1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Comparison of the Unity of the Body and the Unity of the Christian Church

12. For as the body is one, and hath many members This simile is a very common one. It is used on several occasions by the Apostle. See Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 5:30; Colossians 2:19. It was even familiar to Gentile minds from the well-known apologue of Menenius Agrippa in Livy xi. 32. Cf. Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1. For other examples see Alford in loc. The point here is somewhat different. The unity of the body in the fable above-mentioned centres in the idea of the body politic. In the Christian scheme the unity is found in Christ, of Whose life all His members partake.

so also is Christ The Apostle, like Christ Himself in the parable of the Vine in St John 15 (as also in ch. 17), identifies His members with Himself. The life they live (Galatians 2:20) is no longer theirs but His. They have put on the new man (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), the second Adam (ch. 1 Corinthians 15:45; 1 Corinthians 15:47) Who was created afresh in the Image of God. And the result is the identification of themselves with Him. So that they are His Body (Ephesians 1:23), as filled with Him, Who filleth all things.