A Simple Life (Romans 12:1) — Part 2

Paul is saying, brothers and sisters, I beg you—this is the general call that he will then explain with more specific calls concerning different aspects of life, which are the verses that follow. What does it mean to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord? Obviously, that does not mean that you should build a pyre, gather wood, set it on fire, and throw yourself into the flames. That is not what the Apostle Paul means; he is speaking of something symbolic, something more spiritual in nature, clearly referring to the sacrifices that the Hebrews brought to the altar to be burned as a burnt offering, offered up and consecrated to the Lord. That life which had been sacrificed symbolically ascended to God in the fire, because it rose toward heaven. That animal had been completely surrendered, consecrated, set apart for a single purpose: to bring honor to the God who was receiving it at that moment.

So Paul is reminding them of that when he now says, brothers and sisters, I ask you not necessarily to bring a lamb to the altar when you go to the temple, but rather to go yourselves. Present yourselves; instead of the lamb, place yourself on the altar table and present yourself before God.

I looked up the word Paul uses in the original Greek. This word translated as “present”—parastesai—refers to the idea of presenting, handing over, or surrendering something to someone as their property for their exclusive use; turning something into an object, bringing something under someone’s control or dominion, or placing something at someone’s disposal. That is the idea of presenting. In other words, Paul says: Take your bodies and everything you are and present it to the Lord; surrender it to Him for His control, His disposal, His governance, and His exclusive use. Consecrate yourselves to God, and that is what God asks of every believer: that our lives be completely presented to the Lord as an offering exclusively dedicated to Him and to no one else.

How are we doing in that regard? Have we done that? Have we reached that point in our lives where I now know that I do not belong to the world, I do not even belong to my wife or my husband, and I do not even belong to a nation or to my social position? No, I belong to God; my life has been presented to the Lord for His disposal. That means that God uses me; God has a right to every aspect of my life. “...present your bodies.”

Another interesting thing about Paul’s call is the idea of bodies, somata in Greek—this flesh. That is what he says: Present your bodies. Why the bodies? Why does Paul not say, for example, present your spirits, or present your minds, or present your whole selves to the Lord? Why the bodies? Well, first, because what was presented for sacrifice was the body of an animal. But there is also something interesting here, and it is this: The body is, as it were, the part most in contact with the world, and very often the flesh, sarcos, is also the part that we do not surrender to the Lord. It is easy for us to say, “I offer my spirit to the Lord; I offer my mind to the Lord.” But this flesh is so rebellious, and we generally seem unwilling to give it to the Lord, because this flesh, with its intense appetites, is what rebels most against God; it is what most resists the work of the Holy Spirit. And Paul says: Look, present your bodies to God for good. Let the Lord deal with your emotions; let the Lord deal with the impulses of your flesh; let God gradually sanctify and heal this aspect of you.

The other thing that catches my attention about Paul saying “the body” is something I read in a commentary by a famous Christian commentator who knows Greek culture very well. He says that, to the Greeks, the body was something impure; the body was a prison that held captive what was truly good in man, in the human being, namely the spirit. For a Greek, to say that the body should be presented to the deity, to God, was in a sense like insulting that God. According to Greek culture, God supposedly would not be interested in the body, because the body had to be left here on earth as something impure so that, once it was left behind, what truly mattered—the soul—could ascend to God. And Paul changes that understanding and says: No, your bodies are important too; your bodies have value to God; present them too. In reality, we have to present to the Lord everything we are: mind, body, soul, and spirit. Everything belongs to the Lord; we cannot leave any part out. To God, our bodies are valuable; matter is important to God as well. God created us; God also created our bodies, and therefore we have to surrender everything we are to the Lord.

This idea of presenting seems to have been at work in Paul’s mind, because if you look at Chapter 6 of Romans, in the same epistle we are reading, look at verse 12 of Romans Chapter 6. It says: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it in its lusts.”

In other words, Paul tells Christians not to let sin govern the actions of their bodies, but to let their bodies be governed by another, more powerful faculty. Do not obey the appetites and dominion of the body to such an extent that you are enslaved to the dictates and appetites of the body. Nor present—and there is that same word in the original, paristemi, meaning to present, surrender, or consecrate—nor present your members, that is, your arms, your legs, the different parts of the body; nor present or consecrate your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves.

That is the idea of presenting the totality of what we are. Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members, that is, the parts of your body, as instruments of righteousness. Do you see the difference? Instead of presenting ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness, let us present ourselves as instruments of what? Of righteousness. The idea is that we come under the control of the Holy Spirit, that we become like an instrument God can use to bless humanity and strengthen society, “...for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

In other words, no Christian is called to live under the dominion of the flesh, under the control and slavery of the flesh. At most, we will be engaged in a struggle with the body and the flesh, as Paul discusses in another famous passage in Romans. But the idea that the flesh has already gained dominion and that we are completely subject and surrendered to it is an aberration for the Christian. We are supposed to be under control through the Holy Spirit within us.

So that entire idea is circulating in Paul’s mind when he says in Chapter 12, which we are going to read: “...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” And then I am interested in what he says next. He says, “...which is your reasonable service.”

For years, that expression has intrigued me: “which is your reasonable service.” Does that not make you just a little curious about what it means? What is your reasonable service? Because as for “reasonable,” notice that I believe the Spanish translators fell short in their translation here. It is true that the word used in the original Greek is eslogikh tecnh, from which the word logic or logical comes, and in one sense they translated it as “reasonable.” That understanding of the word does exist in the Greek vocabulary, but there was another meaning they could have chosen to give a clearer idea of what Paul means. The expression logikh tecnh in the original Greek also means “spiritual.” For the Greeks, reason was both spiritual and purely rational or mental.

So I believe there is a better way to put it. And in the original Greek it does not say “which is,” but rather expresses a relationship of total equivalence: “which is your worship.” The word “service” here in the Spanish translation is a treia in Greek, which means “worship,” and from it comes the Spanish word idolatría, the worship of idols. A treia means “worship or service.” So the idea is, “which is your spiritual worship,” or it can also mean “your true worship.” What difference does that make?

If you read the passage again: “...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, which constitutes your true worship,” which is your true worship. In other words, when you present your body to God as a living sacrifice, when you have surrendered your life to the Lord, along with the members of your body and your whole being, in order to serve the Lord, obey the Lord, and be used as an instrument of God, that is your true worship. Do you understand? That is spiritual worship, the worship that truly pleases God.

And that, brothers and sisters, is not simply playing with words. I am taking the time because I want you to understand the importance of what I am saying. In other words, what truly pleases God, brothers and sisters? Is it that we come to church and kneel down, raise our hands, speak in many tongues, and dance, and then go out into the world and live however we please, contradicting everything we have done here in the worship service? Many people do that, don’t they? They come to church, and there is a compartmentalization of the self: In church, everything is dedicated to the deity, to God, and everything is very beautiful, very perfect, and full of reverence. They are angels in church, but when they leave, they become little devils again. They have taken off their Christian hats, and now, once again, like little children when they are let loose on the beach, they say, “Let’s live, let’s have fun, let’s enjoy life,” and they forget their Christian identity. Is that a way to please the Lord? Is that worship that pleases God? No. Paul says, “Present your bodies; consecrate your lives to the Lord.” Surrender every aspect of your being to God, because that is the worship that pleases the Lord. It is a life consecrated to God, a life surrendered to the Lord, a life in which we have been given over to the control of the Holy Spirit. A holy life.

That is true worship, reasonable worship—another term that would have been better—the worship that pleases the Lord. God is not as pleased by the gestures and things we do to worship Him as He is by our obedience. The Lord Jesus Christ once said: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you to do? You do not obey Me.” It is not that we should not worship the Lord; it is not that we should not come to church. I always make it clear that it is not that we should not dance or raise our hands, but rather that, in addition to that, we should live a life consistent with what God asks, that there should be consistency between one thing and the other. It is the whole of it.

It does us no good to worship the Lord and then, schizophrenically, live as though we were idolaters or pagans who do not know the Lord. The true worship that pleases God is worship that is integrated in all its parts. That is why I believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke with the Samaritan woman, He told her that the day would come when true worshipers would worship God in spirit and in truth, because the Father seeks such worshipers to worship Him. What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean by “in spirit and in truth”? Precisely this, because the Samaritan woman was talking to Him about where the Lord had to be worshiped. Was it in Jerusalem or there in Samaria? And she wanted to draw Jesus into a religious dispute over who had things more clearly—the Samaritans or the Jews. And the Lord said: “Woman, the day is coming when God will be worshiped neither in Samaria, nor in Judea, nor in Jerusalem, but within the spirit, within the soul. And that is the worship the Father will seek and desire.”

Brothers and sisters, no denomination saves, and no religion saves—except, of course, it has to be Christian. What saves is knowing Jesus Christ and having a life consistent with Jesus. It is not the denomination to which you belong; it is not whether you come to León de Judá, go to Cosecha, or attend the Methodist church. That is not what pleases God. Rather, wherever you go, let there be a heart that has been surrendered and given over to the Lord. You can worship the Lord in the bathroom of your home, and it becomes a temple if your spirit is surrendered to God.

One thing, my brothers and sisters, that I am realizing more and more is that God is very simple, and we have made Him very complicated. Many people live with tremendous paranoia that they are not pleasing God, that God is upset with them, and throughout their lives they keep treating God as though pleasing the Lord were an extremely complicated matter. And do you know what, brothers and sisters? I believe that pleasing God is the simplest thing. It does not require great rituals, elaborate worship services, and all of that. Rather, God says again and again: Look, people, what I want is for you to be simple at heart and just, and to do what is right. Look at what Micah says.

Micah is one of the most beautiful passages—Micah chapter 6—about what the Lord asks of us. It says—I love this passage—chapter 6, verse 6. It says: “...with what shall I come before Jehovah and worship the Most High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with one-year-old calves? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my rebellion, that is, for my sin, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He is asking, “What can I do to please the Lord? Will I have to go to the ATM, take out all the money I have, and rob a bank in order to give the Lord money? Will I have to take my daughter and slit her throat so that God will be pleased with me, so that He will forgive my sins?” That is how many people think. Whatever little sin they commit, they immediately think they have committed the unforgivable sin, that God no longer wants anything to do with them, and we continually live with that fear. We believe we have to give everything and constantly be doing so. Look, the very same person who has told you that you must surrender everything to the Lord is also saying: Relax before God. You cannot do anything to make God love you more than He already loves you. God already loves you. Now, whatever you do, do it within the love of God, because no matter how hard you strain, God is not going to accept you any more; no matter how much you do, you will never earn God’s love, because you will always be unclean. It is by the grace of God that you are acceptable before God. Now, once you know that, live a holy life—but do not live a holy life to bribe God. Rather, holiness is the product of a relationship established with God through Jesus Christ.

Now look at how the writer answers his own question: “O man, woman, He has shown you what is good and what Jehovah requires of you: only to do justice, to love mercy, and to humble yourself before your God.” How simple the Lord is. He does not ask for so many things or for us to twist ourselves into knots, but for a heart surrendered to the Lord. That is what pleases the Lord.

Look at another passage that made an impact on me regarding the idea of true worship, genuine worship. It is in Deuteronomy chapter 10, right there in the very heart of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy is a book that deals with the offerings, the sacrifices, and the feast days that the Jewish people were required to observe. And look at what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 12:

“...and now, Israel, what does Jehovah your God require of you?” Does that not remind you of what Micah says—what does the Lord require of you? “What does Jehovah your God require of you, but to fear Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep Jehovah’s commandments and His statutes, which I command you today for your prosperity?”

In other words, we do not have to keep twisting ourselves into knots. God is a simple God. He is pleased by fairly simple things; you do not have to go around looking for five legs on a cat in order to please the Lord. God is simply looking for a heart surrendered to Him, a mind surrendered to Him, a body that lives for Him and wants to please Him. If, in the course of that surrender, you fail, God says: Come, let us reason together; make things right with Me, and we will be fine, and let us keep moving forward. Because you do not have to come up with too many things to please God. So if you are thinking that it is only what you do endlessly that pleases the Lord, that is not what God is looking for.

God told the Hebrews in the book of Isaiah, for example—another important passage—He says: “Bring Me no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to Me. New moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure them; your solemn feasts are iniquity.” He was saying this to a Jewish people who believed that by giving Him feasts, observing holy days, and doing all these kinds of things and rituals, they would please the Lord; yet they were living lives that were abhorrent in the sight of God. And in verse 16 He tells them: “Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean; remove the wickedness of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; restore what is due to the wronged; do justice to the orphan; defend the widow.”

In other words, it is not solemn feasts and sacrifices that please the Lord. True worship, the reasonable service Paul is talking about—the worship that pleases the Lord—is consistent worship. It is worship that unites ritual with daily living, the body with the spirit, the mouth with the mind—all the parts of the being integrated and surrendered to the Lord as a sacrifice. That is what pleases God. Do you understand, then, what it says? Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, because this is worship, this is praise, this is true adoration—the kind that pleases the Lord—your reasonable service.

It says: “Do not conform to this age.” What does the word age—aion in the original Greek—mean? It means an age, a time, an epoch, an era. It can also mean: Do not conform to the culture in which you find yourselves. Do not conform to the system of things, to this order of the culture in which you currently live. Do not conform to it, do not surrender to it, do not present yourselves before it so that it can control your life; instead, be transformed through the renewal of your mind, of your understanding. What does that mean? Brothers and sisters, if you want to change inwardly, you have to begin by transforming your mind. Let your mind be exposed to the Word of God every day; continually meditate on noble things.

As Paul says: “...everything good, everything noble, everything just, everything perfect, everything of good report—if there is any virtue, if anything is worthy of praise—think on these things.” Every day, we must submit our minds to biblical thoughts and ideas. Brothers and sisters, I believe that every time you turn on the radio, open a magazine, watch television, or have a conversation, something is happening in your mind. You are subjecting your mind to a stimulus. Every time you read a novel or decide to spend your time on something, you are, in some sense, renewing your mind. Sometimes you are renewing it for evil and sometimes for good. Sometimes the stimuli your brain is receiving are reinforcing the flesh, reinforcing the animal nature within us. That is why, every day, we have to be good stewards of what our minds are receiving, because every day we have the opportunity to be renewed a little more for God. What happens is that, cumulatively, as the years go by, if you are careful about what you allow to enter your mind and shape it, you will end up with either a reprobate mind or a mind approved by God. Over the years, the accumulation of the stimuli to which you subject your mind will produce either a transformed person or a person who is utterly carnal and exactly the same as when he began walking in the ways of the Gospel.

We must be careful. Nowadays there is much talk about being careful with what we physically eat, taking care of the body, and so on. What is most important is that you guard your mind as well. Renew your mind every day; submit your mind to the Holy Spirit’s dealings. Submit your mind to positive stimuli. Remember that every little thing you allow to enter your mind will color, even if only slightly, the way you see the world, the way you feel, and who you are. In the Apostle Paul’s original expression in Greek, the idea of renewal also conveys continuity—that is, continually renewing yourselves in your mind. In other words, this is something that has to take place 24 hours a day, many times a day, 365 days a year; you have to keep renewing your mind. This is a lifelong matter. Be transformed through the renewal of your understanding, so that you may prove what the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God is. What does that mean? If you renew your mind and transform your being through that renewal, what will happen? You will be able to prove the good will of God. In other words, at the beginning of this sermon we said that God wants—that God’s will is—for us to have a happy life, and that everything God does for His children is intended to bless their lives and lead them to improve their existence. Therefore, the person who cooperates with God by submitting his body and his life to the Lord and allowing God to transform his spirit will be able to experience God’s good will firsthand.

There are believers, however, who cannot experience God’s good will because they are not following the instructions. Last Wednesday, during the prayer service, God led me to speak from First Corinthians, chapter 6 or 7, where the Apostle Paul says that in the wilderness they all saw the glory of God; they all experienced the blessings of the cloud and the pillar of fire, and the manna, and the rock that caused water to spring forth, and all these things. But it says that God was not pleased with most of them; instead, their bodies were left dead in the wilderness. None of them, except Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land from that original nation. Why? Because they did not please God despite having experienced all these things. What God wanted was for that first generation that came out of Egypt to enter the Promised Land, enjoy the land flowing with milk and honey, and enjoy good houses and the prosperous life that God wanted to give them. But almost all of them died in the wilderness. Almost none of them entered the Promised Land. Why? Because their lives were not what God wanted; their attitudes were not right. They had the life of the pagans who had come out of Egypt, and they did not allow God to change them. Therefore, they could not enter into the enjoyment of the blessings God had for them. Those blessings were enjoyed by a second generation, which was born in the wilderness and was able to enter 40 years later. The others remained dead in the wilderness, unable to prove the good will of God, which was for them to enjoy the Promised Land. And that is why I believe Paul says here: Look, brothers and sisters, live this way so that you may then prove the good will of God.

If, in your life right now, you are not experiencing that prosperity, that blessing, that joy, that sense of belonging to God, that fellowship with the Lord, something is going on there that needs to be adjusted. I do not know exactly where it is, because each of us has our own condition. But to the extent that you and I adjust our lives, to that same extent we will feel the joy of the Lord within us; we will feel peace; we will enjoy the approval and prosperity God desires for His children.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think of himself with sound judgment, according to the measure of faith God has distributed to each one.

Here, beginning with verse 3, remember that I told you at the start that the first part is simply a general statement, a general principle Paul wanted to mention. Now, from verse 3 onward, he is going to begin—and we will discuss it later—to set forth specific counsel concerning that life completely surrendered to the Lord. Paul will elaborate on different ways of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord. And one of the things Paul says here is that there is a very important attitude the Christian must have: an attitude of humility regarding oneself. Brothers and sisters, one of the things that most prevents people from entering into the enjoyment of God is spiritual pride, arrogance, rebelliousness, and believing that one is unique, as though no one else even comes close—and glory! That sense of being somehow better than everyone else brings judgment upon one’s life.

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you that many of us commit that sin without realizing it. We have that arrogance and that notion that there is no one like us, and we are always trying to assert ourselves and make our ego felt. We have an exaggerated sense of our own worth, and then that brings problems into our lives; it brings problems into our marriages, brings problems with our children, brings problems into our social relationships with others, and brings problems at work, because it is as though that person is unaware that he is part of a team, part of a community, and is simply one among many.

That is why Paul, here in this passage, moves into the reflection that follows, where he says: “...for just as we have many members in one body, but not all the members have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”

That is connected to the idea that no one should think more highly of himself than he ought to think. Because, brothers and sisters, it is extremely important that we think about ourselves with sound judgment. I looked up that word, “sound judgment,” in the original Greek, and the idea is that we should not think of ourselves with more esteem than is necessary or justified, but with modesty, balance, sobriety, moderation, and accuracy. How important it is, brothers and sisters, for each one of us—in fact, you are there, you are alive. Raise your hand if you are alive. Amen.

It is important, brothers and sisters, that we ask the Lord: “Lord, help me to see myself sensibly, not in an exaggerated, somewhat crazy way.” I have discovered that we human beings sometimes do not know how to assess ourselves, or even who we truly are. It is as though we look at ourselves in the mirror; sometimes we look at ourselves in the mirror, and I believe that we are not actually seeing ourselves as we really are.

You know that an anorexic person may be nothing but skin and bones, yet look in a mirror and see themselves as fat. Because their mind is distorted, and that is why the anorexic person is compulsively starving themselves to death, because they believe they have to disappear. It is an illness of the mind; they look at themselves in the mirror and say, “I’m fat,” and then they stop eating because their eyes are not sending them the correct message, or their mind is not correctly interpreting what their eyes are seeing. And we are like that too. Many times, we do not have a clear idea of what our faults and virtues are, or what things we need to change in our character. I see that continually. I see people who are suffering constant problems, conflicts, disappointments, and failures in this life, and I wish I could get inside them so that they could see themselves as I am able to see them. But they do not have the ability to see themselves objectively.

We have to ask the Lord: Lord, help me to know myself as you know me. Help me to see myself with my virtues and also with my faults. Help me to understand myself objectively, knowing that I am not a criminal, but neither am I Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa; let me see myself accurately, and then, from there, let me allow you to work in my life so that I may keep improving more and more each day.

One thing we need, brothers and sisters, is to admit our mistakes, admit our shortcomings, admit the things in which we need to improve, and begin there. What does the writer of First or Second Chronicles say? He says: “If my people humble themselves, weep, and seek my face, I will heal their land.” And many of us need to humble ourselves before God, acknowledge our sins, acknowledge our failings, acknowledge our faults, and then, from there, allow God to continue working in our lives. And that will heal our marriage.

Many times, we need to stop blaming the husband or the wife and say: No, I am the problem, and I am the one who has to change this. Father, have mercy on me. Help me and forgive me, and that is where one begins. That is thinking about yourself sensibly, instead of thinking that you are a spiritual titan when in reality you are still a tadpole who needs God to heal you and raise you up; and because you know that two plus two equals four, you think you are doing nuclear physics, but you are still doing basic arithmetic.

And we have to ask the Lord: “Lord, bring me out of this anorexic madness in which I live, and let me see myself exactly as I am.” As the psalmist says, “...search me, O God, and know my heart; see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”

Brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord: “Father, help me to think about myself sensibly, modestly, and with balance, neither exaggerating my worth nor seeing myself as a nobody.” Because God does not want you to think that you are a worm either. God wants you to see yourself sensibly; that is, to see the good things you have and the bad things as well, because you are not a serial criminal who needs to be locked away in prison either. No, you are also a person of worth; you have good things. God has perhaps given you the opportunity to study, and you have good qualities. Give thanks to the Lord for that, but also look at the other side so that you can think about yourself sensibly and with balance.

Another thing involved in the way the Apostle Paul is thinking here is found when he says, “...because we are one body.” In this passage, Paul is speaking to the Christian community about the life of the church, about the life of the community of faith. And it is very important, brothers and sisters; I believe that one of the things that preserves harmony in a church is for the people who make up that church, beginning with the principal leaders and extending downward, all to understand—and for all of us to understand—that we are all part of a body in which each person has a function, importance, and dignity, and each person has something precious to contribute. I cannot do everything, nor do I possess all the qualities this church needs in order to be a blessed church. God has given me some gifts, but here among you there are other gifts that are necessary for our church to move forward. Now, if I think that I am, as people say, the last Coca-Cola in the desert, and that I possess all the gifts, then I try to do everything, take hold of everything, and control everything. But when the leaders of a congregation know that each one of us has something precious that God has given to the other person, then one sees oneself with one’s gifts, but also with one’s limitations, and seeks others to complement oneself, and appreciates others for what each person possesses. How beautiful that is, because it requires humility on our part.

I believe that what often kills many congregations, harms the life of a church, and brings division is that attitude of people whose egos are so large that they think they do not need anyone else. Everyone has to bow down to them. But how beautiful it is when each one of us has that sense of being part of one body, of being part of a team. Each one of my brothers and sisters has something valuable, something beautiful, to contribute to the Kingdom of God, and so each one treats the others with preference.

There in verse 10 he says: “...love one another with brotherly love; in honor, prefer one another.” In other words, give preference to one another: No, brother, you go ahead.—No, please, you go ahead. I wish we would compete over who will go first to the pulpit or to pray. No, instead, what we do is shove one another so that we can get to the front. Because we do not have that sense of being one body. When you know that others have blessings and gifts from God in their lives, you admire and respect them for what God has placed in them, and you are aware that you have gifts but that you also have your faults and areas where you are lacking, and that those people complement you.

The rich person should say: Do not boast only about your wealth, but remember that the poor person also has much to teach you. And the poor person should not despise the rich person, because the rich person has things to teach him as a poor person; instead, both should see themselves as complementary.

The pastor should not denigrate the person who has the gift of evangelism, singing, or worship. And the worship leader or the person who plays an instrument should not denigrate those who have no ear for music and sing off-key, because that person who sings off-key may be a good administrator and may be able to help the musician, who perhaps is not a good administrator, and so they complement one another. And each person sees in the other what the other possesses. It is the same in the home. The wife may have gifts that the husband does not have, and so the husband should respect his wife, love her, and value her because she brings very valuable things to the marital relationship and the family. Perhaps she is very good at keeping the accounts, while he cannot even add two plus two, so he should value her and give her her proper place in the life of the church. Now perhaps he is very good, for example, at carpentry, repairing the house, or other things, or perhaps he is more prudent than she is in managing money. So she keeps the accounts, and he makes certain decisions about how the week’s wages will be managed, and then the two complement one another and are a blessing. And that is what it means to work as a body, with a sense of being one body. If we learn that, brothers and sisters, if we think about ourselves sensibly, I believe that our lives as a church and as a family will function much, much better.

May God grant that we be able to think about ourselves that way, in that modest and sensible manner. And that will help us live more blessed lives. Brothers and sisters, remember that God is calling us, and over the coming Sundays we will be discussing these passages in this way. God is calling us to a life surrendered to Him, a life in which all our habits, our behavior, and the relationships we have with one another are all directed by the Word of God. I urge you, during these Sundays when we will be talking about these simple things, to open our hearts and see the extent to which God wants to bless us and speak to us, and to be fully willing to admit when we fail; let us admit our mistakes. Let us ask the Lord: “Lord, in what area do you want me to continue improving? In what area do you want me to change?” And this will help us become better Christians each day.

Let us stand, let us pray, and let us thank the Lord for His presence among us. Lord, we bless you and thank you, Father, for the life you have given us, for that call you make this morning to present our bodies to you as a living sacrifice. Lord, pour out upon us that sound judgment of which the Apostle Paul speaks, this first quality of seeing ourselves with humility, of seeing ourselves with healthy modesty, of not yielding to pride or arrogance, and of always being aware of our faults and weaknesses so that you may deal with us. Bless this people, Father. May this teaching remain engraved upon our hearts. Thank you for your life within us. Take us to our homes with your holy blessing on this day, in the name of Jesus. Amen.—