Romans 12:1-8 The Message
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.
6-8 If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.
The Word of God for the People of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Viewing Ourselves Rightly
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
No one is immune to the grievous sin of self-exaltation.
To find evidence of this, simply enter any kindergarten classroom.
In this little group of children, soon enough somebody will be singing their own praises about building the biggest tallest block tower or drawing the best family portrait—in other words, thinking of themselves more highly than they ought.
Constantly comparing ourselves with other people is a worldly way to think.
An exaggerated view of ourselves is a dreadful problem—one that puts others down and ignores our place before God. The answer, though, is not found in self-denigration, which is the opposite and equal error to self-exaltation.
This self-disparagement is also the product of pride because it still surfaces from contrasting and comparison ourselves to others. It is still self-focused.
The Christian’s view of self should be grounded in a mind renewed by God (Romans 12:1-2).
With this heavenly perspective, we find our value in God’s mercy and grace.
Our significance, identity, worth, and role all find their foundation in who God is, what God has done for us, not on any self exaggerated account of who we are or what we believe or boast about having done for Him to make His life better.
We are reminded of this proper perspective of self when we sing the lines “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died.”[1]
1 Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (1707).
To survey the wondrous cross is to focus on the wonders of the gospel—the sobering truth that another has died in our place and borne our punishment.
In doing this, we realize “my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
Philippians 3:7-9 The Message
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
The cross both raises us and lowers us at the same time, and this frees us from needing to push ourselves too far forward in life and enables us, to with much sobriety, acknowledge great, greater, greatest ways in which God has gifted us.
This is thinking of ourselves with “sober judgment.”
The church, then, is to be noticeably different from the world in the way we view ourselves and each other. When we come together, united by the gospel, all else that relates to our identity, though not irrelevant, loses its primary significance, and we use our gifts not to please ourselves but to serve others.
Look soberly at the cross, where your Savior bled and died for your sins because while we were all still his enemies, He loved us. There is no room for you or me to feel too proud. There is no need for us to compare yourself to others. Instead, you can use all that He has given you in selfless, sober joyful service of others.
The Most Critical Task of Self: of Accepting Ourselves
Romans 12:3 Amplified Bible
3 For by the grace [of God] given to me I say to everyone of you not to think more highly of himself [and of his importance and ability] than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has apportioned to each a degree of faith [and a purpose designed for service].
There is probably no single part of our inner life that’s more fragile and more important than our own self-concept.
Parents must wisely help children develop a healthy concept of self. All of us, in all stages of life, are shaped by our self-concept more than we’ll often realize.
In our Scripture reading for today, Paul cautions us, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.” It’s easy for us to think more highly of ourselves—or at least to sound as if we do. We can pretend very well, sound proud so easily.
It seems to me, though, that there are also many times when we think too lowly of ourselves. A lack of self-esteem is a drag on many of us. We remember so well what we cannot do or what we haven’t done well. We quickly look at others as though we falsely believe they have superior abilities, and we feel inadequate.
In our Scripture for today Paul also gives us some very healthy encouragement, however. He reminds us that, in Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior, we are all important functional, functioning servants, and members of the body of Christ.
Romans 12:4-8 Amplified Bible
4 For just as in one [physical] body we have many parts, and these parts do not all have the same function or special use, 5 so we, who are many, are [nevertheless just] one body in Christ, and individually [we are] parts one of another [mutually dependent on each other]. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them accordingly: if [someone has the gift of] prophecy, [let him speak a new message from God to His people] in proportion to the faith possessed; 7 if service, in the act of serving; or he who teaches, in the act of teaching; 8 or he who encourages, in the act of encouragement; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, [a]with diligence; he who shows mercy [in caring for others], with cheerfulness.
Each and every single one of us immeasurably counts as much as anyone else.
We all have unique God given gifts, some of them different from others, but all are important gifts from God meant to be fully used in the building up and the edification of His Kingdom. “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done on Earth.”
“In Christ we who [are each unique, created in the image of God]are many form one body, each [uniquely created by God] member belongs to all the others.”
Paul’s point is that we are all uniquely called to sacrificially give of our whole selves in His service and to discover and faithfully use the gifts God has given.
In Christ There Is No East or West [Author: John Oxenham (1908)]
1. In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north;
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
2. In Christ shall true hearts everywhere
their high communion find;
his service is the golden cord
close binding humankind.
3. Join hands, then, people of the faith,
whate’er your race may be.
All children of the living God
are surely kin to me.
4. In Christ now meet both east and west,
in him meet south and north;
all Christly souls are one in him
throughout the whole wide earth.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Creator God, Author of my past, my present, and all of my tomorrows, I thank you for all the ways you have made me and the gifts you have given me. Help us all to affirm each other and to unconditionally utilize our gifts in loving service. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Psalm 91 Amplified Bible
Security of the One Who Trusts in the Lord.
91 He who [a]dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will remain secure and rest in the shadow of the Almighty [whose power no enemy can withstand].
2
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust [with great confidence, and on whom I rely]!”
3
For He will save you from the trap of the fowler,
And from the deadly pestilence.
4
He will cover you and completely protect you with His pinions,
And under His wings you will find refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and a wall.
5
You will not be afraid of the terror of night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6
Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction (sudden death) that lays waste at noon.
7
A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But danger will not come near you.
8
You will only [be a spectator as you] look on with your eyes
And witness the [divine] repayment of the wicked [as you watch safely from the shelter of the Most High].
9
Because you have made the Lord, [who is] my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10
No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent.
11
For He will command His angels in regard to you,
To protect and defend and guard you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
12
They will lift you up in their hands,
So that you do not [even] strike your foot against a stone.
13
You will tread upon the lion and cobra;
The young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14
“Because he set his love on Me, therefore I will save him;
I will set him [securely] on high, because he knows My name [he confidently trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never abandon him, no, never].
15
“He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16
“With a long life I will satisfy him
And I will let him see My salvation.”
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 