Your Reasonable Service

I don’t know about you, but I get easily distracted. I’ll be working on one good thing, switch to something else, then to something else, and then wonder what I was working on originally and wonder if I finished or not.

We were created for a purpose. We should serve God, not to earn our way to Him, but in thanks for who He is and what He did for us. It is our reasonable service.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

The NASB calls what we owe God, our “spiritual service of worship.” The NKJV calls it “our reasonable service.” The NIV calls it “our true and proper worship.” The NLT says “the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” This is what we owe God both for giving us life on earth and also for giving us spiritual life.

We frequently live lives that look no different than an unbeliever other than going to church on Sunday morning and maybe some minor differences, i.e. cursing less. We have similar interests to unbelievers. We interact with others like unbelievers. We spend our time and our money on the same things as unbelievers. Is this the way we should live? No way!

We are told to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In other verses we are told to have the mind of God or to look at the world in the same way God does. His interests are not the interests of the world. His view of right and wrong are not what the world views as right and wrong. His priorities are different than the world. Why do we so often look more like the world than like our Savior and God?

We owe Him our all. We are His servants. We owe Him all we have and all we are. Why don’t we live like that?

This next passage in the same chapter explains what being a living sacrifice looks like. It explains what our reasonable service of worship looks like.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:9-19)

When I read a description like this, that is a long list, putting it down as a bulleted list makes it easier for me to understand.

• Let love be without hypocrisy — We must live as an example of Jesus and not just say the right thing. When we say we are going to do something, we need to do it.
• Abhor what is evil — We should hate what God hates and view as evil what God views as evil. (We can only know what is evil if we know God’s word.)
• Cling to what is good — We should love what God loves and view as right what God views as right.
• Be devoted to one another in brotherly love — We are told that “They will know them by their love.” We need to love others as we love ourselves and do for others as we would want them to do for us. We should have a special kind of affection for fellow believers.
• Give preference to one another in honor — We should not seek to honor ourselves, but to honor others. We should give others praise and honor for what they do right and put them first in receiving from others.
• Not lagging behind in diligence — We need to work harder, smarter, and more diligently than the unbelievers. All of our work should be as if we were working for God. We should never shirk our duties or do the minimum to get by. Christians should be known by their excellence.
• Fervent in spirit — We should love God, worship God, serve God, and long for God. Everything we do and say should naturally honor and include God.
• Serving the Lord — Everything we do at home, at work, at church, and even in leisure should serve God in some way. We should do it all for Him who saved us.
• Rejoicing in hope — No matter what our circumstances, we are to rejoice because we have hope. We know the ending of the story and it is very good. We should keep our sight on the prize and not dwell on what isn’t going well today.
• Persevering in tribulation — Because we have hope and because we have the power of God in us, we should never give up, no matter how bad our situation. We should stay faithful because He is faithful.
• Devoted to prayer — Prayer should be a natural and continual part of life. We should have devoted times of prayer every day, but we should also include prayer into every part of our day. This may include stopping to pray when we hear of a hurting friend or a natural disaster, throwing up a quick “help” prayer in a difficult situation, or just asking for guidance in our daily life or thanking God for what went well.
• Contributing to the needs of the saints — Believers are part of the body of Christ and therefore should take care of each other as the need and ability arises. There should not be members of the church that are suffering and asking for help from unbelievers.
• • Practicing hospitality — Being a believer means being host to both believers and those we hope will become believers sometime in the future. Our home should be a place that welcomes others and helps to meet their needs.
• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse — When we are mistreated, if we look at the situation through our own hurt, we tend to curse, but if we look at the person like Jesus did, we see the hurt, guilt, and loneliness that leads to these hateful behaviors. If we focus on their need for salvation instead of our hurt, we can love as Jesus loved.
• Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep — Believers should be empathetic.
• Be of the same mind toward one another — Believers are to have the mind of Christ. If we all have the mind of Christ, then we will be of the same mind. Prayer and Bible study help us to have the mind of Christ.
• Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly — Believers are saved by grace and not of works, so that nobody can boast. For this reason, we should not think we are better than others, whether sinners or even just new believers who haven’t had time to mature. Our goal should be to lead them to Jesus, not lord over them the fact that they failed God.
• Do not be wise in your own estimation — We must not think we are better than we are. We must understand that everything that is good in us comes from God. We must never think that our beliefs or opinions come above God’s clearly communicated word.
• Never pay back evil for evil to anyone — Once upon a time, we rejected Jesus and yet Jesus died for us. In the same way, we should be loving towards those who are not loving towards us.
• Respect what is right in the sight of all men — People, especially as we approach the end times, will call evil “good” and call good “evil.” We need to speak up for what is right and good even if we are the only one.
• If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men — Not everyone will appreciate us standing firm on God’s word, but we should not try to start a fight. We should not be difficult. We should not be hateful. We should not be degrading. When we refuse to compromise God’s commands, many will not like us and accuse us of wrong, but they should never accuse us because we actually committed wrong.
• Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. — We are not God. Only God has the authority to judge because only God knows the whole situation and the heart of man. If we try to take vengeance into our own hands, we do so with imperfect information and may wrongly convict. Also, if they are really guilty, God’s judgment is much worse.

Does your life look like this list? Mostly? Sometimes? A little? Not at all? Hopefully you were able to answer “Mostly.” I’d be concerned if you answered, “not at all.”

Only Jesus fulfilled these commands completely, but we should be continually growing and becoming more like this.

Of course living by these principles is hard to do. We can only be successful with the help of the Holy Spirit in us and if we are becoming more and more in tuned to the Spirit. It is only in full submission to God that we can live out these traits.

I’d recommend you to read them again (and again). If you don’t have a goal, you will drift with the stream going wherever it flows. The stream of life leads to destruction. We need a compass point at which to aim our life. This keeps us going in the right direction, so we don’t just follow the crowd. Traveling against the current can be a lot of work, but it allows us to get where we actually want to go.

May God guide us in wisdom and knowledge of His word, so we can serve Him as living sacrifices that glorify Him as is our reasonable service.

Trust Jesus