Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

William Burkitt's Expository Notes

1 Corinthians 12:27

Our apostle having thus finished his elegant and excellent comparison between the members of the natural, and those of the mystical body; he comes now to make. particular and close application of it to the believing Corinthians, whom he acknowledges to be. part of the mystical body of Christ; and that it is their duty to carry themselves towards their fellow-members as the members of the body natural do towards each other, who are evermore solicitous for the good of one another.

Now, says he, Ye are the members of Christ; as if he had said, Thus must it be with you who are the several members of Christ's church, which is his body.

From the whole of this comparison, with the apostle's application of it, we learn,

1. That as there can be no natural body without divers members, so no mystical body without diversity of gifts and offices.

2. That as the more inferior members of the natural body are as truly members of the natural body are as truly members as the most noble; and as necessary and servicable to the body as the other; so are inferior Christians as much the members of Christ's body, and in their place as useful and necessary, as other members of Christ's body, and in their place as useful and necessary, as other members of the church which are more excellent in spiritual gifts.

Learn, 3. That as all the members of the natural body are placed and disposed according to the wisdom and pleasure of Almighty God; in like manner the members of Christ's mystical body are, by the unerring wisdom of God, placed in the station and condition in the church in which he has set them, and accordingly they ought to be satisfied with it, and endeavour to be useful in it.

Learn, 4. That as there is no division in the members of the natural body, but all the members of the natural body, but all the members take care of, and are employed for, the good of the whole; so ought matters to be managed in the body mystical, that there be no divisions nor separate interests in it, but they should mutually regard the common interests of one another, sympathizing, sorrowing, and rejoicing together.

O happy day! when the interests of all parties, and private concernments, shall give place to public interests.

Continues after advertising

See also 1 Corinthians 12:27 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse 27. _NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST_] The apostle, having finished his apologue, comes to his application. As the members in the human body, so the different members of the mystical body of Chr...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    NOW YE - Ye Christians of Corinth, as a part of the whole church that has been redeemed. ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST - The allusion to the human body is here kept up. As all the members of the human body c...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    2. THE BODY AND THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY CHAPTER 12 _ 1. Concerning spiritual manifestations and diversities of gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:1 .)_ 2. The Body and its members. (1 Corinthians 12:12 .) In...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    Paul now elaborates an illustration from the body and its members. Here we have organic unity with diversity of function and interdependence of the whole and its parts, interdependence also of the par...

  • Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT)

    Just as the body is one, although it has many members, and just as all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by the one Spirit we have all been baptized i...

  • Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT)

    THE CONFESSION OF THE SPIRIT (1 Corinthians 12:1-3)...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    THE BODY. There is no art. because _soma_ is the predicate. Compare 1 Corinthians 3:16. IN PARTICULAR. Greek. _ek_ (App-104.) _merous._ The meaning is "Each in his part", as Revised Version m....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular_ We here return to the proposition of 1 Corinthians 12:12, rendered more definite and intelligible by what has since been said. The Apostle no...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Comparison of the Unity of the Body and the Unity of the Christian Church 12. _For as the body is one, and hath many members_ This simile is a very common one. It is used on several occasions by the A...

  • Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges Commentary

    ὙΜΕΙ͂Σ ΔΈ ἘΣΤΕ ΣΩ͂ΜΑ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ͂. We here return to the proposition of 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, rendered more definite and intelligible by what has since been said. The Apostle now says (1) that collectiv...

  • Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges Commentary

    COMPARISON OF THE UNITY OF THE BODY AND THE UNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH...

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _MEMBERS THAT LOVE ONE ANOTHER 1 CORINTHIANS 12:27-31:_ In the close of this chapter we will see the application Paul made concerning the spiritual gifts given in the one body. The church is composed...

  • Charles Rose Commentaries

    ΈΚ ΜΈΡΟΥΣ (G1537; G3313) от части. Здесь это выражение значит "индивидуально" (Barrett)....

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST.— Dr. Heylin renders this, _Thus ye are the body of Christ; each being a particular member, which God has placed in the church;_ (1 Corinthians 12:28.) _as, first, apostl...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    APPLEBURY'S COMMENTS _Maintaining the Unity of the Church_ (12-31) _Text_ 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    BUTLER'S COMMENTS SECTION 3 Singleness in Diversity (1 Corinthians 12:27-31) 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, s...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR - i:e. severally members of it. Each church is in miniature what the whole aggregate of churches is collectively - ...

  • Concordant Commentary on the New Testament by A. E. Knoch

    13 The body of Jesus, or of the Lord, denotes His physical frame. The body of Christ, however, is quite a distinct thought. Christ, or the Anointed, is a title rather than a name. It suggests official...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    _(E) SPIRITUAL GIFTS_ In the early Church various powers, faculties, and graces were bestowed on individual Christians by the Holy Spirit. Some of these were distinctly miraculous, such as prophecy, t...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST] true of individual Churches, as here; and of the Church universal (Ephesians 1:23). MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR] i.e. each in his place; RV 'severally members thereof.'...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    SERVANTS OF CHRIST 1 CORINTHIANS _HILDA BRIGHT_ CHAPTER 12 *SPIRITUAL GIFTS 12:1-31 1. JESUS IS *LORD 12:1-3 V1 Now about the *Holy Spirit’s gifts, *brothers and *sisters, I do not want to leav...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    NOW. — We have here in general terms the application of the foregoing illustration, the detailed application of which follows in 1 Corinthians 12:28. The Apostles were those selected by our Lord Himse...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER 18 CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS This Epistle is well fitted to disabuse our minds of the idea that the primitive Church was in all respects superior to the Church of our own day. We turn page a...

  • Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

    The figure of _the body_, developed from 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 with deliberation and completeness, is now applied in detail to the Church, where the same solidarity of manifold parts and powers obtai...

  • Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

    1 Corinthians 12:21-31 _a_. § 41. THE MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF THE BODY'S MEMBERS. Multiformity, it has been shown, is of the essence of organic life. But the variously endowed members, being needful to t...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    EACH CONTRIBUTING HIS PART 1 Corinthians 12:20 The hand and the foot obviously stand in need of each other; but the same interdependence marks the feebler and humbler parts of our frame. Indeed, it w...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Now the apostle turned from the corrective section of his letter to the constructive as he proceeded to deal with the spiritualities which negative the carnalities. These are those of the unifying Spi...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    Division Is Undesirable Clearly, the facts Paul presented proved God created the body in such a way that division is undesirable. Every member of the physical body feels for the other members. If one...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in (s) particular. (s) For all churches, wherever they are dispersed through the whole world, are different members of one body....

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Members of members. [2] The sense seems to be, you are members of the particular Church of Corinth, which is only a part or member of the whole boy of the Christian Catholic Church. This is agreeable...

  • Godet's commentary on Luke, John, Romans, 1 Corinthians

    “Now ye are a body of Christ, and members in particular.” This verse gives the reason why the parable of the human body may be applied to the readers. They are a _body of Christ_, not _the_ body of C...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (27) Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. (28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of heal...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    As usual, the introductory words (1 Corinthians 1:1-3) of the epistle give us no little intimation of that which is to follow. The apostle speaks of himself as such "called [to be] an apostle of Jesus...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    27._But ye are the body of Christ _Hence what has been said respecting the nature and condition of the human body must be applied to us; for we are not a mere civil society, but, being ingrafted into...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The other branch of the truth, in reference to the assembly of God in general and to the assemblies, is the presence and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These, as well as the Lord's supper, are in connec...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST,.... Not his natural body, which his Father prepared for him, in which he bore our sins on the tree, and which was offered up once for all; nor his sacramental body, or t...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. Ver. 27. _Now ye are, &c._] St Cyprian's sympathy is remarkable, _Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, moeroris et funeris pondera luctuosa parti...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Now ye_ Believers at Corinth; _are the body of Christ_ A part of it, not the whole body; _and members in particular_ That is, each believer is a particular member thereof, and ought to behave himself...

  • Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament (1851)

    YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST; ye, the whole body of believers, constitute the one spiritual body of Christ. MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR; each individual is a member of Christ's body, having his particular off...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST AND MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR....

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The spiritual meaning of the comparison:...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    The Lord's supper has been first considered, being the most important of all gatherings, because it is for the united expression of the affections of the saints toward Him. Now ministry toward the sai...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND SEVERALLY MEMBERS THEREOF. 'This sentence, which ties all the preceding pieces together, spells out what the Corinthians must have known right along, that the foreg...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    27-31 Contempt, hatred, envy, and strife, are very unnatural in Christians. It is like the members of the same body being without concern for one another, or quarrelling with each other. The proud, c...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    OLBGrk; Considering you in the whole as a church, so YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST: considering you particularly as individual believers, so ye are MEMBERS of Christ. Some think ek merouv signifies in par...

  • McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries

    Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof. [The hands and face have no need of adornment, but the rest of the body, being less comely, is made beautiful with clothing, so that a sta...

  • NT Verse References in the Ante-Nicene Fathers

    Tertullian On Modesty " And, accordingly, why excuse it on the ground of pristine precedent? It did not bear the names of "body of Christ,"[75] Origen Commentary on John Book X on the foundation of...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    1 Corinthians 12:27 Now G1161 you G5210 are G2075 (G5748) body G4983 Christ G5547 and G2532 members G3196

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    'Now you (the 'you' is emphatic) are the body of Christ, and severally members of it. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    SPIRITUAL GIFTS FOR THE WELL-BEING OF CHRIST AND HIS BODY (12:1-14:33). Paul now begins his reply to their question about spiritual gifts ('concerning spiritual things') and immediately gives an initi...

  • Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary on the NT (4 vols)

    1 Corinthians 12:27. NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND SEVERALLY MEMBERS THEREOF and so what is true of the natural is analogously true of the spiritual body. From the foregoing general statements t...

  • Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament

    SEVERALLY (εκ μερους). See Romans 11:25 απο μερους (in part). Each has his own place and function in the body of Christ....

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    1 Corinthians 12:27 I. The Church is the body in which Christ dwells as the soul, lighting up the body with His Divine presence, the organisation of this tabernacle being the sanctified tabernacle of...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    1 Corinthians 12:12. _For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one b...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    1 Corinthians 12:1. _Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led._ Although the mem...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ, for ministry and worship. CHARACTERS: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Paul. CONCLUSION: The Body of Christ in the world is for the service for, and manifesta...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    1 Corinthians 12:1. _Now concerning spiritual gifts,_ and gifts promised to old men, to young men, and to handmaids, according to Joel 2:28, I would now speak, in the third part of this epistle, and a...

  • The Bible Study New Testament

    ARE CHRIST'S BODY. "By your baptism into union with Christ, you become part of the ONE church or body, of which Christ is the head, soul, and ruler; and considers things done to parts of that body as...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Niw ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular._ THE BODY OF CHRIST I. True Christians, as the body of Christ, manifest His personal presence among men. In Christ incarnate “God was manif...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant._ SPIRITUAL GIFTS The particular gifts to which St. Paul was referring were not exactly as a whole like anything that is to be...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 1 CORINTHIANS 12:1 Some Corinthian Christians seem to have been creating divisions over spiritual gifts. Paul’s use of the body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12

  • The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide

    CHAPTER 12 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER In this and the two following Chapter s S. Paul discusses Christian gifts and graces. In this chapter he points out I. That gifts are variously distributed by the...

  • The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide

    . _Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular._ The Latin version gives "members of the member." This is explained (1.) by S. Thomas: "You are members of the principal member, viz., Chri...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _CRITICAL NOTES_ 1 Corinthians 12:1.—GIFTS is a translators’ supplement; right in fact, as 1 Corinthians 12:4 show; slightly too precise in word. Almost certainly _neuter_, and so very general, “_spir...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION 1 Corinthians 12:1.—1 Corinthians 14:1.—ON SPIRITUAL GIFTS, AND THE DANGER WHICH AROSE FROM THE

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant (1 Corinthians 12:1). An interesting statement of Paul, because I think that in the church one of the areas where the gre...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Corinthians 12:12; 1 Corinthians 12:14; Colossians 1:24; Ephesians 1:23;...

  • Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament (4 Volume Set)

    In particular [ε κ μ ε ρ ο υ ς]. Rev., better, severally. Each according to his own place and function. See on part, Romans 11:25....

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS 1 Corinthians 12:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1. A contrast between the spiritual and the carnal in Abram and Lot (Genesis 18:1 and Genesis 19:1). 2. A contrast between

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Now ye — Corinthians. Are the body and members of Christ — part of them, I mean, not the whole body....

Continues after advertising

Old Testament