If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
1 Corinthians 12:15-20
Imagine for a moment a body which is a huge hand and nothing more. What an incredibly limited organism it would be? How would it go anywhere? Hear anything? How would you get information to it? It would always and forever need help. What good would it be? When someone says to you “Can you give me a hand?”, they actually want the rest of your body too. Think about it. Imagine a huge foot, a single eye sitting on the table, an ear lying on the bed: All totally useless to anyone. Imagine just an eye and nothing else. The eye would be extremely susceptible and need protection. Without the eyelid and blinking to keep it moist, the eye is vulnerable. It is like that with the body of Christ. We need one another and especially those parts closest to us for protection.
What Paul wanted to communication to the Corinthians is what is the point of us all having the gift of tongues and nothing else? What is the benefit in that? What if all were operating in the gift of a word of knowledge? It would be totally superfluous because everyone would have it but no one would have the gift of healing. What if all had the gift of the miraculous? Nothing would be miraculous because the miraculous would become commonplace and no longer out of the ordinary. But would there be discernment? Any of these gifts operating without the discernment gift is open to abuse. We need them all. That is Paul’s point. You can’t have a body that is just one organ. If it is just one organ by definition it is no longer a body. If in the body of Christ everyone operates in the one and the same gift then it is no longer a body.
Paul doesn’t use this analogy but imagine a huge tongue standing alone – if huge tongues can stand alone (they can’t because they have no internal structure). So I guess huge tongues must lie; now that leaves a bad taste in the mouth doesn’t it? But you get my point I am sure. Just as a huge tongue on its own is useless so too is the analogy of everyone speaking in tongues with no other gift available. Not even the gift of interpretation. By inference these two gifts, tongues and interpretation, are necessary as a pairing. If just one of them is present, the other is useless. If we take an honest appraisal of the usefulness of all the gifts, the gift of tongues would bring up the rear. Be careful where you put the emphasis.
Ponder on this for a while, if your body includes a mind that is.
Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.
Jim Rohn
The way he treats his body, you’d think he was renting.
Robert Brault
Tearing someone down never builds you up.
Anon
Gossip: the art of degrading others to make one’s self look better!
Anon