Romans 12:3 “Pride?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³For I am saying, by the grace given to me, to all the ones being among you, not to think too highly of yourself, from what it is necessary to think, but to think into being sensibly minded, as God has given to each a measure of faith..

Here we go again. This one little verse is another complete bombshell. After eleven chapters of the glorious Gospel and two verses calling us to the life God wants us to live, what is the very first issue which must be addressed?

Pride. We’re admonished not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

Pride. The devil’s sin.

“The pride of your heart has deceived you” (Jer.49:16; Obadiah 1:3).

“God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble” (I Pet. 5:5).

This issue is the terror of my heart. I honestly think, as I study the Bible, this is the most unrecognized sin out of them all. How can that be? For anyone to “think highly of themselves” is what we all call arrogance. We deplore it in others, yet are quite sure it’s no problem for me. It is such an obnoxious sin. Yet, if we know our Bibles at all and listen to the Spirit, it seems to be the very skin in which we all dwell. The key (and the first reason I call it a terror) is because, as Jeremiah and Obadiah warned us, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” Its deception didn’t end in the Garden – that’s where it started for us humans and that same evil pride would still drag us all down to hell.

My pride deceives me. It hides from me. It hates the light. It is, in fact, so subtle, we (I) can actually be proud of how humble I am! All of that leads me to my second terror, that “God resists the proud.” The word translated “resists” is actually a military word that could be translated, “God marshals His troops against the proud.”

There you go. The last thing in the universe I need is to have God declare war on me!!!! Being born again, He became my Father and “nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.” However, that relationship and that security do not shelter me from my Father’s chastening hand! In fact, if anything, it makes it worse!

Our Lord knows this is the devil’s sin. He knows it deceives us. And He knows this one sin can utterly destroy all the other good you and I can do, all the spiritual growth which could have been ours, literally everything you ever hoped or dreamed of. In His great Fatherly love, then, He may literally seem to “marshal His troops against us,” if that’s what it takes to cook this sin out of our hearts!  Just think of the brutal treatments a person must endure to overcome cancer in our bodies. How much worse the surgery we must suffer to extract that self-destructive evil pride from our hearts! …and we don’t even see it’s there!

All of that is why I say it terrifies me.

One evidence of pride’s deception is right there in the Bible lying before us. I have probably read Romans 12:3 countless times in my life, but not once did it occur to me the verse is addressing my pride. And not only me, but I have read a large number of commentaries on the verse and only one slowed down long enough to realize how serious it is! Charles Simeon, a British pastor from around 1800, was the only man whose heart jumped reading this verse. I hope to quote him at length later, but first I want to acknowledge that I didn’t see it and seemingly nor did anyone else! Deception.

What do we read? “By the grace given me” – the authority of his apostleship! – “I say to every one of you…” Verse 1 started with the general entreaty, “Therefore, brothers…” Now we read, “I say to everyone of you…” This is probably one of the most individualized verses in the Bible. “Everyone of you…” Paul is making it clear he’s speaking to every one of us personally. Yes, he means me. I’m cornered. Pride? “Think more highly of myself than I ought to think?” Oh, no. Not me. Oh, really? Not me? I hope you feel what I do – that “surely not me!” is lurking somewhere just under my skin.

Yes, me. It’s time to step out into the light and pray seriously, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts and cares; And see if there be any wicked way in me; And lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps, 139:23,24). Lord, help me today to live in genuine humility, like Jesus, to see others as more important than myself, to seek to serve rather than be served. Renew my mind and may Your Spirit be my spirit today.

I said I wanted to quote Charles Simeon at length. Here is part of what he wrote about this passage:

“Nothing renders a man more contemptible than vanity: it invariably defeats its own ends, and sinks us in the estimation of all whose applause we covet. But, independent of that, the more we arrogate to ourselves, the less will people be disposed to concede to us: and, if they cannot refuse us some degree of credit on those points wherein we excel, they will be sure to search out some faults to put into the balance against it; so that, on the whole, we shall be gainers to as small an amount as possible. On the other hand, modesty gives effect to all our other excellencies: and the more meekly we bear our honours, the more liberal will even the most envious of our rivals be in the bestowment of them. To “prefer others in honour before ourselves (Note: ver. 10 and Philippians 2:3),” is the way to disarm their hostility, to allay their jealousies, to conciliate their regard; so that, even if we had no better object in view than the advancement of ourselves in the estimation of man, we should seek it, not by self-conceit and self-preference, but by sobriety in self-estimation, and by modesty in our whole deportment. To this effect, the wisest of men has taught us, “To seek our own glory, is not glory (Note: Proverbs 25:27):” on the contrary, “when pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom (Note: Proverbs 11:2).”

 

Romans 12:2 “The Hinge-Pin of Reality!”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship. ²And do not be being conformed to this age, but be being transformed by the renewing of your mind, into [that] you [are] proving what [is] the desire of God, the good and well-pleasing and perfect.

My, my. Here I sit. I’ve been studying and pondering on Romans 12:1,2 now for over two months. It feels like I’ve sailed from one end of the universe to the other and back again. I barely know how to put into words all the amazing truth I’ve been shown. But I must. This is precisely why I type these blogs. My soul needs to distill this seeming infinity of what I feel the Lord has shown me. It often happens that it all only coalesces as I sit here and type.

Where do I begin? Hmmmm. These two seemingly simple verses are literally the hinge-pin of reality. Romans chapters 1-11 are an exhaustive summary of the realities of human existence – in fact, of this entire created universe. To deny a single word of those eleven chapters is to deny the reality in which we live – like refusing to believe we’re surrounded by air. The Gospel, I realize (ch. 1-11) is not just our neat and tidy little plan of salvation. This Gospel we believe literally defines us.

It tells us where we come from and who we are, or should I say, “Whose we are.” It tells us who God is, what’s our problem, and His glorious answer for it. It explains the very universe we live in. To embrace His Gospel is to, for the first time, truly begin to live in reality. We are not overgrown amoebas. We are human beings, uniquely and deliberately created in the image of God Himself, each of us granted the glorious opportunity to exist at all! Given the choice, our entire race has chosen to reject God’s will (reality) and then try to build a world and live lives as we would will. In so doing, what we have brought into our world is death itself – in all its horrific, ugly consequences.

Every human being wants to be happy, but love and joy and peace will elude us all our lives until we look up, accept our proper place, and begin living lives under the infinitely sovereign, good, and just God who created us.

That is precisely what I mean by these two verses being the hinge-pin of reality. In verse 1, the Lord called us to present to Him these bodies of ours (the very connection between our eternal spirits and this material world) and to live our lives as continual sacrifices of praise and adoration and service to Him. As He Himself says, that’s only reasonable.

Verse 2 then addresses the monumental change which must take place, or should I say it is the wonderful transformation the Lord will accomplish in the hearts and lives of those who come to Him? It is to leave death and begin to live. It is to leave the darkness and finally walk in the light. It is to know the Truth which sets us free – free to break loose from the chains of bad habits and self-destructive choices which we are very aware have wrecked our lives. It is the freedom to start living in reality. Chapters 1-11 told us what is reality. Now 12:1,2 calls us to start living that reality and the rest of the book will tell us what that means. 

Verse 2 explains the process the Lord would use to accomplish all this glorious, wonderful transformation in our lives. He begins by saying we must not be conforming ourselves to this world (literally “to this age”). In Christian circles, this is known as not being “worldly,” which is a good adjective. However, I would suggest that modern Christianity has largely gone astray at exactly this point, as too many have arrogated to themselves the privilege to define what “worldly” means.

May I observe, that is exactly what “worldliness” is – this deciding for ourselves what the Bible means? A thousand times, “No!” If we would know the truth, then we must seek it, not from our own corrupted minds but from the Lord Himself – in His Word, the Bible.

Instead of coming up with our own list of “no-no’s,” what do we find in the Bible? We should begin at I John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

“The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” – the love of pleasures, possessions, and applause – are the engines that drive “worldliness.” These things call us not to our list of “rules,” but to a serious assessment of our hearts. “My son, give me thine heart.” People can appear very religious at church, but what is driving them the other 166 hours per week? What drives you and me? A realization of this problem in myself moves me to pray with David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxious thoughts and cares; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23,24).

If we would not be conformed to this world, we must begin by recognizing the real war zone – my heart. In Romans, Paul has already addressed this battle and called it our flesh – not so much our physical bodies, but this lusting it was born with, a spiritual problem which surfaces in physical problems. What does he say over in Galatians? “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,…hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;…” (5:19-21). Note the “hatred, contentions (drama), jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions.” Those are what the Lord would have us know are the kind of evidences which tell us we’re being “conformed to this world.”

Instead, He wants us to be “being transformed.” And what are we to be transformed into? Paul will answer that clearly in chapter 13: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Jesus. One of the reasons God saved us was “that we should be conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29). If you and I sincerely wish to be “transformed,” we need look no further than Jesus Himself. The really, really good news is that means you and I actually can live “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22,23).

And how is that change to occur? “By the renewing of your mind.” That immediately takes us back to Scripture. Our Bibles. The Bible itself and our time in it is the engine that drives our transformation. The Bible is the Word of God – God’s communication of His heart and mind to ours. Someone once said, “To look into the Bible is to look into the very face of God.” II Cor. 3:18 tells us that “Beholding His image, we are changed into that image, from glory to glory…” Someone else once said, “No Bible, no God. Know Bible, know God!”

That last little quip is short but true. If you and I would know God, we must know our Bibles. And if we would be transformed, if we would be enabled to know a life of love and joy and peace, it will happen because we spent that time in the Word, in the presence of our God, who is Himself love -- seeking to know Him, to know His heart, to see the world through His eyes.

And, here in v.2, on this side of this glorious hinge-pin of reality,  what does that transformation ultimately produce? Us proving (and approving) what is that “good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.” The first thing I want to note is that God’s will is good. Once again, people (all of us) form in their minds all kinds of crazy ideas of what “God’s will” is. I would suggest, one of the very first impressions we should keep in our minds is that His will is good.

Numerous times in the Bible, we are told things like, “You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you…” (Deut. 4:40), and “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good…” (Deut.12:28). What more could we ask for, than a God who wants to do us good? And not only for us, but for our children? It should come as no surprise that such a God should promise us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:40)!

He wants to do us good, but He also wants to make us good. Back to the fruit of the Spirit – “love, joy, peace…” The Bible tells us the fruit of everything we do to know our Bibles, to seek the Lord, even our struggles to try to understand His will and do it, even our trying and failing – the end it will produce in us is a life of love and joy and peace.

When you and I would crack our Bibles, we need not fear the “will” we find will be oppressive or absurd or difficult or capricious or anything else but to do us good and to make us good! If our view of faith is not making us better people, there is a screw loose somewhere. To be more like Jesus is to be more like Him who was the very model of everything any human being should aspire to be.

Do you see why I said these two verses are the very hinge-pin of reality? Chapters 1-11 clearly establish what is good in this world, then from 12:1 on, the Lord will tell us how He wants it all to do us good and make us good! If everyone would study to understand Romans 1-11, then live the truths of 12-16, our earth would be a veritable heaven!

There is SO MUCH more we could see from these two seemingly simple verses, but I must say, I’m excited to study on. I’ve always thought of the rest of Romans as being just sort of a miscellaneous assortment of practical admonitions. Having studied myself all the way to this hinge-pin of reality, I am rather looking at it as asking the question: “And so, having given us Romans 1-11, a detailed and extensive treatise of our Lord’s glorious gospel, what does He think are the most important admonitions to rise from it?” Rather than a “miscellaneous assortment,” I expect to find a very deliberate explanation of what our Lord sees as the very most important lessons He wants us to learn. If you and I would live in reality, what should be some of the biggest issues we must get straight in our heads? I want to try to listen carefully, knowing His will is “good, and well-pleasing, and perfect!”

Romans 12:1 “Logical/Reasonable"

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship.

In the last post, I noted that the last line of this verse, “…[which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship,” gets translated a number of different ways. As I stated there, “I actually like the translation, ‘which is your reasonable service.’” Now, having recorded why I believe Romans 12:1 should be translated “your logical/reasonable service,” I’d like to explore what that means. 

First of all and most simply, I think it means just that. It’s only logical/reasonable! If you and I truly believe Romans 1-11, if we have truly embraced the amazing wonders of grace, then the only logical/reasonable response is that we should present our everything back to God. We know that “it is He who has made us,” who, in His great grace “forgives all our sins” and “heals our diseases.” How can we say anything in response, except “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless His holy name!” As the old song said, “How can I do less than give Him my best, when He has done so much for me?”

It’s just logical. It’s just reasonable. One thing that I learned very early in my Christian life was that ancient cultures were very different than ours. What I mean specifically is that, in America, you can say things like, “I believe in Jesus,” yet it has absolutely no effect on your life. I’m afraid that has been the ruin of faith in America, that so many people attended church, claimed to be “religious,” said they believe in Jesus, yet there wasn’t a fiber of their being that even remotely resembled Jesus. Those people were just as mean-spirited and hateful as you’d expect any lost person to be.

In America, that is possible – to say you believe something, yet show absolutely no evidence of it in your life. That was not possible in ancient cultures. To them, you could only say you believed something if everyone around you already knew it – by the way you lived. If you had asked any early Christian why they served God, they might wonder at your question, then reply, “Well, of course. How could I not?” To them it was just “logical/reasonable.” I suppose it is fortunate for us that Paul puts it this bluntly. Our generation needs to be told – it’s just “logical/reasonable.”

That’s probably as much as Paul means, but I’d like to take it a step further. Lest we allow even that to turn into some kind of “obligation,” I want to pause and think about how “logical/reasonable” it is to truly live for God.

As far back as Deuteronomy, the Lord would tell the people, “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord  your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” (10:12,13) Notice the “for your own good.” 

It has been said, “‘That it may go well with you and with your children’ is a recurring Biblical promise linked to obedience, honoring parents, and following God's commands (e.g., Deuteronomy 12:28, Ephesians 6:3). It emphasizes that obeying God's laws—such as honoring parents or respecting nature—brings long life, prosperity, and blessings for future generations.” That is our same thought, the “for your own good." Jesus said the same thing, “I offer you life, that you may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Think about it. In Galatians 5, what is life like when us humans decide to “go our own way”? “…hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy…” (vv.20,21). And what if we take Paul’s advice and “present our bodies” in service to God? What can we expect? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (vv.22,23).

Choosing to “serve” God is one of the most logical/reasonable choices you or I can make in this world! As I sit here pondering the matter, Scriptures flood my mind. “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “All things work together for good to them that love God.” “Husbands, love your wives.” “And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and children to their fathers.” “And whatever you do, do it with all your heart…” “My peace I give unto you.” “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

The most logical/reasonable choice anyone can make is to “present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, and well-pleasing to God.” Why wouldn’t we? A life of love and joy and peace, or a life of endless drama and heartaches, broken marriages, constant friction, and all the rest. As I look at my own life, my family, I think of how the Lord said He would bless a thousand generations of them that love Him. There must have been some wonderful Christian people in our ancestry, because we are almost unbelievably blessed. Of course, sin is a horrible monster and can rear its ugly head in any family, but our entire family, on both sides, both our own kids and those of our extended family just enjoy a love and joy and peace that is clearly unusual.

It is heartbreaking to hear of the troubles in other families with all the divorces and unwed pregnancies, kids on drugs and in and out of prison, and all those other horrible things. Yet, we get to enjoy just the opposite. All the kids seem to be happily married and their kids are a joy to be around. There is only one explanation for that difference and that is the Lord. Without Him, we’d be no different than anyone else. In fact, I personally wouldn’t venture to claim the slightest credit for any of it. The Lord saved me and I certainly wanted to serve Him, but the sad fact is that I’ve been a miserable excuse for a Christian. He would have every right to wash His hands of me. Yet He hasn’t. Why not? Because He is our faithful, forgiving God. We “present our bodies” to Him and our spirits are willing, but, O Lord, our flesh is weak.

To “present our bodies” is actually not a commitment to stellar accomplishment. Rather it is to submit our lives to this Savior who is more faithful than we are! He promises, if we’ll let Him “begin a good work,” He will continue it! I personally take enormous comfort in His promise, “From birth, even unto old, old age, I will carry you.” I try to begin every day begging Him to carry me, to heal me, to help me “abide in the vine.” Then I go on failing, but He goes on faithfully doing me good, helping me to somehow do the right things at the right time, say the right things at the right time, and just somehow end up enjoying more and more of His presence and His blessings.

We make our feeble effort to present ourselves to Him and He gloriously takes it from there. Yes, it is the most logical/reasonable choice we can ever make!

This all leads me to two other thoughts. When you or I think about “serving the Lord,” I’m afraid there is a horrible “bait & switch” that undermines even our best intentions. I fear our minds go immediately to some sort of “mission” to halfway around the world, or volunteering for some new ministry at church. Those things may be all well in their place, but what about our “living?”

What about that “living sacrifice?” What about “husbands, love your wives?” What about, “And you fathers, bring them up?” What about, “Workers, obey your earthly masters with respect,” and “Bosses, provide your workers with what is right and fair?” If a baby needs its diaper changed, is that serving God or not? If Jesus was there, what would He do? If it’s time to mow the grass, is it loving to my neighbors to just let it go?

Jesus said it all (serving God) comes down to loving God and loving your neighbor. There is no neighbor closer than your husband or wife, your children, your workmates, your next-door neighbors. We rob ourselves of the real thrill of serving God when we forget that He wants us to simply live that sacrifice. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” He tells us to “Make it your ambition to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands.”

If I could continue, the problem is, if we don’t “serve God” in how we treat those most immediate “neighbors,” we’re blowing the greatest ministry we could ever have. If I call myself a Christian, but don’t make sure my faith is directly impacting those closest around me, I’m missing my greatest opportunity to live Jesus. People need to hear the Gospel, but we “run-of-the-mill” Christians need more than anything to show them Jesus. God’s plan for His church is for us to live such lives of love and faithfulness (all day everyday) that we soften the hard, fallow ground of people’s hearts. That way, when they do hear the Gospel, there is at least some hope they’ll actually listen.

I fear for too long in the Church, people have been hearing “serve the Lord,” then missing the greatest ministries Jesus has for them – their “neighbors” – the people who live and work all around them. You and I should wake up every morning and tell ourselves something like, “I am a servant of the Most High God. My mission today is to love – whatever that might mean, whomever I’m with, to the best of my ability. God give me the wisdom to know how and the heart to make it happen.”

May we all be encouraged to truly “serve the Lord,” to truly offer our bodies to Him as living sacrifices! As we do, as we experience His love and joy and peace in the daily lives we live, we will more and more realize it’s just plain logical/reasonable!

Romans 12:1 “Words”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

This verse ends with the thought, “…which is your logical/reasonable act of worship.” This line gets translated a number of different ways. The old KJV translated it, “which is your reasonable service.” The NIV translates it “this is your true and proper worship.” The NASB says, “which is your spiritual service of worship.” The ESB has it as “which is your spiritual worship.” In these cases, I always try to study and figure out why there are these differences. I want to record what I’ve found, so I can remember it.

This assortment of translations is largely due to some variety in the meaning of the Greek words. The word translated logical/reasonable/true and proper/spiritual is “logikos.” It is rather obviously the word from which we get our English “logical.” In fact, if you look up the word in a secular Greek dictionary, that is what they say it means, simply “logical/rational,” which is why I expressed it that way above in my “fairly literal” translation.

One wonders why then it gets translated as “spiritual.” How can it be both “logical” and “spiritual.” It turns out the word only occurs one other place in the New Testament and that is in I Peter 2:2, where, in the KJV, we’re told “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.” Interestingly, you end up seeing the same problem again, as others will translate it as “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.” There you go again, the milk is “logikos,” so is it the “milk of the word” or “spiritual milk?”

I personally suspect this verse is what is causing the problem with our Romans 12:1. There, to me, it’s quite reasonable to translate it as “logical/reasonable,” just as one finds it in a Greek dictionary. However, to translate it as “logical” milk in I Peter 2:2 doesn’t make good sense. So that is really where the translators’ struggle is coming from.

The KJV translators decided to call it the “milk of the word.” In my own mind that is quite a stretch – to get from “logical milk” to “milk of the word.” I like that translation and I wish the original said, “gala tou logou,” which would be clearly “milk of the word,” but it is not. It is “gala logikos,” “milk logical,” or “logical milk.” So we’re left still trying to figure out what on earth it means. As you can see, here and then back in Romans 12:1, the translators have settled on “spiritual.” My problem with that is that there is also a very clear word for “spiritual,” “pneumatikos,” but that is not the word here.

So no one’s translation seems to express what Peter specifically meant in 2:2. My bottom line suspicion is it’s “none of the above.” In both Romans and I Peter, we see exactly the same word, “logikos,” so the assumption is it must mean the same thing in both verses. That itself is a very poor assumption. We’re talking about a language from half way around the world and 2,000 years ago! In fact, in English, we have a LOT of words spelled exactly the same, yet meaning something very different.

Here are several examples:

• bat — a flying mammal / a piece of sports equipment
• bark — the sound a dog makes / the outer covering of a tree
• bear — an animal / to carry or endure
• bow — to bend forward / a curved weapon or ribbon
• compact — small and dense / a makeup case or agreement
• desert — dry land / to abandon
• fair — just or reasonable / a carnival or market
• lead — to guide / a metal
• minute — 60 seconds / very small
• refuse — to decline / garbage
• row — a line / to paddle a boat

Can you imagine someone 2,000 years from now trying to translate an English sentence where a man is “swinging his bat,” if they thought the only meaning of the word “bat” was “a flying mammal?” Obviously, that poor future translator would be left scratching their head.

I suspect that is exactly what is happening here. Whatever the word meant in I Peter 2:2 is actually lost to us 2,000 years later. Obviously, Peter wants us to desire “pure good milk,” but we simply don’t know exactly why he chose “logikos.” He knew why. The people he wrote to understood, but even the Greek language itself has lost that other meaning, rather then “logical.”

Back to Romans 12:2, I have no problem translating it “logical” or “reasonable.” Because of the sympathies of God, you and I should present our bodies as living sacrifices – that is our very logical or reasonable response to those sympathies. It just doesn’t mean exactly that in I Peter 2:2. Period. I actually like the translation, “which is your reasonable service.” It is completely “logical” that we should do that.

Just so I note it, we also see the difference of whether it is our “service” or our “act of worship.” In this case, it is no problem. Now we’re translating the word “latreia,” which does mean “service,” but especially in the sense of the “service” you offer as you worship. So it can easily be simply called "service" in the context of presenting your body a living sacrifice, or you can call it an “act of worship.” Either is obviously a very appropriate translation.

So now, having recorded why I believe Romans 12:1 should be translated “your logical/reasonable service,” I’d like to explore what that means. However, this is long enough, so I’ll have to consider the words in another post.

 

Romans 12:1 “Living Sacrifices”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

Continuing through this verse, Paul would urge us to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, and well-pleasing to God.” Just for the sake of context, we should realize that pretty much all ancient religions involved actual sacrifices. Certainly, the Jewish Christians were intimately familiar with animals being killed as sacrifices. However, it was true of the Gentiles as well.

In ancient cultures, basically “religion” equaled “sacrifices.” In fact, that was so true, it sometimes led to human sacrifices and even parents sacrificing their own children. Such a thought is a horror to us, but remember that is the culture of the people to whom Paul was writing. I’ll stick to discussing animal sacrifices, as the thought of human, and especially child, sacrifices is too horrible to even consider.

How strange this “new” religion must have seemed and even felt, where there are no sacrifices. You’ve always understood that religion meant you bring some animal, even as small as “two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24) and watch it slaughtered. You come to this Christianity and learn that Jesus was “the Lamb of God,” that He was a final sacrifice, that no more are needed. Suddenly you don’t have “sacrifices” to make you feel religious. It must have seemed very strange to them.

Get yourself in their mindset, and then hear Paul tell you to offer your own body as a sacrifice! Of course he qualifies it as a living sacrifice, yet still it is a sacrifice. When it comes to that word “sacrifice,” I suspect we’ve lost their sense of death, and pain, and bloodshed (and even smell!) which the word would have conjured in their brains. So, here they are, in this religion with no more sacrifices, yet it turns out you are the sacrifice!

Into that world, Paul calls them (and us) to be “a living sacrifice, holy, and well-pleasing to God.” In Philippians 2:17, he calls himself “an offering being poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.” You and I are the offering. That really is no surprise. What is it the Lord has always truly wanted? Is it not we ourselves? Paul said of the Macedonians, “They did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us” (II Cor. 8:5).

Even under the Old Testament Law, Micah understood this truth. He said, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (6:6-8).

As we’ve noted before, you and I are both the least and the most we have to offer God. Like the Macedonians, the absolute least you or I can give Him is ourselves. We can say to Him, “Lord, I feel like I have so little to give, but whatever little that may be, I give it to you. Though they could only find five loaves and three fishes to feed the thousands, what did Jesus say? “Bring them to Me.” On the other hand, you and I are the most we can give, No matter what else we do, or how much “greatness” we may think we can accomplish, it actually means nothing if we don’t first give ourselves! “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am nothing.”

However, then what does it mean to give ourselves? What sort of answers does He give? “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess His name. ¹⁶ And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:15,16).

What He desires from us is a living sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of our living. I like what D.G. Dunn said of this offering of our bodies here: Body here “is the physical embodiment of the individual’s consecration in the concrete realities of daily life,,,his concrete relationship within this world; it is because he is body that man can experience the world and relate to others…It is as part of the world and within the world that Christian worship is to be offered by the Christian.”

The Lord is not calling us to hide away in a cave somewhere. He wants you and me to live. For a chosen few, His call may mean some form of full-time ministry, but God’s intent for the vast majority of Christians is for us simply to live. Paul told the people, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands” (I Thes. 4:13).

In that passage, especially note how Paul goes on to tell them why they should live that simple life: “…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders” (v.13).  In Titus, Paul tells workers to “be subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (2:9,10). The loudest voice the world should hear from us regular Christians is our lives. You and I are “the gentle rains” that “soften the earth,” so that when God’s seed is sown, it might find good soil to grow in people’s hearts.

The key then is that we live for Him. All day every day, as you and I go to work and do our jobs, as we interact with people, as we go home to spend the evening with our families, as we mow the grass and change our babies’ diapers, He wants us to do it all for Him.

He loves every one of those people. He would draw them to Himself with His love. He could do it Himself, but He is offering to you and I the wonderful privilege of being the immediate expression of that love into the lives of people – everyone in our family, our friends, the people at work, the people at our church, our next-door neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store. As you and I go about living, we are exactly where the Lord wants us to be.

All of this then feeds into how else Paul describes our offering – “holy, well-pleasing to God.” “Holy” means first of all “consecrated.” As I go out into my day, my heart should be reminding me, “I am a servant of the Most High God.” With all of my life, “My meat is to do His will and to finish it.” However, it is His will. Circling back to the idea of a living sacrifice, you and I need to let our ambitions be driven by Scripture, that we might in fact be “well-pleasing to God.” We mustn’t let our lives be driven by even “church” traditions,” but rather by our knowledge of the Word. 

Paul warned the Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition rather than on Christ” (2:8). This then will lead into Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed…,” but we’ll have to be patient and consider that next.

A living sacrifice. May, in fact, our living today be truly for Him. May all of our believing lives, we His church, together be a beautiful symphony, drawing the world into the loving arms of our Jesus!

Romans 12:1 “Me?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship.

Continuing to work through this seemingly simple passage – what is it the Lord wants us to offer? Our bodies. This one thought bursts with so many applications, I hardly know where to begin.

Just think for a second about this verse itself. After the most thorough and glorious presentation of the Everlasting Gospel of God, then turning to think about our appropriate response, what is the first thing Paul would say to us? “Present your bodies a living sacrifice…”

Now stop and think, how would you or I answer the question, “Based on all Jesus did for us (Romans 1-11), what should we do in return?” I suspect we’d come up with a thousand different answers, yet what is God’s answer? “Live for me.” “Make your life, your living be for Me.” There are 168 hours in a week. We may sleep 56 of them, but what about the other 112? Living for Him is so much more than just “religious” activities. It is a life lived for him – a life of family and work and community and, yes, church, but a life of it all. In 1:27, Paul told the Philippians, “Live your lives worthy of the gospel of Christ.” It’s specifically about how we live our lives.

Interestingly, what then does that involve? It is specifically “our bodies.” Back in chapter 6, he told the Romans, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness…Just as you used to offer your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”

In that passage, we see Paul intertwines the words “body,” “parts of your body,” and “yourselves.” It is a matter of offering yourself, but clearly, there is value in us thinking about it in terms of the body itself.

What is our body? In a sense, it is simply the earthly vessel in which our spirit lives. We live inside our body. It is our body, yet we are all very aware that, somehow, I exist apart from this body. People who claim to have had “near-death” experiences often relate how they rose above their body and were looking back down at it. Whether or not that’s true, it expresses the point I’m making – we all know that somehow we are someone living in our bodies. We take comfort from verses like II Cor. 5:8: “We would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

The catch is that our body is our connection with this material world. Without a body, we would be unable to see or hear or touch the things in this material world. It is of some amusement to me to think of people as “the person behind those eyes.” We all know there is a huge difference between looking at a person’s eyes and looking into those eyes. When we look into their eyes, we are suddenly aware of the person we’re talking to. We’ve “connected” with them. I would suggest that is because, through our eyes our spirits actually connect.

So we can see that, when Paul refers to our bodies, he is referring to the “all” of us -- yet somehow he specifically wants us to think of our lives with the idea that we’re talking about our body, this thing we use to connect with this material world.

This leads in myriads of different directions. I’ll try to ponder a few.

As I sit here typing, I am doing so with my mind, my eyes, and my fingers. I am connecting with (hopefully) you – but I couldn’t be doing this except that I live in a body. It’s this body. As I sit here, I am too keenly aware it is not the body I had at 26. This body is old and tired and frankly doesn’t work very well. Even as I simply sit here, I can feel aches and pain. This body doesn’t see very well or hear very well. This guy who, when young, had an almost photographic memory, now finds he can’t remember people’s names, though I’ve known them for years! However, this verse reminds me, in spite of all that, God still wants me to offer it to Him. I have no other body. If I don’t give Him this old, tired one, then I have nothing to give!

When He asks me to present my body, I wish I could offer him that bright, young, strong one. But I cannot. This one is the only one I have to give. I must accept that it is not a 26-year old body. It can’t do what it once did, yet the Lord asks me to present it anyway – just as it is today. That means I have to accept what I no longer can do. I have to learn to accept this body and not be dreaming of something that no longer exists. God says to present to Him this one.

It also amazes me that the Lord asks us to present our bodies, knowing it is exactly the body that Paul earlier described in Romans 7. As he described there, this is not a body that wants to honor God! Jesus warned Peter, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is an Adamic body. It might be a bit of an overstatement, but it seems to me, according to the Bible, that the body itself really is the seat of our sin natures. Obviously, that sin nature also contaminates our spirits. I suspect the word “flesh” embraces the totality of that problem, so that it is not limited to the body, but sees us in the totality of our rebellious, lustful selves – contaminated body and spirit. Yet, again, it seems the body is the seat of the problem.

God tells us to present that body! When Jesus comes, we know He will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). However, in the meantime, while we may be born again, yet we go on living in these Adamic bodies. We cannot escape this constant battle of “the flesh warring against the spirit.” It should be of some comfort to us to know the Lord is quite aware this is the body He is asking us to present. If I gave my son a bent screw-driver and asked him to use it anyway, I would not be surprised or even disappointed to find him struggling to make it work. Rather, I would be honored to watch him struggle, seeing his obedient heart that really is trying!

I don’t want to serve God with a bent screw-driver. I could do so much better if I didn’t have to fight my own self all day every day, but He knows. He knows I have no other body to serve Him with – at least for now. And so, we go before Him every morning and say, Here am I. Send me. Heal me. Carry me – then head out into a world where Jesus wants to shine even through our brokenness!

I guess one more thought I’d like to record is that this body is what it is. What I mean is I am who I am. There are things I’m “good” at and things I simply am not. I can beat myself up over all the things I see other people doing so much better than me. Or I can accept that I am who I am – and I’m the only “me” I can present to God – for better or for worse! I could list all the things I wish I was “better” at, but anyone reading this is more than aware of their own personal list. We all have to accept that we are who we are.

There may be a few things we can get “better” at by applying ourselves, but I am personally convinced that is usually a waste of time. God wants me to present this body. My efforts will pay far higher dividends if I focus on my strengths and let others fill in the gaps of my weaknesses. Here again, we have to accept that it is this body.

And so…we turn our hearts to the Lord and say, “Okay, Lord, here am I. I’m sorry this is all I have to offer. I think you deserve far better. However, here’s my bent screw-driver. May You be glorified even in my struggle. In fact, may Jesus today through me everywhere be “a savor of life unto life.” May You help me today to “abide in the vine,” and “bring forth much fruit.” Here am I. Send me.

Romans 12:1 “God Cares”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..

The old KJV translated this verse beginning as “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” The NIV today begins, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…” You will notice above in my fairly literal translation that, rather than “mercy/mercies,” I have used the word “sympathies.”

As it turns out, the Greek word being translated “mercies” is not the word one would expect. There is a word “eleos,” which very specifically means “mercy,” and is, almost without exception exactly the word you would have expected to find. However, the word we do find here is “oiktos.”

When a person is scratching around in the ancient languages, after a while you get used to certain words you expect to see. When it’s something else, it is always a good idea to pause. No two words mean exactly the same thing. The differences may be slight, but still, one wonders why Paul would choose oiktos rather eleos, if all he meant was “mercies.”  

Here’s what I want to suggest. Mercy is certainly a wonderful thing. As the old saying goes, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve; Mercy is when He doesn’t give us what we do deserve!” All of us thank Jesus from the bottom of our hearts for His mercy. However, mercy, in and of itself, can be, in a sense, a cold thing.

What I mean is, it is something you choose to do. There could be a judge who wants to be known as a merciful judge, so he plans that, about every tenth case he tries, he’ll let the person off. So at around that tenth case, the person is found clearly guilty, but the judge chooses to say something like, “In light of the circumstances, I’m simply going to drop your charges. You’re free to go.” If it were you or me, we would thank him profusely and definitely tell our family and friends about what we saw as his kindness.

In that case, even though the judge really doesn’t care about the person, yet he can show “mercy” in a very official sort of way. That would be the usual word “eleos.” “Eleos” itself is almost never used in such a cold sense, but it could be. And that is where “oiktos” comes in.

“Oiktos” is definitely a more emotional word, which I believe is better translated “sympathies,” as I did above.  In typical usage, I would say there is no difference between the words, just as we would see no big difference between “mercies” and “sympathies.” However, there is a difference, and once again, I think “mercies” are more about something you do, while “sympathies” are more about how you feel. Now go back and think about this verse and read it as “sympathies” rather than “mercies,” and what do you find?

What I see is that what Paul is referring to is not primarily what God has done, but what He feels. What is sympathy after all? Sympathy sees another person’s sorrows or afflictions and simply “feels sorry” for them. Sympathy does not consider what that person does or doesn’t deserve. Sympathy doesn’t consider if they got themself into this or not. It just sees their misery and feels sorry for them. It may express itself in being merciful. But can you see, there is a fine line between the feelings of sympathy and the action of mercy?

That fine line is what I’m talking about here in Romans 12. “I urge you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your body,,,” Think with me for a second not just about God’s great mercies, but about His sympathies! For me personally, this is another one of those atom bombs of truth I get from studying the Bible! Paul isn’t just asking us to think back about what God has done, but what He has felt. He’s taking us behind the curtain of God’s acts…to actually see His heart!

Have you ever thought about how the great God of heaven, the Creator, the King of the universe, the infinite, eternal I AM feels sorry for you? He looks down from heaven and sees you in your miseries (even those that are self-inflicted!), sees all of us in the miseries of this sin-cursed world, and His big eternal heart is moved to sympathy! Completely apart from questions of who deserves or doesn’t deserve whatever. Completely separate from matters of justice and judgment and all of that judicial sort of business, He simply feels sorry for you.

Someone may be objecting at this point, thinking I’m somehow suggesting something below God’s great regal dignity. Actually, that is exactly what blows my mind – to see past all the “regal,” judicial business and see His heart. Consider yourself -- do you ever just “feel sorry” for someone? Where do you get that from? Is it not rising from a heart that was “made in the image of God?” You have those feelings of sympathy precisely because God does.

In our case, feeling sympathy might lead us to be foolishly merciful, whereas, even with those feelings, God will always still do right. That is true enough, but, once again, we’re distinguishing between those feelings and the acts that follow. We can look back over those first eleven chapters of God’s amazing mercies, the whole great Plan of Salvation, and be literally awestruck at what He has done for us through Jesus. However, Paul is here calling you and me to look even deeper and see not only God’s acts of love on our behalf, but to see His heart of love! This isn’t just official. It’s personal.

Have you ever paused to consider that the Lord feels sorry for you? Have you ever really thought of how, as He sees you in your miseries, that even though you may deserve them all (and worse), that you bring them on yourself, while others tell you, “You made the bed; You’ll just have to sleep in it,” that all of that aside and regardless of what He may have to do, behind it all He simply feels sorry for you?

My own heart just reels with those thoughts. I feel like Paul has taken me to a depth I’ve never gone before. No wonder Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Even from the Cross, He was seeing you and me in our misreies and His big heart was moved to sympathy!

What to do? I want to dwell more on these thoughts, to deliberately see God’s sympathies as I read the Bible, to see more of His heart as I read. And then, I want to deliberately let sympathy happen in my own heart. As I see people, I want to be wise, but I want to let my heart see their miseries and, like my Father, allow myself feel sorry for them. Maybe I still need to say, “No,” or, if I was a judge, I might have to pronounce them guilty, or as a parent administer discipline, but under it all, I want to feel what God feels. I want to be like Him. I want to be like Jesus. I want to have His heart.

If you’re reading this, even as I type, I know your life is very hard in many ways. Some you deserve and some you don’t, but I hope it encourages you as much as it does me to know that God cares.