What does 1 Corinthians 12:21 Mean?

Verse Meaning

It is interesting that Paul used the head and the feet as examples, the top of the body and the bottom. He may have been reminding those who felt superior that those whom they regarded as inferior were also necessary (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:17-34). Too often because we differ from each other we also differ with each other. [source][source]

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Context Summary

The hand and the foot obviously stand in need of each other; but the same interdependence marks the feebler and humbler parts of our frame. Indeed, it would appear as if we bestow more abundant honor on them by covering them with clothes or ornaments. In this way the least important parts of our nature are leveled up and compensated.

The Apostle's aim throughout this passage is to enforce the interdependence of believers. One gives to others that in which they are deficient, and he derives help from each of them in turn. The Christian Church is not an inert mass of mere learners and subjects who are to be authoritatively taught and ruled by a small fraction of its members. It is a great co-operative society, in which each is for all and all for each, and the object is to bring Christ into every department of our being and our fellowship, as the life-blood nourishes the body of man. A new word has lately come into use, to express the interdependence and mutual interests of men and nations; and nothing could more aptly describe the Apostle's ideal than that word solidarity. [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Corinthians 12

¹  Spiritual gifts,
⁴  are diverse,
⁷  yet to profit all
⁸  And to that end are diversely bestowed;
¹²  as the members of a natural body tend all to the mutual decency,
²²  service,
²⁶  and helpfulness of the same body;
²⁷  so we should do for one another, to make up the body of Christ