[Like many of my older songs, this one never got recorded. However, a free PDF lead sheet is available here if you’re interested.]
We are all members of one body,
And each of us has a different part to be;
We can’t all be hands and arms
Or the body will not go
Where Christ–the Head–wants the body,
Where Christ–the Head–tells the body,
Where Christ–our Head–tells His body to go.
We are all members of one body,
And each of us has a special part to be;
We can’t all be feet and legs
Or the body will not do
What Christ–the Head–wants the body,
What Christ–the Head–tells the body,
What Christ–our Head–tells His body to do.
We are all necessary members of Christ’s body,
And each of us is an essential part of the whole.
We support and are supported by the rest of the body,
And that is how the body lives and grows.
About This Song:
This song is based on 1 Corinthians 12:12ff. Here’s the passage from the NIV:
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Isn’t that the most amazing passage? It never fails to inspire me. I look at my own meager talents (they seem meager to me, anyhow). I write music. I play guitar, bass guitar, and sing. I write Christian novels, twenty-two of which have been published and I’m currently writing number twenty-three. I like to take and edit pictures and design my own book covers. I enjoy encouraging other people. I believe in the biblical tithe, and I believe in supporting missions. Especially through participation in our church’s weekly nursing home service.
Those things don’t make me special, though. They never will. But using them to minister through my local church, where each of them is needed, is special indeed.
So the fact that I don’t preach, that I get tongue-tied trying to share my witness (except under just the right God-enabled circumstances), and that I don’t serve as a deacon or a Sunday School teacher–none of those things matters. God has called other people–people He has qualified–to perform those tasks. So I would be foolish to ignore the apostle Paul’s advice in this passage about the unity of the church and its many parts and dwell on what I can‘t be and can’t do.
Thank You, Lord, for the talents You’ve given me and the ways You permit me to use them. Help me to develop them to the fullest–and help me to be ever ready to use them. Not so anyone will look at me and say, “Isn’t he special?” but so my part(s) will help the whole to function even more smoothly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What about you? What part do you play in the whole? How about sharing a comment?
As I mentioned earlier, I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.
I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.
Best regards,
Roger
Links you might be interested in:
I’m not sure how obvious it is that “Peace on the Earth!” is a Christmas song, but that’s what I intended when I wrote it forty-some years ago. And I didn’t write it as a solo song for myself, but with vocal parts for a small group.
As I Come Singing. . . 
