Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

May 7th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Paul uses the term therefore because in the last chapter he explained how Gentiles were being grafted into the vine and that everything created was done so for God’s good pleasure, and because of all that, we should respond to the mercy of God by presenting our “bodies [as] a living sacrifice.” It is not a command or demand; it should be something we do of our own free will, because we desire to do so. There are 3 important words used to describe this living sacrifice we should desire to give to God.

1) living: This sacrifice is to be us, still “living” or breathing. The main reason for having a living sacrifice is that it can still serve a purpose while alive here on planet earth.

2) holy: It is to be “holy,” which means we are to be “set apart” for His purpose and purity.

3) acceptable: It is to be “acceptable to God.” As God has continually said throughout the Old Testament, He considers an acceptable sacrifice as whatever is our best. In other words, we don’t give God our leftovers.

Paul says that this is our “reasonable service” to God. The Greek word he uses is logikos, where we get our English word logic. Presenting ourselves to God in this way is simply the rational, sound, logical thing to do. God has powers far beyond ours so obviously He can direct our lives better than we can. And it logically follows that we owe Him our highest most excellent service for all that He has done for us. We so appreciate the words of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, as he was interviewed near the close of his life:

God had all there was of me. There have been others who had greater plans, greater talents and greater opportunities than I; but from the day I got a vision of what God could do, I made up my mind God would have all there was of William Booth.

Ministry is using whatever God has given us to serve Him and the needs of others.

“LORD, please show us opportunities to serve You this day as we serve others.”