Because I Am Not a Hand
"Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don't need you!”"
— 1 Corinthians 12:14-21
Paul wrote this to a young congregation in the Roman port of Corinth. The town was full of freed slaves and self-made men, and rank was on open display. They met in private homes, where the host's dining room seated a handful and the rest sat in the courtyard. A chapter earlier, at their shared supper, some go hungry while others get drunk. Comparing a community to a living organism was a stock move in political speeches. In Rome the tale ran that the limbs struck against the belly, and everyone starved. Its moral told ordinary people to stay where they were and keep working. Paul borrows the picture and breaks the moral. A few lines later he calls the weakest-looking limbs indispensable, and gives the least respectable the greater honor. The gift these people ranked highest was the showiest, speaking in tongues, and Paul puts it last. God set you among these people on purpose, so backing out is not humility.