Spiritual Body Parts – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

MedicalDaily.com has listed 10 body parts that, according to the title of the article, are useless.  They mention the appendix, the coccyx, body hair, and wisdom teeth, plus some I’d never heard of.  But what is interesting is that they do see uses for several of these useless parts.  Could it be we just don’t know yet how they are useful?  The Corinthians seemed to think that some of the gifts, and therefore some of the gifted believers in their congregation, were not necessary, like those with the gift of tongues were.  Paul needed to correct that view.

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. 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.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. 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. 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? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

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.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 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, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.  (1 Corinthians 12:12-31 ESV)

Spiritual gifts and spiritually gifted believers function like the different members of the physical body.  There are many bodily parts but all function as one body.  The Holy Spirit made us all a part of the Body of Christ when we were immersed in Him and as we drank Him in at conversion (see An Evangelical Perspective on the Baptism in the Spirit).

The human body needs every different part, so no part should try to be anything other than what it is.  And no part should dishonor another part as if it wasn’t needed.  We need the weaker parts of our body and even give more honor to those parts that seem less honorable.  God has made it that way on purpose so that each bodily part would have the same care for the other.  We hurt if one part hurts and we rejoice when one part is honored.

This is the way it should work in the church.  There are priority parts, apostles, prophets and teachers, because they safe-keep the gospel, and then there are the other gifts as well, each necessary, of course.  Not everyone has the same gift or function.  But the Corinthians have made tongues more important than any other gift and suggested that it is the only gift needed.  Paul wants them to seek the more important gifts for the benefit of the body of Christ and that requires that they follow a more excellent way than they have been doing, the way of love.