LIVING SACRIFICE

‘Therefore’, writes Paul. This word often marks a moment of transition in his writing. He has been explaining the gospel to a diverse church made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. It was hard for some Jewish Christians to accept that the coming of Christ had superseded the old ways of reliance on Old Testament Law and Temple worship. It was hard for some Gentile believers not to feel a kind of superiority because they were accepted without those regulations. Now, Paul moves on to the nitty-gritty of living out the implications of what he’s been teaching.

You thought you knew about proper worship? Yes, it is no longer about correctly offering dead animals, but it is about offering the whole of your lives – the daily living sacrifice of everything you are – body, mind, and spirit. Paul shifts our view from our time-bound cultural awareness and moves our understanding toward God’s perspective on how we are to live as his people: ‘be transformed’ (v 2). Now, we are ‘in Christ’ (v 5); this fundamental new reality underlies and makes possible the authentic outworking of our faith.

So, in verses 4–8 Paul begins to raise the question of what it means – with all our individual differences – to be the body of Christ. The discussion may bring to mind Paul’s similar teaching to the Corinthians.2 Here, there is less emphasis on the gifts we might think of as supernatural and more focus on everyday giftings, such as encouragement and showing mercy (v 8). It is not a question of being better than someone else (v 3). Our gifts need to be received thankfully and used purposively for the good of the whole ‘body’ (vs 4,5). We have different gifts, but living as the body, together, we are enabled to live out our ‘true and proper worship’ (v 1).

What gifts and abilities has God given you? Deliberately offer these to God now.