1 Corinthians 12:16 Commentary and Bible Study

Is it true that by saying this the ear can extract itself from the body and no longer be part of it? Of course not. I think there is more envy here. This is the complaining ear. The ear complains: ‘I am not the eye.’ Why should the ear complain? The ear actually has a pretty good lot, when you think of it, in the body. Now this isn’t an analogy for roles within the church, however tempting it may be to make certain parts of the body analogous to roles in the church. It doesn’t work out. However, there are some hints. The ear is like the receptionist of the body. It hears everything. It knows a very great deal, so the ear is the kind of receptionist. But the ear has it easy – it is carried aloft. I am not speaking in any way medically, I appreciate that; and a doctor may contradict me. But the ear has it easy. I know you can get earache and problems with the ears; but you don’t stub your ear, and you don’t cut, like a finger, your ear. Your ear is safe and up and out of the way, and it doesn’t get bruised and stubbed and blistered, and all that kind of thing. So the ear actually is a very privileged thing.What is the ear doing, complaining? And so it is with us. You may be in the church; you may feel envious of somebody who has a conspicuous role, but your gift is different. And actually you may have considerable advantages over that person – less open to criticism, or disapproval, or something like that, its swings and roundabouts.The wonderful thing about a human body is the completely willing submission of every member to every other member. It is so natural for the members to work together; it causes them no difficulty to support and assist each other. Their individual interests are easily set aside. A body could not function otherwise. Now in the church of Christ, the members are not just fleshly organs but conscious human beings with their own personal concerns. But something even greater than the submission of the members of a human body to one another is taking place. In the church the individual members are consciously caring for an loving one another, and deliberately setting aside their personal interests for the good of others. They do unto others what they would have others do unto them.