Rom 12:4 | MHM | STEP | vv. 4–5. The body and its members: unity, diversity, and mutual service. Here observe four things: [1.] We, being many, are one body in Christ. All the saints together make up one body, of which Christ is the head and the common centre of unity. Believers lie not in the world as a confused and disorderly heap, but are organised and knit together as they are united to one common head and animated by one common Spirit. [2.] Every one members one of another. Particular believers are constituent parts — members of this body — which marks them as less than the whole and in relation to the whole, deriving life and spirits from the head. Some members of the body are larger and more prominent than others, and each receives nourishment from the head according to its proper proportion. We must remember that we are not the whole; to think so is to think above what is meet; we are but parts and members. [3.] All members have not the same office (v. 4), but each hath its respective place and work assigned it. The office of the eye is to see, the office of the hand is to work; so in the mystical body, some are qualified and called to one sort of work, others are fitted and called to another. Magistrates, ministers, and people in a Christian commonwealth each have their several offices, and must not intrude upon one another nor clash in the discharge of their several callings.

‏ Romans 12:4

vv. 4–5. The body and its members: unity, diversity, and mutual service.

Here observe four things: [1.] We, being many, are one body in Christ. All the saints together make up one body, of which Christ is the head and the common centre of unity. Believers lie not in the world as a confused and disorderly heap, but are organised and knit together as they are united to one common head and animated by one common Spirit.

[2.] Every one members one of another. Particular believers are constituent parts — members of this body — which marks them as less than the whole and in relation to the whole, deriving life and spirits from the head. Some members of the body are larger and more prominent than others, and each receives nourishment from the head according to its proper proportion. We must remember that we are not the whole; to think so is to think above what is meet; we are but parts and members.

[3.] All members have not the same office (v. 4), but each hath its respective place and work assigned it. The office of the eye is to see, the office of the hand is to work; so in the mystical body, some are qualified and called to one sort of work, others are fitted and called to another. Magistrates, ministers, and people in a Christian commonwealth each have their several offices, and must not intrude upon one another nor clash in the discharge of their several callings.