Paul opens his discussion here with history’s most theologically expensive “therefore.” Because of the mercies of God that he has been explaining in the last eleven chapters, he now answers, “How then shall we live?” His answer? Give yourself completely over to God.
Paul confronts two common errors with his answer. The first is the error of dualism that treats physical existence as inferior, irrelevant, or inherently corrupt. Paul starts with, “present your bodies.” He could have been ambiguous and simply said, “present yourselves,” but he specifically uses “bodies.”
In the Levitical law, nothing that had defects or was unclean could be sacrificed to God (Deuteronomy 17:1; Leviticus 22:22). Under the Law, an unacceptable sacrifice could not simply be offered to God anyway. Yet Paul has spent eleven chapters explaining how guilty people have been justified and reconciled to God. Now, “by the mercies of God,” he tells those same people to present themselves as a sacrifice that is “holy and acceptable to God.”
A living sacrifice means this isn’t a momentary offering. Our embodied lives remain presented to God. Therefore, our work, sexuality, service, rest, relationships, suffering, eating, speaking, etc., aren’t spiritually neutral territory. What we do with and to our bodies matters. Paul is not calling us to merely a spiritual acceptance of God’s mercy, but an embodied response to that mercy. This has implications for how we work, relate to others, and live everyday life, as Paul will spend the rest of the letter discussing. This is our worship.
But Paul goes further. Not only our actions, but our minds are to be transformed. We do not, after receiving God’s great mercy, now turn to the world for instructions on how to live our lives. Instead, we are to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
Paul does not spend eleven chapters giving us an eloquent and deep discussion about God’s mercy for us to turn off our minds. Paul tells us that we should discern by testing “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
So, while we don’t say that what we do with and in our physical bodies doesn’t matter, we also do not say that what we do with and in our minds doesn’t matter. Both matter; both belong to God. Paul will continue to show how this plays out in our day-to-day lives throughout the rest of the letter.
Because of God’s great mercy toward us, we should offer Him our whole lives: our thoughts and decisions, our bodies and our daily lives.
-steve