1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

The Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

The Body as Metaphor

The text from 1 Corinthians is one of several in which the apostle Paul uses the imagery of the body to describe both the unity and diversity of the Body of Christ.

The commentaries on this passage argue as to whether “Body of Christ” is a metaphor, and if so, how detailed or complex is its description of the church. Others argue that the “Body of Christ” is a mystical reality, i.e., the church is the true, embodied presence of Christ on earth.

The use of “body” as a metaphor for how communities or societies were organized was not unknown at the time of Paul’s writing. Menenius Agrippa, a Roman consul had written several centuries earlier that the…