Thematic Bible: Inconsistent with communion of saints


Thematic Bible



In our one body we have a number of members, and the members have not all the same function; so too, for all our numbers, we form one Body in Christ and we are severally members one of another.

As the human body is one and has many members, all the members of the body forming one body for all their number, so is it with Christ. For by one Spirit we have all been baptized into one Body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or freemen; we have all been imbued with one Spirit. Why, even the body consists not of one member but of many. read more.
If the foot were to say, 'Because I am not the hand, I do not belong to the body,' that does not make it no part of the body. If the ear were to say, 'Because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body,' that does not make it no part of the body. If the body were all eye, where would hearing be? If the body were all ear, where would smell be? As it is, God has set the members in the body, each as it pleased him. If they all made up one member, what would become of the body? As it is, there are many members and one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' Quite the contrary. We cannot do without those very members of the body which are considered rather delicate, just as the parts we consider rather dishonourable are the very parts we invest with special honour; our indecorous parts get a special care and attention which does not need to be paid to our more decorous parts. Yes, God has tempered the body together, with a special dignity for the inferior parts, so that there may be no disunion in the body, but that the various members should have a common concern for one another. Thus if one member suffers, all the members share its suffering; if one member is honoured, all the members share its honour. Now you are Christ's Body, and severally members of it.