For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ [Note: Paul must have originally written “the Church” and the transcribers accidentally blasphemed]. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit [if we are among the truly regenerate].

For the body does not consist of one member but of many [though there are “visible” members that really don’t belong to the body even though they seem attached]. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body [unless he is not elect in which case he actually is right to say he is not part of the body]. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body [unless he is not elect in which case he actually is right to say he is not part of the body]. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” [but if he doubts whether the hand really belongs to the body, that’s just fine] nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” [but if he doubts the feet are truly feet, that’s just fine] On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable [he meant to say, “unregenerate”], and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor [he meant to write, “condemnation”], and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another [once they have assured themselves that the others are really regenerate]. If one member suffers, all suffer together [“the others can find fault”]; if one member is honored, all rejoice together [“the others search for the heresy he is preaching”].

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it [except for those of you who don’t belong].