If they were all one member, where would the body be?
Parallel translations
- KJV And if they were all one member, where were the body?
- BSB If they were all one part, where would the body be?
- NKJV And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
- NASB If they were all one part, where would the body be?
- NLT How strange a body would be if it had only one part!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If all the members were a single part, there would be no body at all. Diversity is essential to the body's very existence.
Overview
Continuing his argument, Paul presses that uniformity would mean the dissolution of the body. A collection of identical parts is not a living organism. The church's many gifts are therefore not a problem to be solved but the necessary condition for her to exist and function as Christ's body.
Cross-references & the web
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 12:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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