After spending time in training for a career or some skill, your teacher or instructor then wants you to go out and practice that skill, to put it to use. The medical student is sent out to be an intern and then a medical resident. The young attorney goes out to practice under a more experienced one. The cook heads into the kitchen to begin baking. None of them just take their diploma and go home and sit on it! That is the same idea that St. Paul gives us today in our Scripture.
In Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, the first eleven chapters were focused on teaching doctrine. Now as we begin chapter 12, Paul will start focusing on practical Christian living. The word “therefore” in verse 1 points back to everything that has been said before in the previous chapters, the doctrines of human sin, justification by faith, union with Jesus Christ, life in the Spirit, and God’s mercy. Now Paul will instruct his readers to respond, and to put all that into practice in their lives.
The first thing that the Apostle tells us to do is to present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice (vs. 1). This pictures in our mind the sheep and oxen that God’s people would bring to the altars, where the priests would then sacrifice them to God. However, unlike the Old Testament sacrifices, this is not for atonement, as Jesus has already accomplished that with His death on the cross. Instead, we present ourselves completely to the Lord as an act of grateful devotion.
Paul then gives us an important instruction, that we must not be conformed to this world, but instead be transformed by renewing our mind in the Lord (vs. 2). Our lives are to be set apart for God. We set ourselves apart by renewing our minds with God’s Word and cleansing our minds from the filth of this world. To follow God’s plan we need to surrender our rights to Him, and embrace His way. Our minds can be changed from being worldly to godly only with a steady application of Scripture. We can find ourselves out of God’s will when we put other things or people ahead of Him.
It is a lie that we have to be like the world in order to win them to Christ. Jesus never compromised His beliefs or moral standards in order to win people to the Father. When Christians compromise, everyone loses. Stop allowing the world to shape you into its mold. Stop giving the outward appearance and lifestyle that is inconsistent with your inner being. Replace old erroneous thought patterns with the truth of God’s Word.
Paul continued by instructing that as we put the faith that we learned into practice, we must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought (vs. 3). Pride destroys unity and usefulness in the church. When people think more highly of themselves than they should, they stop relying upon divine guidance in making decisions. Terrible consequences can often result from such wrong thinking. Pride always drives a person away from God’s path.
The Apostle Paul then, in verses 4-5, used the human body as a metaphor of Christians being part of the body of Christ, something that he did several times in his other Epistles, particularly in I Corinthians 12:12-27. Just as a human body has many different parts, each with its own specific function, the Church has many different members making up the body of Christ, and we each have our God-assigned function of service in the Church.
Paul then concluded this segment of Scripture with listing some of the different gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to believers (vs. 6-8). One is that of prophecy, which is speaking God’s truth with clarity and boldness. This Spirit-empowered proclamation is consistent with Scripture, not any new revelation. Another gift is ministry or service, which meets the needs within the church. A third gift is teaching, which in this instance would be explaining the Scriptures accurately and systematically. Then there is exhortation, which is encouraging, admonishing, and urging believers towards obedience. Paul mentions the gift of giving, which is sharing one’s resources with simplicity and sincerely, without an ulterior motive. There is the gift of leadership, leading the flock with diligence, responsibility, and faithfulness. The last one he mentions is showing mercy, demonstrating compassion with cheerfulness, reflecting Jesus’ heart.
In closing, this Scripture from Romans shows that genuine salvation will lead to a transformed life. Renewing our mind requires the Bible as the final authority for faith and for practice. Surrendering ourselves to God is the most reasonable response to His mercy. As believers, we need to present ourselves to God each day in prayer and obedience, rejecting worldly thinking by saturating our mind with Scripture, and then identifying our spiritual gift and using it for the Lord.
