Paul repeats his picture with a second pair, the ear and the eye, so the point cannot be missed. Gill suggests the eye may stand for the ministers of the Gospel, who "are set in the highest place in the church," and the ear for believers who mainly hear and receive the word. Such hearers, he says, "are true and useful members of the church." The question presses the ear to see that being a listener rather than a leader does not put it outside the body.

Again the answer is that the ear still belongs. Paul shows why in the next line: "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?" (1 Corinthians 12:17). The eye needs the ear. Paul then says God has set every member "as it hath pleased him" (1 Corinthians 12:18), and that the members "should have the same care one for another" (1 Corinthians 12:25).

Paul is answering the Corinthians "concerning spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:1). Later he calls them "zealous of spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 14:12). Gill notes that speaking with tongues was "greatly coveted after" among them. In a church that prized the more striking gifts, Paul's questions speak to members whose place seemed quieter.

God designs His church with members who receive as well as members who lead, and both are His work. Paul answers the ear's complaint by showing the eye's limits: a body that was all eye could not hear (1 Corinthians 12:17). Gill says such hearers are "highly respected by Christ the head, and to be had in esteem by their fellow members."

Paul then goes further. God has "tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked" (1 Corinthians 12:24). The lowly member is not merely tolerated. God gives it special honor, "that there should be no schism in the body" (1 Corinthians 12:25).