“…Each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function” (Rom 12:4).
This verse and the next are a repetition of 1Cor 12:12-27 in miniature. To offset the danger of individualistic thinking with its resulting danger of pride, Paul refers to the human body. Two truths are set forth in this verse:
- the unity of the body; and
- the diversity of its members, with corresponding diversity in function.
We can, individually, be very different from one another, yet still be bound in unity by a common faith and hope.
“So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each members belongs to all the others” (Rom 12:5, NIV).
Paul now offers a third truth to go with the two in the previous verse: (1) The body of Christ is a unity, despite (2) the diverse nature of its members. And then he adds:
- Diversity must never mean independence; every member belongs to all the other members, and depends on them all.
This verse is the positive side of the negative statement in Paul’s corresponding analogy for the Corinthians believers:
“If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body” (1Cor 12:15,16).
Furthermore, each member should profit from what the other members contribute to the whole. Reflection on these truths reduces preoccupation with one’s own gifts, and with one’s own ‘special’ place in the brotherhood, while at the same time it makes room for appreciation of other people and the gifts they exercise.
Harry Tennant writes: “A man’s reaction to the needs of the body to which he has supposedly given allegiance is often a measure of the true character of the man himself. Self-seeking, opportunism and disregard for the lasting well-being of the corporate fellowship can cause untold unhappiness both to the individual and to the higher cause of the association and community spirit by which his fellows live. This is especially true of our relationship as individuals to the ecclesia and community to which we belong. Our attitude to the body is our attitude to Christ. The ecclesia is his body. If we are superior to it, we lack humility; if we are divisive within it, we deny the atonement by which we were reconciled and made one” (The Man David, 182).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One