I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.(ESV)
The goal of the verse is to get the reader to present or offer up their body as a sacrifice that is living and is also holy and acceptable (or pleasing- Greek is Euarestos) to God, and this will be your
logikos latreiða. You may find yourself thinking, “huh?!?!?!” Well
latreiða means, essentially, an act of service or worship, something that is performed or carried out.
logikos is translated as spiritual, but also as logical and reasonable. We often feel that it is necessary to differentiate between the two but it does not need to be so, especially in this case. Paul is talking about something that should involve all of our being, our mind, soul, body, intellect, everything. Whatever the case may be, the offering up of our bodies as a living sacrifice is very important and should involve every part of our being. Our sacrifice should be a complete offering of ourselves that will be holy and pleasing to God and that will be our reasonable, logical, and spiritual act of worship. It will be our worship and service to God that involves all of who we are and it will be our worship and service that is pleasing and acceptable to God.
What i am wondering, though, is what does it mean to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice? How do you do that? Well, he starts by saying, “in view of God’s mercies” or “by God’s mercies” and we could say, because of His mercy to do this thing. Maybe it means “realizing how merciful and compassionate God has been to you, you offer up your bodies as living sacrifices.” It could be taken as simply “do this because God did this” or “God did this for you, so you do this for God.” OK, we’re getting somewhere. What is God’s act of mercy? Well, not giving us what we worked hard for, which is an eternity away from Him, and wiping away every sin from our record. That is pretty merciful. Allowing myself to be presented to Him, clean and purified, though i had made myself filthy, that is mercy. Allowing me to dwell in His courts, that is mercy. Saving me: merciful. Adopting me: merciful. Healing me: merciful. Taking the time to hear my prayers: merciful. He is merciful. His greatest act of mercy? The sacrifice of His Son. How can we be merciful to God? Matthew’s gospel has a parable told by Jesus about the final judgment in which He based judgment on how well the one before Him fed Jesus when He was hungry, clothed Jesus when He was naked, gave Jesus drink when He was thirsty, visited Jesus when He was sick, welcomed Jesus when He was a stranger, or visited Jesus when He was in prison. The person before the judgment seat asked Jesus, “When did we see You like that?” Jesus answered them with, “Those people around you who need these things that get overlooked, they were all me. Every time you took care of those people, you were taking care of Me. Every time you ignored those people in need, you ignored Me.” (all my paraphrase, mind you) So how can we be merciful to God? Be merciful to those who need mercy all around us. How can we show God compassion? Be compassionate towards those who need it. Forgive those who need it. Feed those who need it. Visit those who need it. Notice i have not said anything about giving to those who deserve it. That wasn’t the example of Jesus. Jesus said “do to the least” and in that group of the least there are many people who do not deserve to be treated well because of actions that they have taken towards others, but they still need it. Some homeless drug addict that has wasted their life on cheap thrills and booze may not deserve a second chance, or third or fourth or one-hundredth, but they need it. An honest look at our life will show that we did not deserve God’s grace, but we needed it and that is exactly why we now have it. It isn’t about how well these that are the least will repay those that helped for the help that was given them. Is it possible to repay God for saving us? No. It isn’t done out of a feeling of what i will get out of this or someone owing us, it is done because of the need. It also isn’t done because you think that the person will finally make something of themselves. No one (with the exception of Jesus) has ever lived up to their potential. No one has ever gone through periods of time that they haven’t shown themselves to be a disappointment to their Creator and Savior. God’s mercy is perfect because with it comes unlimited patience towards us who fail continually. God is merciful because we need it, not because we deserve it or because He thinks we can make something of ourselves (which He does anyway) or because of how we will repay Him (which He knows is impossible to do). He gives because we need. We give because they need. It may cost us money, time (which is money according to many), energy, tears, back pain, patience. It may cause us to sacrifice parts of ourselves. It may cause sacrifice. It will cause us to sacrifice parts of our lives. We will, in essence, be sacrificing our lives to serve others and to give to those in need the things that they need. Look again at that verse in Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual (reasonable) worship.” What is a living sacrifice? It is our efforts, energies, and sacrifices of our time and money; viewing the needs of others as more valuable than our conveniences that we center our life on. We do it thinking about what God has done for us, His mercy and compassion, His grace towards us, and His love. We do it because we see Jesus in the sick, the injured, the hungry, the thirsty, and the homeless, those in prison, even those whose lifestyles we may condemn who need the loving kindness of Jesus rather than our scorn and contempt. When we do this, we have worshiped. This isn’t my word or opinion; this is the word of Paul being guided by the Holy Spirit speaking as and for God. This is our worship. It isn’t what happens within the walls of our meeting house (although it can). It happens everywhere there are people in need. It is required of us. The prophet Micah said (in the 6th chapter of Micah’s prophecy)
6"With what shall i come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall i come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall i give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
8He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
We are to worship God, giving Him the best we have to offer, our lives. When we celebrate Him, when we sing songs of praise and offer up prayers of thanksgiving, is it coming from the hearts of those who have done what God requires and expects for those who claim to be His? Or are they coming from people who feel that all they need to do is to make sure that they go to church and do everything correctly? Is our worship acceptable to God? If it is limited to the hour or so on Sunday or even on Wednesday then i am sad to say, according to scripture, it may not be. Some postmodern/emergent Christians think that it may be the time that they give in an alternative worship on some other day than Sunday and in some other place than a typical church setting, but if it is limited to just that, then it doesn’t look too good. If the limit of our personal sacrifice is making sure we are part of the assembled saints on whatever day the saints gather, as important as that gathering and period of worship celebration is, our "sacrifice" may be in vain and may, according to Isaiah 1, may be rejected. We have incredible debates about what acceptable worship is that has caused great divisions within the church, with people on every side (oh how i hate the idea of sides in the Kingdom) giving reasons why their point of view is correct. There are valid points that all sides need to recognize, but no matter what happens, if our view and our actions during that worship gathering time is "biblically sound" or not, if we do not do outside those walls what God requires and desires of us, what He has designed us for, it is all a waste of time and all we have done blown a lot of hot air. Whether our hands are raised high or calmly kept in our laps, it doesn't matter, as long as we keep them from doing what they were designed for: service to the needy.
i don’t want to be seen as passing judgment on anyone but i do want us all to be made aware of the judgment that has been passed on us if we are not living sacrifices, doing what God has required of us and giving to those in need the things that they need. Money can help take care of plenty of needs, but it is no match for the words of encouragement, the helping hand, or the warm embrace that we can offer. Let us focus on that, in view of what God has done for us.
May the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, and the works of my hands, be acceptable in your sight, O God, my Merciful Savior.
raymond, a child of the King
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