CHAPTER 12
12:1-2 - Present your body
12:3-5 - Delusions of Grandeur
12:6-8 - Gifts
12:9-15 - Playing Well With Others
12:16-21 - No Revenge
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
V. 1 - “Therefore” - It naturally follows: Based on the vast riches that are ours in Christ... (Rom. 11:33) Based on that all things are from Him, and through Him, and to Him... (Rom. 11:36)
And,“by the mercies of God” - Everything you are now, everything you will be, are yours because God is merciful. His mercy does not cancel out His judgement, nor His wrath. The penalty of sin is still death (and always will be death). God in His mercy and wisdom has taken that penalty on Himself for you and me. He died for all. We do not have to die the second death. The judgement was executed on Christ Jesus. By His mercy, His righteous judgement is satisfied. He has done for us what we could not.
“Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice” - Most sacrifices required an animal, that had to be killed and placed on the altar. There was no ‘partial commitment’ on the part of the animal sacrificed. Plus the animal had to be pure and unblemished. The animal did not volunteer.
We are called to volunteer ourselves to Jesus. We are ‘bond-slaves’. Just as the animal sacrificed was to be pure and unblemished, we too are to come to Jesus in the same way. Do not offer your service to Jesus if you have unconfessed sin in your life. John says in his letter, “If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)
FORGIVING all our sins, and CLEANSING us of all unrighteousness means we can be holy offerings to Jesus.
“Which is your spiritual service of worship” - Worshipping Jesus is to be in spirit and in truth (See: John 4:23). Presenting yourself is the worship; it is the service. We tend to think of physical activity, Meals on Wheels, mission trips, etc, as service.
Indeed they are. They are manifestations of your faith. The works are meaningless (with respect to salvation and eternity) if you have not believed and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
We are stubborn and stiff-necked people, and seek to be in control of all things in our lives. Our spiritual service of worship is to daily surrender to Jesus.
V. 2 - “do not be conformed to this world” - The opposite of presenting your bodies as living and holy sacrifices. The world is opposed to the ways of the Lord. “because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16) Jesus came to save the world, but the world has rejected Him. The natural state of people, often led and deceived by Satan, is to reject God’s call. “He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him.” (John 1:10) “Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
One of the reasons God instructed the Israelites to get rid of all the Canaanites was He knew the Jews would be corrupted, polluted, conformed to the evil ways of those nations. In 2nd Corinthians Paul says, “Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. 6:14-15) See Note 1 and 2 (below)
“be transformed by the renewing of your mind” - This is not done by dint of effort, your personal effort. The Holy Spirit is in you when you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The renewing comes by surrendering your will to Him. (See: Titus 3:5,6; John 3:3-8; Ezek. 11:19, 36:26) You cannot cling to the old ways of doing things and expect to experience spiritual renewal. Supposedly, Albert Einstein said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (See note 3 below) We do not find God by living according to the world, but living according to His mercy and Holy Spirit.
“so that you may prove what the will of God is” - We usually think of the word “prove” as testing and verifying the truth of a piece of information or theory. We run tests to see if a theory is valid. We lay out facts and reasons to determine is they are true. The ‘prove’ here is closer to discerning what God’s will is for us. God’s will is true and correct - we are often ignorant of what He has planned for us. We need to find out what He wants for us, and then do it. (See: Phil. 2:12)
The Holy Spirit will teach us and lead us so we can “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” (Col. 1:10) Just as you cannot renew your mind by clinging to your sinful ways, you cannot discern God’s will for your life by practicing worldly ways.
“that which is good and acceptable and perfect” - If God is good, His ways is good for you. If God is perfect, HIs will is perfect for you. Our ‘job’ is to find out what God has planned for us. Talk with Him. Read the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you.
***Note 1: some think this is warning Christians against marrying non-believers. I am not sure about that.
Note 2: Paul recommends that a believer is not to divorce a non-believer - assuming married before accepting Christ - so the believer might win the spouse to Christ through godly behavior.
Note 3: several sources attributed this to ‘anonymous’
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