What Does 1 Corinthians 12:25 Mean in the King James?
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A body’s unity is shared care that keeps difference from becoming a tear.
THE MEANING
You belong to a body whose wholeness depends on each member remaining within the concern of the others. Care moves across its parts, so one member’s need is held in the attention of all.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that unity requires everyone to be alike, or that another member’s need belongs only to them.
THE ROOT
σχίσμα
schisma
GROWS FROM
σχίζω
schizō
to split or tear
“schism” in this verse is schisma. The Greek word carries the image of a tear running through something joined. In a body, division is not just disagreement between parts; it is a rupture in their shared life.
ALSO GROWS
schizō: to split or tear
σχίζω
The verb makes the image in “schism” concrete: the body is pulled apart.
schistos: split or divided
σχιστός
This related form keeps the focus on a separation made within something that was whole.
μεριμνῶσιν
merimnōsin
GROWS FROM
μεριμνάω
merimnaō
to care about or be concerned for
“care” in this verse is merimnōsin. The verb describes active concern, not merely warm feeling. Its word family also names anxiety, so the verse turns concern outward: each member’s attention reaches toward the others.
ALSO GROWS
merimna: care, concern, or anxiety
μέριμνα
The related noun shows the weight this kind of concern can carry; here it is shared across the body.
merimnaō: to care about or be anxious for
μεριμνάω
The same verb elsewhere describes concern directed toward someone or something; here that concern is directed toward one another.
THE PATTERN
A community’s wholeness is sustained when its members carry concern across the boundaries between them.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.THE THREAD
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.“Divisions” here is the same Greek word family as “schism” in the current verse. The shared root reveals the same concern in both: a tear within the community’s joined life.
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