“If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?”
The full verse · 1 Corinthians 12:17 · KJV
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Asked by
Paul: the apostle writing to the Corinthians "concerning spiritual gifts" and the church as one body (1 Corinthians 12:1, 12)
Asked to
Corinthians: the believers at Corinth, to whom Paul says, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (1 Corinthians 12:27)
The Scene
Paul has pictured the foot and the ear wrongly deciding they do not belong to the body because they are not the hand or the eye (1 Corinthians 12:15-16).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionNow Paul turns the picture around. Instead of a member that feels too small, he imagines a body made entirely of one honored member. The questions show how absurd that would be: an all-eye body could not hear, and an all-ear body could not smell. Barnes says every part of the body is useful in its own place, and that it would be just as absurd to expect every member of the church to have the same gifts. Gill applies it to a church made up only of ministers, which would have no one left to hear them.
The Response
What Scripture recordsPaul answers with what God has done: "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him" (1 Corinthians 12:18). The body has many senses because God made it that way. The variety is not a problem to fix but God's own choice.
Historical Context
The world behind the wordsPaul is writing "concerning spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:1). He has listed many: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation, all given by one Spirit, "dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Corinthians 12:8-11). The Corinthians were "zealous of spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 14:12). Gill notes that tongues in particular were "greatly coveted after, as a following chapter of this epistle shows."
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThis question shows that God values variety in His people. Paul answers it with God's own choice: He "set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him" (1 Corinthians 12:18). Difference in the church is not an accident or a compromise. It is God's design.
Matthew Henry draws out the absurdity: "What a monster would a body be if it were all ear, or eye, or arm!" A church where everyone had the same gift would not be a stronger church. It would hardly be a body at all. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Look Closer
What point does Paul make by asking where the hearing would be?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
God, You made Your church with many different gifts on purpose; where am I wishing others were more like me, or that I were more like them?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- Do you find it easier to value people whose gifts are like yours? Why do you think that is?
- Tell about a team, family, or church where people's different strengths covered for one another.
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
It is tempting to wish everyone in your church saw, served, and spoke the way you do. Paul's question shows where that leads: a body with no hearing and no sense of smell. The people most unlike you may supply exactly what you lack.
Thank God for the variety around you, and don't press others to copy your gift. This doesn't mean every difference is a gift or that anything goes; Paul is speaking of the gifts the Spirit gives "to profit withal" (1 Corinthians 12:7). Within that, difference is by design. Scripture's own application: Romans 12:4-6
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“Is it therefore not of the body?”
“Is it therefore not of the body?”
“If they were all one member, where were the body?”
“Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?”