Scripture Exposition by Advance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 10, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 22.

Scripture Exposition.

By Advance

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom 12:1.

The apostle does not tantalize us with simply painting before us an unattainable ideal. He suggests some considerations that may inspire us to realize that ideal in our own experience. Such a sacrifice as he has urged is our "reasonable service." Most readers suppose this to mean, our just and proper service, one enjoined by reason as wise and becoming. But this is not the apostle's thought. The word translated "reasonable" rather means "spiritual," as it is rendered in the margin of the New Version. It denotes what pertains to the inner man in distinction from what appeals to the senses, as did the animal sacrifices of the Jews. And the term "service" means not merely work or duty, but it applies to religious service. The American revisers properly render it in the New Version, worship. By the whole phrase, "your reasonable service," the apostle means that such a consecrated Christian life is the truest spiritual worship of God. This is the way in which especially he wishes us to express our loyalty to him. Not, of course, that we are to abandon the sanctuary. But of what avail is church or secret prayer, if unaccompanied by a well-rounded Christian life? It is only a gag upon conscience. The worship which, beyond any other, God desires of us is the daily life, vitalized at every point with the Spirit of Jesus.

But not only is this the truest and most acceptable form of spiritual worship; the apostle gives us also the one and all-sufficient reason why every one should thus worship God: "I beseech you by the mercies of God." Many other reasons may be given why we should consecrate our lives to the service of our Father in Heaven, but this one is ample. God's ceaseless mercies to us surely furnish reason enough why we should present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice to him. These mercies are a revelation of his character and show him to be infinitely worthy of our love and our obedience.

We are not to live the Christian life simply to avoid the consequences which await those who do not. There is no true piety in that. It is a mere calculating prudence. It shows no love toward God or loyalty to Christ, but only a love for our own welfare and a loyalty to our own interests. Nor are we to live the Christian life merely to win the bliss of Heaven. There is no more piety in serving God merely for expected compensation than there is in delving in the Nevada mines for an expected fortune. God will compensate us with a divine munificence if we lovingly serve him rather than ourselves. But the man who imagines that he is serving God when his supreme aim is to advance his own good, whether in this life or the next, is simply deluding himself, but not his Judge. He is not serving God, but only trying to use God as the means of serving himself. Not mainly because God commands it, but in the joy of a filial love for him who is supremely worthy, are we to consecrate our lives to him.—Advance.