ONE BODY

1 Corinthians 12 (Contemporary English Version)

¹²The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. ¹³Some of us are Jews, and others are Gentiles. Some of us are slaves, and others are free. But God's Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ. Now we each drink from that same Spirit. ¹⁴Our bodies don't have just one part. They have many parts. ¹⁵Suppose a foot says, "I'm not a hand, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the foot still belong to the body? ¹⁶Or suppose an ear says, "I'm not an eye, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the ear still belong to the body? ¹⁷If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn't hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn't smell a thing. ¹⁸But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best.

¹⁹A body isn't really a body, unless there is more than one part. ²⁰It takes many parts to make a single body. ²¹That's why the eyes cannot say they don't need the hands. That's also why the head cannot say it doesn't need the feet. ²²In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest. ²³We take special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, ²⁴but we don't have to be modest about other parts.

God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. ²⁵He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. ²⁶If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy.