This is from my own devotion using 2024 Devotions Week 35, Section 1.
- “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy …” This is not a demand but a call by Paul, standing equal to us, to us to respond to God’s mercy. Why not a hard command? Does this mean that it is optional?
Of course from the way it is worded we should understand it to be a command; how can we refuse God of what is good and pleasing? It cannot be optional. But in Scripture we know that God desires our voluntary surrender and submission, entrusting ourselves to his goodness. What is good and proper is that we entrust ourselves to him in view of his mercy, not in view of his wrath. It is pleasing to God when we respond to his love. Paul takes his place among us as one of us to urge us to do what is right.
- “ … to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God …” Do you think Paul intends “bodies” to imply the whole person—body, soul, spirit, mind, heart—or he wants to focus particularly on the physical body? Why? What do you think are the implications of his use of each of these words: “living”, “sacrifice”, “holy” and “pleasing”?
I think so but since he said bodies there must be an emphasis on the physical. This is not to be a metaphorical surrender, or a surrender on principle; this is to be a surrender expressed in concrete terms in our life. Also the focus on bodies points us away from our frequent obsession on the external results of our actions, our service and our accomplishments. Living: it is positive and productive, not beating us into submission or becoming nothing by denying who we are; Sacrifice: it is a surrender of our will, a subordination of our will to God’s will; Holy: the actual meaning is separate or consecrated and so the sense here is exclusivity, not contaminated by the false gods of this world; Pleasing: the focus is on God, making him happy and satisfied with us.
- “ … this is your true and proper worship.” What do you think this implies in relation to our practice of worship on Sundays?
This is where our focus should be and the practice of worship on Sundays should flow out of the fruit of our submission and transformation. Our surrender should result in the transformation of our self so that more and more the ritualistic actions of formal worship are more and more a true reflection of the reality in our heart and mind and the shape of our everyday life.