1 Corinthians 12:12–27

Unity in the Midst of Diversity

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, although they^* are many, are one body, thus also Christ. ¹³For by^h one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free persons, and all were made to drink one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” not because of this is it not a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” not because of this is it not a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he wanted. ¹⁹And if they all were one member, where would the body be? ²⁰But now there are many members, but one body.

²¹Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, “I do not have need of you,” or again, the head to the feet, “I do not have need of you.” ²²But by much more the members of the body which are thought to be weaker are necessary, ²³and the parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our unpresentable parts come to have more abundant presentability, ²⁴but our presentable parts do not have need of this. Yet God composed the body by giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked it, ²⁵in order that there not be a division in the body, but the members would have the same concern for one another. ²⁶And if one member suffers, all the members suffer together; if a memberⁱ is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and members of it individually^j,