For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  (13) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  (14) For in fact the body is not one member but many.  (15) If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? (16) And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?  (17) If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?  If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?  (18) But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.  (19) And if they were all one member, where would the body be?  (20) But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.  (21) And 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.”  (22) No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.  (23) And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, (24) But our presentable parts have no need.  But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, (25) that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.  (26)  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul occasioned by considerable dissension and false interpretation of the gospel. Corinth was a pagan society – chaotic, immoral, prideful and divided by cults or cliques of personalities with a caste system. The culture there glorified man and sin.  They did not believe that faithful men were equal in the eyes of God and this was especially evident in the matter of spiritual gifts. They falsely claimed spiritual gifts they did not in fact possess – they wanted to be “superior” – to possess the showy gifts and there was no harmony in the church there. They didn’t use the gifts they actually had.  Just as there has to be distinction of the body parts – they can’t do all the same thing –  diversity in the body is not accidental and is the essence of the body and Paul shows that diversity in the church is essential and divine

Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians not to seek spiritual gifts but to accept and rejoice in the design of God and to minister accordingly. They were not to feel inadequate or conversely, proud. To this point, Paul uses the analogy of the body/church just the way it is; each body is an organism of many parts and complete and healthy when all those parts function together – each part is unique but dependent.

The church is not an organization but an organism. It is composed of one and many; unity from diversity like the body. The church is born of the Spirit and united by that one Spirit there are no outsiders – no degrees of importance of significance. There has to be distinction in our gifts as we can’t all do the same thing. For the whole the church needs all the necessary functioning parts.  Seeking gifts we don’t have results in chaos and harm. Our sovereign creator God designed us purposefully – each unique snowflake Christian. This divine appointment is the will and pleasure of God.