Many Members, One Body

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Messiah.

13For indeed, in one Spirit we all were baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether servants or free—and we all were given to drink one Spirit.

14For the body is not one member, but many.

15If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” it is not for this reason not of the body, is it?

16And if the ear says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ it is not for this reason not of the body.

17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

18But as it is, God arranged the members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired.

19If all were one member, where would the body be?

20But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21But the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’

22On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary,

23and those parts of the body that we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater decorum,

24but our presentable parts have no need. Instead, God has composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,

25so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same concern for one another.

26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if a member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

27You are the body of Messiah, and members individually.