In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, in the section about spiritual gifts, Paul explains how the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body and each part is just as important to the correct functioning of the body as the next part. This passage has always made a lot of sense to me, but it has recently taken on new depths as I thought about it during my recent bout of ill health. And while it is true that the ear should not think that because it is not an eye it is not a vital part of the body, it is also true that when the ear is not functioning properly, the body does sort of become all about the ear. I really learned this the hard way when my eardrum burst a couple of weeks ago. And although the initial feeling was one of pain relief when the pressure in the ear was removed, the end result left me practically deaf in that ear. My head was also congested from a cold I was fighting, so the other ear wasn’t all that helpful in picking up the slack. And the old adage that you won’t miss something until it is gone, became blaringly true when I lost the ability to hear and for a little while my ears became my whole focus as if this sense was more important than my other senses.
When Paul likens his analogy of the parts of the body to the body of Christ, he also emphasizes how important it is to realize that each person is just as necessary as the next to the correct functioning of the church. Though the body of Christ is made up of many people, it is still one body. The unique talents and gifts that each person brings to the table are equally important to the whole. As Paul says, there should be no divisions in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. In the human body, this is definitely the case, but it is also true that when the body is deprived of one sense, for example, the other senses kick in double time to take care of the problem. For example, during my period of hearing loss, I noticed that I was catching more things out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t hear the car coming toward me, but I could see it long before I normally would had I been depending on my ears to detect it.
And so it will be in the body of Christ. Not all “parts” will be functioning at maximum capacity all of the time. Some of our talents may not be the ones needed for a certain task or we won’t have all the parts on hand, so the other parts will need to step up their game and pick up the slack to get the job done. Sometimes it may seem that we have to step up more than usual as other parts let the body down more often than we think they should. And we may be tempted to not bring our parts to the work Christ is doing through all of us and slowly, but surely, our parts tend to become rusty with resentment and lazy from lack of use and little by little, the body of Christ begins to shrink.
When my hearing was impaired and my eyes upped their game, they did not sit around complaining about the ears not doing their work. They did not go on strike and refuse to help. No! They were happy to take over for a little while. They were proud to get the job and help take care of the rest of my body in any way they could. And so it should be in the body of Christ. Not only do we suffer with one another, but we are also there to hold one another up when the going gets tough. And none of the work of the body of Christ could be done without all of us pitching in and stepping up when called.