1 Corinthians 12 is not about unity; Paul takes that as read, having spent the first four chapters of this letter appealing for unity and showing what that unity is based on.

This chapter is about diversity. It is saying that within the body of Christ there are sorts of different people with all sorts of different gifts, abilities callings, just as within the human body there are all sorts of bits and pieces – eyes, ears, feet, hands, kidneys, brain, and so on – that have different functions. And just as all the parts of the human body are needed and important, so that when one part doesn’t function properly we describe that body as disabled, so each and every Christian is equally important and equally needed within the body of Christ.

Paul’s argument does not really begin with the human body. It begins with God. There is diversity in the Godhead. He is revealed as Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (12:4-6). Because the Christian God is a unity in diversity, so His people on earth will be a unity of diverse people. The Trinity, as a model of community and co-operation, to some extent stands behind every New Testament picture of the church the community of God’s people. The point Paul wants to make is that unity does not mean uniformity. A united church is not one where every member is a clone of the minister or leader. Having established the unity in diversity of the Trinity, Paul goes on to show the same principle at work in the human body (12-27).

The point is not to deliver a treatise on the theology of God, still less to give a basic biology lesson. The point is about gifts. Gifts are a sign of diversity, given to help build a unity of co-operation and creativity within the body of Christ. It is precisely because we are not all the same and don’t all have the same gifts, says Paul, that we can grow as Christian people in God’s world as we meet together, share our experiences and build one another up in our faith (the theme of 1 Corinthians 14). The tragedy is that so many churches force people into a particular mould, saying, in effect, ‘If you want to feel welcome here, you’ve got to be like us.’

This is the opposite of the open, diverse community that Paul was describing in 1 Corinthians 12.