12 | The 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. |
13 | For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body ― whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free ― and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. |
14 | Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. |
15 | If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. |
16 | And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. |
17 | If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? |
18 | But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. |
19 | If they were all one part, where would the body be? |
20 | As it is, there are many parts, but one body. |
21 | The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" |
22 | On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, |
23 | and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, |
24 | while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, |
25 | so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. |
26 | If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. |