Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Corinthians 12:16

"And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body." — 1 Corinthians 12:16 (ASV)

Paul now emphasizes the necessity of having diversity in a body for it to operate as one. Each part (such as the eye or the ear) must be willing to perform its own function and not seek to function in a role for which it was not made. The whole body cannot be a single part, or it would not be a functioning body. So it is with the church. Members with one gift should not repudiate that gift and complain that they do not have some other gift. The apostles were to function as apostles, the elders as elders (1 Peter 5:5), the deacons as deacons (Acts 6:1–6), etc.

The logic of v.17 is compelling: no body can function as all seeing, all hearing, or all smelling. So for the church to function properly, it must have different gifts and offices. In vv.18–20 Paul brings the believers back to the sovereign purposes of God. It is God who has organized the human body in the way he wants it, and it is the same with the church; according to his will, its many parts should function as one body—the body of Christ.