We Need Each Other A Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

We Need Each Other

A Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

For just as the body is one and has many kinds of members and all the members of the body, thought many, are one one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - healthy, wise, disabled, slow learners, and all were made to drink of one Spirt.

For the church does not consist of one kind of member, but of many. If the person in a wheelchair said, "Becuae I am not able to walk, I cannot belong to the church with no ramps," that would not make him/her any less a part of the body. And a person with Down Syndrome felt that, because she/he could not fit into the church's education program, she/he did not belong to the church, that would not make her/him any less a part of the body.

If the whole church were teachers, where would the learners be? If the whole church were well off, where would the needy be? As it is, God arranged the kinds of people in a church, each one of them, as He chose. If all were a single kind, where would the church be?

As it is, many kinds of people are needed, yet there is one church. People who are able to read the creeds cannot say to the nonreaders, "we really don't need you." Nor can folks who are emotionally stable say that they don't need those who are emotionally ill. On the contrary, the people of the church who seem weaker are indispensable. Those people who are handicapped in some way, we invest greater honor. And those who are disfigured are treated with the modesty which those who are handsom do not require. This is how God has composed the church, giving greater honor to those who have disabilities, so that there may be no discord in the membership, and that members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored all rejoice together.[Author Unknown].

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