So my dear family, this is my appeal to you by the mercies of God: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and appropriate worship. What’s more, don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.
Through the grace which was given to me, I have this to say to each one of you: don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think. Rather, think soberly, in line with faith, the true standard which God has marked out for each of you. As in one body we have many limbs and organs, you see, but none of the parts of the body have the same function, so we, many as we are, are one body in the Messiah, and individually we belong to one another. Romans 12:1-5
I believe Paul is proposing to those in Christ to loosen the nuts that have our current thinking bolted down so tightly. This comment will be met with considerable skepticism; especially by those who have the highest regard for (and trust in) their belief systems. We treat our belief systems as our foundation. To tamper with this rigid structure is tantamount to causing an earthquake. Many testify that to have the earth move beneath your feet is the scariest thing they have ever experienced. For Christians, with our transcendent hopes, our beliefs represent the firm reality of the unseen kingdom. At least we think they do. Let me give you an example of just one place Paul might ask us to unbolt our thoughts.
If Paul were to ask, “How is your worship today?”, most would of us would think that he was a day off (since today is Monday); yesterday was Sunday, the day of worship. Many would also question his verb tense, didn’t he really mean, “How was worship? Our disconnect with Paul would originate with our errant (yet sacred and tightly bolted down) idea that one day is more sacred than another. Paul would still weigh in on this topic if we would permit it. He would likely say, “You are thinking wrongly about worship if you have connected it to a specific day or ceremony or feeling. He says, “I am appealing to you by the mercies of God……
offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and appropriate worship. (I believe while honoring the spirit of the text), The Message makes it even clearer….Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Paul’s point is that in the New Covenant, our lives have become worship because we have become the temples of God. Consequently, the choices we make in the living out of our lives are how we are working out our salvation and these decisions (and how we make them) represent the essence of our worship. Within Paul’s assessment of reality (which I try and defer to) he presumes that the ruler of this present evil age has been squeezing us into a shape that serves his ends (not God’s). He would keep us blinded and bolted down to a set of lies (and half-truths) which he believes will best serve his ongoing efforts to oppose the expansion of God’s kingdom, which is connected to our transformation. Paul simply presumes that a worshipping life is transformational and that our status quo mindsets will be challenged. He puts it like this…..
Instead (of being squeezed into wordily conformity), be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.
The traditional model of worship often invites us to go and to feel while the Blue Book would suggest we should also stop and think. While their is nothing wrong with liturgy, song and emotion, the greater part of worship has always involved the use of our minds to work out the will of God in our daily walk around lives. Our minds are integral to the realization of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Father, teach us to love you with the all of our minds and souls and strength. Deliver us from the notion that our foundation is our belief system. Help us to transfer our trust beyond our beliefs about You to You Yourself, our Rock and our Fortress. Amen