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Romans 12:1-8
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:1-8
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
- NLT … And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.[b]
I beseech you … Paul begs Christians to live a certain way in light of what God did for them.
therefore … Paul’s pattern — to begin a letter with a strong doctrinal section and follow with exhortations to Christian living. The implication is that the Christian living is directly related to Christian doctrine.
by the mercies of God … as we are enabled to do so by God as He works His mercy in us and because of the mercy shown to us by God (as described in Romans 1-11).
Some offer sacrifice in order to obtain mercy … We should offer sacrifice because we have already received mercy. Think of all the mercies of God Paul has explained to us thus far:
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- Justification from the guilt and penalty of sin.
- Adoption in Jesus and identification with Christ.
- Placed under grace, not law.
- Giving the Holy Spirit to live within.
- Promise of help in all affliction.
- Assurance of a standing in God’s election.
- Confidence of coming glory.
- Confidence of no separation from the love of God.
- Confidence in God’s continued faithfulness.
- In light of all this mercy – past, present, and future – Paul begs us to present your bodies a living sacrifice. “We must believe that these Divine mercies have persuasive powers over our wills.” (Newell)
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present your bodies … the reasonable response to God’s mercy towards us … as a kind of priestly service (?) … given that sacrifice is involved
as a living sacrifice … has to do with the way we use our bodies as we live (while we are living).
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- First century people, both Jews and pagans, knew first-hand what sacrifice was all about. To beg that they make themselves a living sacrifice was a striking image.
- The sacrifice is living because it is brought alive to the altar.
- The sacrifice is living because it stays alive at the altar; it is ongoing.
- First century people, both Jews and pagans, knew first-hand what sacrifice was all about. To beg that they make themselves a living sacrifice was a striking image.
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The word “bodies” is used, but we should think more of lives … seeing “body” as a reference to one’s entire being, given that a person’s spirit, soul, flesh, and mind, we understand them, each lives in his/her body.
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- If you present/give your body to God, then your spirit and soul go with it. When Paul exhorts us to present our bodies, he is telling us that God want us, not just we do. A person may do all kinds of things for God … and still not give himself to God. (Guzik)
- An ancient Greek never thought of presenting his body to God. They thought the body was so unspiritual that God didn’t care about it. Paul shows here that God is concerned about our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:20 reminds us that God bought our bodies with a price. (Guzik)
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holy, acceptable to God … When we offer our body, God intends it to be a holy and acceptable sacrifice. The standard for sacrifices made to God under the New Covenant are not any less than the standard under the Old Covenant. In the Old Testament, every sacrifice had to be holy and acceptable to God …
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- Leviticus 1:10 He shall bring a male without blemish
- Deuteronomy 15:21 But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God
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reasonable service … The Greek word for reasonable (logikos) can also be translated “of the word” (as it is in 1 Peter 2:2). “reasonable service” is a life of worship according to God’s Word. (Guzik)
The sacrifice of an animal was reasonable service, but only for the one bringing the sacrifice – not for the sacrifice itself. Under the New Covenant we have far greater mercies, so it is reasonable to offer a far greater sacrifice. (Guzik)
Romans 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
- NLT … Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
do not be conformed to this world: … don’t copy this world … don’t try to fit in … if it means compromising your values.
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- There may be a way of fitting in without compromising … which is how Paul was able to become “all things to all men” (See 1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
this world … this “world system” – the popular culture and manner of thinking (which is really anti-God). To conform to this world is to live according to an ungodly pattern … and that process must be resisted.
be transformed by the renewing of your mind … This is the opposite of being conformed to this world.
transformed … The Greek word translated as “transformed” is metamorphoo – describing a metamorphosis. It reminds of a caterpillar changing to become a butterfly.
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- The same word is used to describe Jesus in His transfiguration (Mark 9:2-3). This is a glorious transformation! … The only other place Paul uses this word for transformed is in 2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. For Paul, this transformation and renewing of our minds takes place as we behold the face of God, spending time in His glory. (Guzik)
- The battle ground between conforming to the world and being transformed is within the mind of the believer. Christians must think differently. (Guzik)
by the renewing of your mind … the way to be transformed
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- The problem with many Christians is they live life based on feelings, or they are only concerned about doing.
- The life based on feeling says, “How do I feel today? How do I feel about my job? How do I feel about my wife? How do I feel about worship? How do I feel about the preacher?” This life by feeling will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind. (Guzik)
The life based on doing says, “Don’t give me your theology. Just tell me what to do. Give me the four points for this and the seven keys for that.” This life of doing will never know the transforming power of God, because it ignores the renewing of the mind. (Guzik)
God is never against the principles of feeling and doing. He is a God of powerful and passionate feeling and He commands us to be doers. Yet feelings and doing are completely insufficient foundations for the Christian life. The first questions cannot be “How do I feel?” or “What do I do?” Rather, they must be “What is true here? What does God’s Word say?” (Guzik)
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God: As we are transformed on the inside, the proof is evident on the outside, as others can see what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is through our life.
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- According to the EnduringWord Commentary …
i. Paul here explains how to live out the will of God: …
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- Keep in mind the rich mercy of God to you – past, present, and future (by the mercies of God) …
- As an act of intelligent worship, decide to yield your entire self to Him (present your bodies a living sacrifice) …
- Resist conformity to the thoughts and actions of this world (do not be conformed).
- By focus on God’s word and fellowship with Him (be transformed by the renewing of your mind).
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ii. Then, your life will be in the will of God. Your life will prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
iii. You may know what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, but you can’t prove it in your life apart from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
According to William Barclay …
THE TRUE WORSHIP AND THE ESSENTIAL CHANGE
Romans 12:1-2
Brothers, I call upon you, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies to him, a living, consecrated sacrifice, well-pleasing to God–for that is the only kind of worship which is truly spiritual. And do not shape your lives to meet the fleeting fashions of this world; but be transformed from it, by the renewal of your mind, until the very essence of your being is altered, so that, in your own life, you may prove that the will of God is good and well pleasing and perfect.
Here we have Paul following the pattern he always followed when he wrote to his friends. He always ends his letters with practical advice. The sweep of his mind may search through the infinities, but he never gets lost in them; he always finishes with his feet firmly planted upon the earth. He can, and does, wrestle with the deepest problems which theology has to offer, but he always ends with the ethical demands which govern every man.
“Present your bodies to God,” he says. There is no more characteristically Christian demand. We have already seen that that is what a Greek would never say. To the Greek, what mattered was the spirit; the body was only a prison-house, something to be despised and even to be ashamed of. No real Christian ever believed that. The Christian believes that his body belongs to God just as much as his soul does, and that he can serve him just as well with his body as with his mind or his spirit.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the instrument through which the Holy Spirit works. After all, the great fact of the incarnation basically means that God did not grudge to take a human body upon himself, to live in it and to work through it. Take the case of a church or a cathedral. It is built for the offering of worship to God. But it has to be designed by the mind of some architect; it has to be built by the hands of craftsmen and of labouring men; only then does it become a shrine where men meet to worship. It is a product of the mind and the body and the spirit of man.
“So,” Paul says, “take your body; take all the tasks that you have to do every day; take the ordinary work of the shop, the factory, the shipyard, the mine; and offer all that as an act of worship to God.” The word in Rom. 12:1 which we along with the Revised Standard Version have translated worship, has an interesting history. It is latreia, the noun of the verb latreuein. Originally latreuein meant to work for hire or pay. It was the word used of the labouring man who gave his strength to an employer in return for the pay the employer would give him. It denotes, not slavery, but the voluntary undertaking of work. It then came to mean quite generally to serve; but it also came to mean that to which a man gives his whole life. For instance, a man could be said latreuein kallei, which means to give his life to the service of beauty. In that sense, it came very near meaning to dedicate one’s life to. Finally, it came to be the word distinctively used of the service of the gods. In the Bible it never means human service; it is always used of service to and worship of God.
Here we have a most significant thing. True worship is the offering to God of one’s body, and all that one does every day with it. Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him, not something transacted in a church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. As Whittier wrote:
“For he whom Jesus loved hath truly spoken: The holier worship which he deigns to bless, Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken, And feeds the widow and the fatherless.”
A man may say, “I am going to church to worship God,” but he should also be able to say, “I am going to the factory, the shop, the office, the school, the garage, the locomotive shed, the mine, the shipyard, the field, the byre, the garden, to worship God.”
This, Paul goes on, demands a radical change. We must not be conformed to the world, but transformed from it. To express this idea he uses two almost untranslatable Greek words–words which we have taken almost sentences to express. The word he uses to be conformed to the world is suschematizesthai; its root is schema, which means the outward form that varies from year to year and from day to day. A man’s schema is not the same when he is seventeen as it is when he is seventy; it is not the same when he goes out to work as when he is dressed for dinner. It is continuously altering. So Paul says, “Don’t try to match your life to all the fashions of this world; don’t be like a chameleon which takes its colour from its surroundings.”
The word he uses for being transformed from the world is metamorphousthai. Its root is morphe, which means the essential unchanging shape or element of anything. A man has not the same schema at seventeen and seventy, but he has the same morphe; a man in dungarees has not the same schema as a man in evening dress, but he has the same morphe; his outward form changes, but inwardly he is the same person. So, Paul says, to worship and serve God, we must undergo a change, not of our outward form, but of our inward personality. What is that change? Paul would say that left to ourselves we live a life kata sarka, dominated by human nature at its lowest; in Christ we live a life kata Christon or kata pneuma, dominated by Christ or by the Spirit. The essential man has been changed; now he lives, not a self-centred, but a Christ-centred life.
This must happen, Paul says, by the renewal of your mind. The word he uses for renewal is anakainosis (GSN0342). In Greek there are two words for new–neos and kainos. Neos means new in point of time; kainos means new in point of character and nature. A newly manufactured pencil is neos; but a man who was once a sinner and is now on the way to being a saint is kainos. When Christ comes into a man’s life he is a new man; his mind is different, for the mind of Christ is in him.
When Christ becomes the centre of life then we can present real worship, which is the offering of every moment and every action to God.