If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. (1Corinthians 12: 19-26)

The Corinthians were divided in many ways: there were Greeks, Romans, Jews, and others; there were slave and free; there was a wide range of economic means. The gathering feartured serious disagreement over religious and social practice. Any division that we find in our contemporary communities of faith seems to have been present at Corinth and probably amplified by the polyglot character of the context.

Differences are good. Dissension is bad. If we listen to our differences, we can learn a great deal even if what we learn only reinforces our difference. Who do we consider less honorable in our community? The uneducated, the immoral, the mentally ill, the perpetually poor? How do we extend greater honour to them? Who do we consider less respectable? How do we treat them with greater respect?

This teaching is in tension with some prior statements in this letter. I do not know how to resolve the tension. But this profound engagement of difference is a recurring theme with Paul. We remain different - eye, ear, finger, nose hair, and toe - but we are to remain in one fully formed and wonderfully arranged body as God intended. When one suffers, we all suffer; when one is honoured, we are all to rejoice... even if I am an eyebrow hair and the one honoured is a toe nail.