Playing the piano is like being an entire orchestra all by yourself. As I’ve mentioned before, you can play ten notes at once, or even more if your hands are big enough to smash two notes with one finger. You can cover over seven octaves, from lower than a tuba to higher than a piccolo. You can play multiple rhythms at once, such as triplets with the right hand against straight eighths in the left. The dynamic range of a piano, from barely heard to loud enough to cover your ears, beats out nearly all acoustic instruments. The original name was fortepiano, after all, which means ‘loud-soft’ in Italian.
But after learning to the play the cello, I have become aware of how much detail there is in playing even a single note. A cellist must pay attention to the angle at which the bow hits the strings, the tilt of the bow, and the amount of pressure exerted. The direction and speed of the bow stroke must be carefully considered. The precise location of the left hand fingers is crucial to playing the right pitch, while vibrato adds a whole other dimension. The cellist must continue being aware of all these things throughout the duration of the note, subtly changing various aspects to make the note come alive. A single note is a whole endeavor all by itself.
People are that way too. Each person is a whole, unique creation of God, individually made for a specific purpose, and no less or more valuable than any other person. We sometimes get caught up in seeing the church as a whole and forget to pay enough attention to each individual person in the church. This may seem an odd approach to a chapter on unity, but before we can be unified, we must respect each individual member.
1 Corinthians 12 is a comparison of the body of Christ with a human body, made of multiple parts, but still working together as a single body. Despite being about unity, Paul makes sure to note that we need different types of people. Be careful to note that not only are people different, but they must be different in order for the body to work.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
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? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?
1 Corinthians 12:14, 17-19