1 Corinthians 12:22

Contextual Overview

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹²Your body is made up of a bunch of different parts that do different things. The same thing applies to the church, or what we like to call, "The Body of Christ." ¹² For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹²For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹² For as the body is one, and has a number of parts, and all the parts make one body, so is Christ. ¹² For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ. ¹² For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. ¹² For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. ¹² For as the body is one, and yet hath many members, but all the members of the body, many as they are, are one body, so is Christ.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 14:28, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Ecclesiastes 5:9, Ecclesiastes 9:14, Ecclesiastes 9:15, 2 Corinthians 1:11, Titus 2:9, Titus 2:10

Reciprocal: Acts 28:15 - he thanked Romans 15:1 - ought 1 Corinthians 12:16 - is it Philippians 2:4 - General 1 Peter 3:7 - giving

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Nay, much more those members of the body,.... The apostle, in a beautiful gradation, proceeds to take notice of such parts of the body as are more weak, dishonourable, and uncomely, showing the necessity and usefulness of them:

which seem to be more feeble; than others, do not consist of a strong bony substance, and are not fenced with sinews, as the belly and its intestines: yet these

are necessary; nor could the body be sustained, nourished, and refreshed, without them; so the more weak and feeble saints, whose hearts and hands are to be strengthened, whose infirmities are to be bore, have their usefulness; and the effectual working in the measure of every part, even of the feeble and tender, maketh increase of the body, to the edifying of itself in love: and these God has seen fit, as necessary to call by his grace, and place in the body, that his strength may be made perfect in their weakness, and to confound the mighty; and out of the mouths even of babes and sucklings to ordain strength and praise.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Which seem to be more feeble - Weaker than the rest; which seem less able to bear fatigue and to encounter difficulties; which are more easily injured, and which become more easily affected with disease. It is possible that Paul may here refer to the brain, the lungs, the heart, etc., as more feeble in their structure, and more liable to disease than the hands and the feet, etc., and in reference to which disease is more dangerous and fatal.

Are more necessary - The sense seems to be this. A man can live though the parts and members of his body which are more strong were removed; but not if those parts which are more feeble. A man can live if his arm or his leg be amputated; but not if his brain, his lungs or his heart be removed. So that, although these parts are more feeble, and more easily injured, they are really more necessary to life, and therefore more useful than the more vigorous portions of the frame. Perhaps the idea is - and it is a beautiful thought - that those members of the church which are most retiring and feeble apparently which are concealed from public view, unnoticed and unknown - the humble. the meek, the peaceful, and the prayerful - are often more necessary to the true welfare of the church than those who are eminent for their talent and learning. And it is so. The church can better spare many a man, even in the ministry, who is learned, and eloquent, and popular, than some obscure and humble Christian, that is to the church what the heart and the lungs are to the life. the one is strong. vigorous, active, like the hands or the feet, and the church often depends on them; the other is feeble, concealed, yet vital, like the heart or the lungs. The vitality of the church could be continued though the man of talent and learning should be removed; as the body may live when the arm or the leg is amputated; but that vitality could not continue if the saint of humble and retiring piety, and of fervent prayerfulness, were removed, any more than the body can live when there is no heart and no lungs.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 22. Those members - which seem to be more feeble — These, and the less honourable and uncomely, mentioned in the next verses, seem to mean the principal viscera, such as the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestinal canal. These, when compared with the arms and limbs, are comparatively weak; and some of them, considered in themselves, uncomely and less honourable; yet these are more essential to life than any of the others. A man may lose an eye by accident, and an arm or a leg may be amputated, and yet the body live and be vigorous; but let the stomach, heart, lungs, or any of the viscera be removed, and life becomes necessarily extinct. Hence these parts are not only covered, but the parts in which they are lodged are surrounded, ornamented, and fortified for their preservation and defence, on the proper performance of whose functions life so immediately depends.