, are intended by God to work together.

Every human body is one thing, one body, one person. This is true even though the body is made up of widely different parts or "members." Each part of the body contributes to the overall functioning of that body. Paul says the same is true of the body of Christ. Each believer is one member of Christ's "body" on earth. Each of us is defined by the spiritual gifts given to us and the service they allow us to provide to the church.

This is a key teaching in Christianity. Fellow believers are equally valuable in the eyes of God, and in their contributions to the function of a healthy church. While it's true that some have more "honorable" roles—a concept Paul will discuss later—that does not make those roles more meaningful.

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.

Accessed 5/4/2024 8:21:25 PM