I first got glasses in 3rd grade, and then contacts since I was 16 yrs old. My eyes are terribly near-sighted. If I don’t have my contacts in or my glasses on, it feels like my entire world is out of focus, a blur.
For the last couple years I’ve also needed reading glasses. Contacts for distance, reading glasses for up close.
Without either contacts or reading glasses, my eyes are only good super close up. And that’s not so good for living in our world.
Because of my need for corrective lenses, I have felt for many years how important eyes are. When something doesn’t work right, you realize how important it is. And that principle is related to the body metaphor Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul writes that the body is analogous to a local church.
It could be very easy for one person to start getting all high and mighty thinking that it doesn’t need the other people. I could be very tempted to think, just like Paul says in verse 21 that the eye doesn’t need the hand.
Yet, doesn’t it seem that some parts of the body are more important than others?
But look at Paul’s corrective in verse 22: those seemingly weaker parts are also indispensable. Take my contacts out, for example, and I am in bad shape. One time while running, I wiped the sweat off my head by rubbing my shoulder against my eye socket. The pressure of my shoulder popped my contact out. It rarely happens, but it did that day, and for the remaining few miles, I had blurry vision in one eye. I didn’t like it at all. It reminded me that eyes, while extremely delicate, are indispensable.
Paul continues this theme in verses 23-24, and he spices it up with some humor: Less honorable parts we treat with special honor. Unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty. But presentable parts need no special treatment.
You read that right, Paul talking about private parts of the body! I think there must have been a snicker in the room when the church at Corinth read that passage. Again, Paul’s point is clear. Certain parts of the body are covered up, treated with a special modesty, meaning that they are important. So if you think your gift, your role is inferior or not important, you are wrong. You are all important! Even if you are serving behind the scenes, hidden.
In verses 24b–26 Paul makes more correlation between the human body and the church. God put the body together and God has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it. There should be no division in the body, and all parts should have equal concern for one another! Suffer and rejoice together!
Next Paul describes how the body metaphor relates to giftedness in the church.
Look at verse 27: Paul reviews how the human body is a metaphor for the church—the church is the body of Christ, each of you are a part of it. Every single one!
Then in verse 28, just like the body has different parts, eyes, ears, hands, feet, etc, so the people in the church, the body of Christ, have different gifts. The parallel is clear:
Human body – different parts
Christ’s body – different gifts
All are important! All should care for one another. There should be no division. All are needed!
Engaging Scripture 