1 Corinthians 12: 12-20….A Body has many bits and pieces!

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.

Comments: There are two separate thoughts in this passage. Point 1. Jews thought themselves a cut above Gentiles; freed men thought themselves above slaves. Paul writes quite clearly and I think that he would have raised his tone if speaking – ‘NOT SO in the body of Christ. We are all equally members of the body of Christ – the body of Believers. Point 2. The body has many parts with different functions but they all add up to make one body. As a surgeon many used to praise me. But without an anaesthetist, a nurse or two, an orderly, a cleaner, and a recovery room team and a ward bed with all the attached staff, even brilliant surgery won’t work. So is an eye more necessary than an ear? Where would a mouth be without an anus? And as a surgeon I can say all the parts are wonderfully made! I refuse to put food in my ear!

Prayer: Please help me to fit in smoothly to the place where You and my fellow believers call me to ‘fit in’.