Because I Am Not a Hand
“Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 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 stop being part of the body. 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? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don't need you!””
— 1 Corinthians 12:14-21 (NIV)
Paul wrote this to a young congregation in the Roman port of Corinth. The town was full of freed slaves and self-made men, and rank was on open display. They met in private homes, where the host's dining room seated a handful and the rest sat in the courtyard. A chapter earlier, at their shared supper, some go hungry while others get drunk. Comparing a community to a living organism was a stock move in political speeches. In Rome the tale ran that the limbs struck against the belly, and everyone starved. Its moral told ordinary people to stay where they were and keep working. Paul borrows the picture and breaks the moral. A few lines later he calls the weakest-looking limbs indispensable, and gives the least respectable the greater honor. The gift these people ranked highest was the showiest, speaking in tongues, and Paul puts it last. God set you among these people on purpose, so backing out is not humility.
Next to the people around you, what you bring feels like nothing. Maybe someone else runs the house, someone else does the talking, and in the group chat you are one more name. Or it goes the other way. You do the most and none of it seems to count. Or nobody asks you for anything any more, and you wonder what you are still here for. Either way you stop offering, and nobody pushed you out. You did not choose these people or your own abilities. God put you here, and standing back does not change that.
Give What You Have to Hand
- 1Pick one person today and do for them the thing you are good at, without waiting to be asked: cook a meal, fix what has been sitting broken for months, hear them out to the end, or drive them where they have to be. Don't apologise for it being small.
- 2If there is nobody to cook for or fix anything for today, call one person and do what you are good at down the phone: hear them out to the end, or help them sort something. You can also write to them and name the thing that works because of them.
God, you put me among the people I live and work with, and I did not pick them myself. I keep measuring myself against them and deciding I am not needed. I am sorry for going quiet and holding back what I had to give. Show me one person today and one plain thing I can do for them. Give me the nerve to do it without calling it nothing. Amen.
God put me among these people, so today I will give them what I have.
Why did Paul compare a community to a body?
It was a stock image in Roman political speech. The best known version has the limbs going on strike against the belly until everyone starves, and its moral told ordinary people to stay where they were and keep working. Paul keeps the picture and reverses the moral: a few lines later, in verses 22 to 24, the weakest-looking parts are called indispensable and the least respectable are given the greater honor.
What was going on in Corinth when this was written?
The congregation met in private homes, where the host's dining room seated only a handful of guests and everyone else sat out in the courtyard, so the seating itself sorted people by rank. A chapter earlier, at their shared supper, some went hungry while others got drunk (1 Corinthians 11:21). They had also started ranking each other by gift, with the showiest gift on top.
Is this only for people who feel they are not needed?
No. Verse 21 turns it the other way: the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" So it speaks just as directly to anyone who has quietly written off what the person next to them brings.