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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Corinthians 12:24 - 12:26
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The application of the figure:
v. 24. For our comely parts have no need; but God hath, tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked,
v. 25. that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
v. 26. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
In the covering and adorning of the dishonorable, indecorous parts of the body we do not include the seemly parts, the head and the face, unless we wish to display barbarous tendencies. Their distinction is so evident that any ornament jars upon the beholder. But God caused to mix together, He compounded the members of the body, having assigned more honor to the part which is in need of it. The Greek word signifies the mixing of ingredients as it is done in the laboratory, and indicates "such a mutual adjustment of the parts in the body as shall counterbalance differences, so that one part shall qualify another. " It is not thus that the fine and honorable members are all in one place and the ignoble and indecorous in another, but that there is a complete harmony in appearance and in function of the body, together with an agreeable manifoldness and interchange. And the object is: that there be no schisms, no divisions, in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If the chief organs of the body should refuse to perform their work properly so long as the dishonorable members were still connected with the body, obviously the entire body would suffer. It is the will of the Creator that every part should contribute something to the general proportion, symmetry, and beauty of the body. It will also follow, quite naturally: And if one member should suffer, all the members suffer with it, and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. Here is an illustration of the unselfish care and solicitude of the members of the body for one another. So closely are they all united in the one organism of the body that the pain of any one organ is normally felt by the whole body as such; and, on the other hand, a special honor shown to any one member, especially to the comely members, causes the whole body to be filled with gladness, the attitude of the mind being reflected in the pose, in the gestures, in every lineament of the body.