1 Corinthians 12:14

THE MESSAGE

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

Parallel Translations

Simplified Cowboy Version
Our bodies have many different parts and God made each part for a specific and grand purpose.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For the body is not one member, but many.

Legacy Standard Bible
For also the body is not one member, but many.

Bible in Basic English
For the body is not one part, but a number of parts.

Darby Translation
For also the body is not one member but many.

Christian Standard Bible®
So the body is not one part but many.

World English Bible
For the body is not one member, but many.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say,

Weymouth's New Testament
For the human body does not consist of one part, but of many.

King James Version (1611)
For the body is not one member, but many.

Literal Translation
For also the body is not one member, but many.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For the body also is not one membre, but many.

Mace New Testament (1729)
the body is not one member, but many.

Amplified Bible
For the [human] body does not consist of one part, but of many [limbs and organs].

American Standard Version
For the body is not one member, but many.

Revised Standard Version
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For the body is not one member but many.

Update Bible Version
For the body is not one member, but many.

Webster's Bible Translation
For the body is not one member, but many.

Young's Literal Translation
for also the body is not one member, but many;

New Century Version
The human body has many parts.

New English Translation
For in fact the body is not a single member, but many.

Berean Standard Bible
For the body does not consist of one part, but of many.

Contemporary English Version
Our bodies don't have just one part. They have many parts.

Complete Jewish Bible
For indeed the body is not one part but many.

English Standard Version
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For the body also is not one member, but many.

George Lamsa Translation
The body is not one member, but many.

Hebrew Names Version
For the body is not one member, but many.

International Standard Version
For the body does not consist of only one part, but of many.

Etheridge Translation
For the body also is not one member, but many.

Murdock Translation
For a body also, is not one member, but many.

New King James Version
For in fact the body is not one member but many.

New Living Translation
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.

New Life Bible
The body is not one part, but many parts.

English Revised Version
For the body is not one member, but many.

New Revised Standard
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, the body also, is not one member, but many:

Douay-Rheims Bible
For the body also is not one member, but many.

King James Version
For the body is not one member, but many.

Lexham English Bible
For the body is not one member, but many.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For the body is not one member, but many.

Easy-to-Read Version
And a person's body has more than one part. It has many parts.

New American Standard Bible
For the body is not one part, but many.

Good News Translation
For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For the bodi is not o membre, but manye.

Contextual Overview

¹²You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. ¹⁴I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. ¹⁹But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? ²⁵The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 12:12, 1 Corinthians 12:19, 1 Corinthians 12:27, 1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:25

Reciprocal: Numbers 10:31 - instead of eyes 1 Kings 5:6 - that there is not 1 Corinthians 12:29 - all apostles

Cross-References

Genesis 3:6
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

Genesis 39:7
After Joseph had been taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelites, Potiphar an Egyptian, one of Pharaoh's officials and the manager of his household, bought him from them. As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with him. He ended up living in the home of his Egyptian master. His master recognized that God was with him, saw that God was working for good in everything he did. He became very fond of Joseph and made him his personal aide. He put him in charge of all his personal affairs, turning everything over to him. From that moment on, God blessed the home of the Egyptian—all because of Joseph. The blessing of God spread over everything he owned, at home and in the fields, and all Potiphar had to concern himself with was eating three meals a day. Joseph was a strikingly handsome man. As time went on, his master's wife became infatuated with Joseph and one day said, "Sleep with me."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the body is not one member,.... Not only one; nor is anyone member the body, though ever so eminent, as the head or eye: thus the church of Christ is not one person only, or does not consist of one sort of persons; as only of Jews, or only of Gentiles, or only of rich and freemen, or only of men of extraordinary gifts and abilities, or greatly eminent for grace and spiritual knowledge:

but many; members, as the Arabic version adds; as eyes, ears, hands, feet, c. so in the mystical body of Christ, the church, there are many members, some in a higher station, others in a lower some of greater gifts, grace, and usefulness, others of lesser; some Jews, other Gentiles; some bond, others free; yet all one in Christ the head, and all related to each other.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the body ... - The body is made up of many members, which have various offices. So it is in the church. We are to expect the same variety there; and we are not to presume either that all will be alike, or that any member that God has placed there will be useless.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 12:14. For the body is not one member — The mystical body, the Church, as well as the natural body, is composed of many members.