At Passover we all ate of one bread, the living bread, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51). Pentecost continues and amplifies the theme of unity. "When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). The coming of the Holy Spirit that day marked the beginning of the Church.

Paul used the analogy of the body to represent the unified interdependence of God's Church. "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).

God wants us to recognize our place in the Body, and our need for every other part, "that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it" (1 Corinthians 12:25-26).

In Christ's Body, there is no place for "cutting off our nose to spite our face."