²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ,^(A) and each one of you is a part of it.^(B)

¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ^(A) may be built up^(B)

³⁰ for we are members of his body.^(A)

Paul’s Labor for the Church

²⁴ Now I rejoice^(A) in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,^(B) for the sake of his body, which is the church.^(C)

²³ which is his body,^(A) the fullness of him^(B) who fills everything in every way.^(C)

⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body,^(A) and each member belongs to all the others.

¹⁸ And he is the head^(A) of the body, the church;^(B) he is the beginning and the firstborn^(C) from among the dead,^(D) so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church,^(A) his body, of which he is the Savior.

¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.^(A)

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^(B) the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.^{(C) 19} If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.^(D)