Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 12:15

"If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body." — 1 Corinthians 12:15 (ASV)

Is it therefore not of the body?—It is better to render this as, It is not on that account not of the body. Consequently, the question mark in the subsequent passages of these verses should also be omitted.

This illustration is very similar to the one found in Livy (Book 2, Chapter 32), the fable of the revolt of the limbs against the belly.

Pope, in his Essay on Man (9), employs the same idea as follows:

“What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear declined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this general frame:
Just as absurd to mourn the fate or pains
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.”