If each member withholds assistance from the other, the whole thing must go to pieces. The eyes won’t see, the hands won’t take hold. Where, however, each member extends assistance equally to the whole body, it is built up and grows and there is peace and unity, yea, each member takes care of the other. ln brief, equal care, sadness and joy, and peace are at hand. It is just the same in the spiritual body of Christ. If the deacon of the community will never serve, the teacher will not teach, the young brother will not be obedient, the strong will not work for the community but for himself, and each one wishes to take care of himself and if once in a while someone withdraws without profit to himself, the whole body is divided.

An early Anabaptist reflects on Paul’s metaphor of the church as the body of Christ.