|
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
for 4 readers
(1 and 2 are at the pulpit and lectern, 3 and 4 stand halfway back
the outer aisles on either side)
1 - Listen to the apostle Paul’s description
of the church,
2 - which he compared to the human body.
3 - Let everyone who has ears,
4 - hear!
(pause)
1 - Just as the body is one and has many
members,
2 - and all the members of the body, though
many, are one body,
3 - so it is with Christ.
4 - For in the one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body –
1 - Jews or Greeks,
2 - slaves or free –
3 - and we were all made to drink of one
Spirit.
4 - Indeed, the body does not consist of one
member but of many.
1 - If the foot would say,
3 - “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong
to the body,”
2 - that would not make it any less a part of
the body.
1 - And if the ear would say,
4 - “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong
to the body,”
2 - that would not make it any less a part of
the body.
1 - If the whole body were an eye, where
would the hearing be?
2 - If the whole body were hearing, where
would the sense of smell be?
3 - But as it is, God arranged the members in
the body, each one of them, as he chose.
4 - If all were a single member, where would
the body be?
1 - As it is, there are many members, yet one
body.
2 - The eye cannot say to the hand,
3 - “I have no need of you,”
1 - nor again the head to the feet,
4 - “I have no need of you.”
2 - On the contrary, the members of the body
that seem to be weaker
3 - are indispensable,
1 - and those members of the body that we
think less honorable
4 - we clothe with greater honor,
3 - and our less respectable members are
treated with greater respect;
2 - whereas our more respectable members do
not need this.
1 - But God has so arranged the body, giving
the greater honor to the inferior member,
2 - that there may be no dissension within
the body,
3 - but the members may have the same care
for one another.
4 - If one member suffers,
1 - all suffer together with it;
2 - if one member is honored,
3 - all rejoice together with it.
4 - Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it.
1 - And God has appointed in the church first
apostles,
2 - second prophets,
3 - third teachers;
4 - then deeds of power,
1 - then gifts of healing,
2 - forms of assistance,
3 - forms of leadership,
4 - various kinds of tongues.
1 - Are all apostles?
2 - Are all prophets?
3 - Are all teachers?
4 - Do all work miracles?
1 - Do all possess gifts of healing?
2 - Do all speak in tongues?
3 - Do all interpret?
4 - But strive for the greater gifts.
scriptue text from
the New
Revised Standard Version
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States
of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
|