25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
In verses 25-27 of the tenth chapter of Paul's 1st epistle to the Corinthians Paul beautifully compares us to a body. He illustrates the body and how there are different parts that have their own purpose but all of the parts work and function together in harmony, this is a great application of the topic of invention of parts/whole. The scripture reference is also a metaphor, representing us and our relationship with Christ. We aren't literally the body of Christ, but are a in integral part of His work and purpose, as though we were a part of His body, and play our own part that contributes to some form of a harmonious whole, as our bodies do. The use of a metaphor extends the meaning of these brief verses to something far more profound than simply saying something like, "...we all have a part to play, and jobs to do for Christ..." Obviously there is more meaning than that, but that's the beauty of the metaphor, through the metaphor Paul talks about Charity, Christ's work and purpose, and the role that we play in it all!
Good post Austin. I think metaphor and whole/parts are the key topics of invention in many scriptural passages.I believe this is mostly because we are talking about things of another world and in order to understand the big picture we must speak of it metaphorically as well as break it down into smaller parts that are more readily recognized
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good example of metaphor because Paul lets the reader make the connections between the body and the church by him/herself. He doesn't over elaborate or explain. There is also an example of parallelism in verse 26. When one member _____, all the members_______ is repeated. Overall great post!
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