THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
He continually brings forward the body as an example, and in this way he comforts one and humbles another. I maintain, he says, that the more important members not only need the lower ones, but need them greatly. For what is weak and less honorable among us is also necessary and receives greater care.
He spoke well when he said, "which seem to be," showing that this condition rests not on the nature of things, but on human opinion. Nothing in us is dishonorable, because all is from God.
What among us seems less honorable than the generative members? Yet greater care is shown to them. The poorest people, even if they leave all other parts of the body uncovered, do not permit themselves to expose these members.
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Dishonorable things are not treated in this way. Rather, they ought to be despised more than all else. A dishonored slave in a household not only receives no greater care, but is not even deemed worthy of equal treatment.
Therefore, if these members were dishonorable, they ought not to receive greater care, nor even equal care with the others. Yet now more care is given them, and this happens through the wisdom of God.
God has so ordered things that some members naturally lack nothing. To others we must supply what nature has not given them. Yet for this reason they are not dishonorable.
So animals, by their nature, usually need neither clothing, nor shoes, nor shelter. Yet our body is not more dishonorable than theirs because it needs all these things.
Indeed, if one considers carefully, these members are honorable and necessary by their very nature. The apostle himself hints at this when he judges them not by our attention and great care for them, but by the nature of the matter itself.
When he calls them weak and less honorable, he says, "which seem to be." But when he calls them necessary, he does not add, "which seem to be." He gives his own judgment and says that they are "much more necessary," and rightly so.
They truly are necessary for the begetting of children and the continuation of our race. For this reason Roman legislators punish those who mutilate these members and make themselves eunuchs. They regard them as men who injure the whole human race and mutilate nature itself.
Let corrupt men understand this, those who reproach the works of God. Many curse wine because of drunkards, and womankind because of harlots. So also these members are considered shameful because of those who use them improperly.
But one must not judge in this way. Sin does not depend on the nature of the thing, but arises from the will of those who commit the offense.
Yet some think that Paul here calls the eyes and feet the weaker, less honorable, more delicate members that receive greater care. By the weaker and more necessary members, they understand the eyes. Though weaker in strength, they are superior in use.
By the less honorable members they understand the feet, for much care is also given to them.
Then, lest there be exaggeration on the other side, he says, "But our presentable parts have no need" (1 Cor 12:24). Someone might say, "What then? Must the honorable members be neglected, while the less honorable are cared for?"
He answers that we do this not out of neglect for them, but because they have no need of it. Notice how briefly he praises them and then passes on. In this he acts both fittingly and profitably.
He does not stop there, but adds the reason: "But God," he says, "has composed the body, giving greater care to the part that lacked it, that there should be no division in the body" (1 Cor 12:24-25).
If God has blended the body, He has left no room to distinguish within it what is less honorable. What is blended becomes one. It is no longer seen as what it was before. Otherwise it could not be said to be blended.
And see how everywhere he only lightly touches on defects, saying, "the part that lacked." He did not say, "the dishonorable" or "the shameful," but "the part that lacked." Why did it lack? By nature.
"Giving greater care." For what purpose? "That there should be no division in the body."
Since the Corinthians, after receiving many consolations, still grieved that they had received less, the apostle shows that they received greater honor instead. "To the part that lacked," he says, "He gave greater honor."
Then he gives the reason, showing that God both gave less profitably and honored more. What is the reason? "That there should be no division," he says, "in the body." He did not say, "in the members," but "in the body."
There would truly be great inequality if some members received greater care both from nature and from us, while others had it from neither side. Then they would fall apart, unable to preserve their bond with one another.
If some fell away, the rest also would suffer harm. Do you see how he proved that it was necessary to give more honor to the members that lacked? If it were not so, he says, all alike would perish.
Indeed, if you did not take great care of them, then, since nature does not protect them, they would be injured. Once injured, they would be ruined. Once ruined, they would divide the body into parts.
After the body had been divided, the other and much more important members would also perish. Do you see how care for those members is joined with care for these?
The members have the ground of their being not so much in their own nature as in the fact that they make up one body. Therefore, if the body is destroyed, the separate wholeness of each member will be of no use.
Whether the eye remains whole or the nose is preserved, once the bond is torn apart there will be no benefit. But if the bond remains, then even if they are injured, they hold together and quickly recover.
But perhaps someone will say, "In the body one may indeed say that the members which lacked received greater honor. But how can this be seen among men?" Among men this may be seen all the more.
Those who came at the eleventh hour received the reward first. For the lost sheep, the shepherd left the other ninety-nine, went after it, and when he found it, he carried it and did not drive it.
The prodigal son was deemed worthy of greater care than the one who behaved honorably. The thief was crowned and glorified before the apostles.
The same may be seen in the parable of the talents. The one who received five talents and the one who received two were deemed worthy of the same reward.
The very fact that the latter received two talents is a sign of greater care for him. If five had been given him, he would not have been able to increase them and would have lost everything.
But after receiving two and fulfilling his task, he was deemed worthy of the same reward as the one who gained five. He gained more than that man, because for lesser labors he was granted the same crowns.
Although he was a man like the one who received five talents, the Master does not torment him. He does not compel him to labor as much as the servant like him.
Nor does He say, "Why could you not gain five talents?" He could have said this justly. Yet He crowned him also.
Knowing this, then, let the higher not oppress the lower, lest you suffer harm before they do. For if they are separated, the whole body will be destroyed.
What is a body, if not the union of many members? As the apostle says, "The body is not one member, but many." Therefore, if such is the body, let us strive that the many remain many.
When this is not preserved, a mortal wound will appear. The apostle requires not only that we not be separated from one another, but that we be united in the closest way.
After saying, "that there should be no division in the body," he was not satisfied with this. He added, "but that all the members should have the same care for one another."
Here he presents another reason why more care is given to the lower members. God arranged it not only so that the members would not be separated from one another, but also so that great love and harmony would exist among them.
If each must care for the salvation of his neighbor, then do not speak to me of lower and higher. Here there is no higher and lower.
The difference between members can be seen only while the body remains whole. When it is destroyed, it cannot be seen. And it is destroyed if the lower members are absent.
Therefore, if the important members are injured when the lesser members are injured, the former must care for the lesser as much as for themselves. The preservation of the important members depends on the preservation of the lesser.
Thus, even if you repeat a thousand times that some member is lesser and insignificant, harm will fall upon you. This will happen if you do not care for it as much as for yourself, and neglect it as lesser.
For this reason the apostle did not merely say that the members should care for one another. He added that "all the members should have the same care for one another," meaning that the lesser member should receive exactly the same care as the important one.
Do not say, then, that some member is unimportant. Remember that it is a member of the same body that contains all. The eye and every other member alike make the body a body.
In the structure of the body, no member has precedence over another. The body is not constituted by one member being important and another lesser, but by having many members, and these different.
Just as you, being greater, constitute the body, so another, being lesser, does the same. Therefore, with regard to the body's structure, his smallness has equal honor with you. He contributes to this beautiful whole just as you do.
This is clear from the following. Let there be no important and unimportant member, no honorable and dishonorable member. Let all be an eye, or all be a head. Will not the body perish? This is clear to everyone.
Again, if all were unimportant, the same thing would happen. In this respect the lesser members are equal to the greater. One may say even more.
The lesser member is lesser precisely so that there may be a body. Thus, for your sake it remains lesser, so that you may remain important.