1 Corinthians 12:12-20

§ 40. THE ONE BODY, OF MANY MEMBERS. The manifold graces, ministries, workings (1 Corinthians 12:4 ff.), that proceed from the action of the Holy Spirit in the Christian community, stand not only in common dependence upon Him (§ 39), but are mutually bound to each other. The Church of Christ is “the body” for the Spirit of God; and these operations are its correlated functional activities (1 Corinthians 12:12 f.). Differentiation is of the essence of bodily life. The unity of the Church is not that of inorganic nature, a monotonous aggregation of similars, as in a pool of water or a heap of stones; it is the oneness of a living organism, no member of which exercises the same faculty as another. Without “many members,” contrasted as foot with hand or sight with smell (1 Corinthians 12:14-17), there would be no body at all, but only a single monstrous limb (1 Corinthians 12:19). In God's creative plan, it is the integration and reciprocity of a multitude of distinct organs that makes up the physical and the social frame (1 Corinthians 12:18 ff.).