"And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."
1 Corinthians 12:26
It is nice to be in the place where you belong, where you are welcomed, and where you feel at home. A place where you best not “put on airs,” because people know you; but where you are free to be who you are (in Jesus Christ). What a blessing to be with people that will, when you hurt, hurt along with you; and when you rejoice they rejoice also. As Paul said, they “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep,” (Romans 12:15).
In our verse for today Paul describes a place, a group of people, a body, where this kind of care is to be the norm. It is found in the Church of Jesus Christ, and belonging to the membership of His Body. Because of the relationship that each one in this body has with Jesus, each person is free to care for one other.
In ancient times Hippocrates wrote, in medical terms, of the human body suffering in one part and the whole body “feeling the hurt.”1 Chrysostom stated, “when a thorn enters the heel, the whole body feels it, and is concerned….”2 How many times have you stubbed your toe and your whole body responded to the pain? That’s the picture that our verse shows us. When one part of the body has a problem, the whole body has a problem! The entire body is moved to help the hurting member.
This comradery in the Church body doesn’t end there. When “one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” In the body when one member is honored then all of the members of the body partake in the benefit. So when one member is suffering we all suffer, and when one member is blessed we all take part in the blessing. To say it simply – God’s family suffers together and rejoices together!
1. “Suffer with,” “to suffer or feel pain together.” See Thayer, Thayer’s Greek Definitions, electronic version, in eSword.
2. Jamison-Fausset-and Brown Commentary, electronic version, in eSword.