A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS CHAPTER 12 VERSES 1-11.

1. ROMA S 12 VERSES 1-11 COMME TARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
PREFACE
The following commentary consists of my own thoughts combined with the thoughts
of the many authors both ancient and modern who have made comments on this
most important letter of Paul. I have quoted so many others because I have found in
each a unique way to convey the ideas that Paul is seeking to communicate.
Sometimes I have not been able to give credit, and if anyone discovers the name of
the author quoted and lets me know, I will gladly give credit where credit is due. If
anyone does not want their quotes expressed in this commentary, they can let me
know as well, and I will delete them. My e-mail is glenn_p86@yahoo.com The
purpose of this commentary is to bring the thoughts of many authors together in
one place in order to save the Bible student a lot of time in research. All of the
comments are available to anyone, but it takes an enormous amount of time to read
all of the resources. I have brought together what I feel are the best thoughts on the
text in this one place to save others the time. It is my pleasure to do so, and I use
these studies myself to teach a class of about 20 people. The numbering system uses
letters as well as numbers because it gives me the freedom to add new material I
discover without doing the numbers all over. I welcome any comments, and I will
add them to this commentary if they contribute new and valued insight.
Living Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[ ]
act of worship.
Barclay reminds us that Paul never ends with deep theological issues, but always
with practical issues of living to please God. He wrote, “Here we have Paul following
the pattern he always followed when he wrote to his friends. He always ends his
letters with practical advice. The sweep of his mind may search through the
infinities, but he never gets lost in them; he always finishes with his feet firmly
planted upon the earth. He can, and does, wrestle with the deepest problems which

2. theology has to offer, but he always ends with the ethical demands which govern
every man. "Present your bodies to God," he says. There is no more
characteristically Christian demand. We have already seen that that is what a
Greek would never say. To the Greek, what mattered was the spirit; the body was
only a prison-house, something to be despised and even to be ashamed of. o real
Christian ever believed that. The Christian believes that his body belongs to God
just as much as his soul does, and that he can serve him just as well with his body as
with his mind or his spirit.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the instrument through which the
Holy Spirit works. After all, the great fact of the incarnation basically means that
God did not grudge to take a human body upon himself, to live in it and to work
through it. Take the case of a church or a cathedral. It is built for the offering of
worship to God. But it has to be designed by the mind of some architect; it has to be
built by the hands of craftsmen and of laboring men; only then does it become a
shrine where men meet to worship. It is a product of the mind and the body and the
spirit of man. Here we have a most significant thing. True worship is the offering to
God of one's body, and all that one does every day with it. Real worship is not the
offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real
worship is the offering of everyday life to him, not something transacted in a
church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. A
man may say, "I am going to church to worship God," but he should also be able to
say, "I am going to the factory, the shop, the office, the school, the garage, the
locomotive shed, the mine, the shipyard, the field, the byre, the garden, to worship
God.
BAR ES, “I beseech you - The apostle, having finished the argument of this Epistle,
proceeds now to close it with a practical or hortatory application, showing its bearing on
the duties of life, and the practical influence of religion. None of the doctrines of the
gospel are designed to be cold and barren speculations. They bear on the hearts and lives
of people; and the apostle therefore calls on those to whom he wrote to dedicate
themselves without reserve unto God.
Therefore - As the effect or result of the argument or doctrine. In other words, the
whole argument of the eleven first chapters is suited to show the obligation on us to
devote ourselves to God. From expressions like these, it is clear that the apostle never
supposed that the tendency of the doctrines of grace was to lead to licentiousness. Many
have affirmed that such was the tendency of the doctrines of justification by faith, of
election and decrees, and of the perseverance of the saints. But it is plain that Paul had
no such apprehensions. After having fully stated and established those doctrines, he
concludes that we ought therefore to lead holy lives, and on the ground of them he
exhorts people to do it.
By the mercies of God - The word “by” διᆭ dia denotes here the reason why they
should do it, or the ground of appeal. So great had been the mercy of God, that this
constituted a reason why they should present their bodies, etc. see 1Co_1:10;
Rom_15:30. The word “mercies” here denotes favor shown to the undeserving, or
kindness, compassion, etc. The plural is used in imitation of the Hebrew word for mercy,

3. which has no singular. The word is not often used in the New Testament; see 2Co_1:3,
where God is called “the Father of mercies;” Phi_2:1; Col_3:12; Heb_10:28. The
particular mercy to which the apostle here refers, is that shown to those whom he was
addressing. He had proved that all were by nature under sin; that they had no claim on
God; and that he had showed great compassion in giving his Son to die for them in this
state, and in pardoning their sins. This was a ground or reason why they should devote
themselves to God.
That ye present - The word used here commonly denotes the action of bringing and
presenting an animal or other sacrifice before an altar. It implies that the action was a
free and voluntary offering. Religion is free; and the act of devoting ourselves to God is
one of the most free that we ever perform.
Your bodies - The bodies of animals were offered in sacrifice. The apostle specifies
their bodies particularly in reference to that fact. Still the entire animal was devoted; and
Paul evidently meant here the same as to say, present Yourselves, your entire person, to
the service of God; compare 1Co_6:16; Jam_3:6. It was not customary or proper to speak
of a sacrifice as an offering of a soul or spirit, in the common language of the Jews; and
hence, the apostle applied their customary language of sacrifice to the offering which
Christians were to make of themselves to God.
A living sacrifice - A sacrifice is an offering made to God as an atonement for sin; or
any offering made to him and his service as an expression of thanksgiving or homage. It
implies that he who offers it presents it entirely, releases all claim or right to it, and
leaves it to be disposed of for the honor of God. In the case of an animal, it was slain, and
the blood offered; in the case of any other offering, as the first-fruits, etc., it was set apart
to the service of God; and he who offered it released all claim on it, and submitted it to
God, to be disposed of at his will. This is the offering which the apostle entreats the
Romans to make: to devote themselves to God, as if they had no longer any claim on
themselves; to be disposed of by him; to suffer and bear all that he might appoint; and to
promote his honor in any way which he might command. This is the nature of true
religion.
Living - ζራσυν zōsun. The expression probably means that they were to devote the
vigorous, active powers of their bodies and souls to the service of God. The Jew offered
his victim, slew it, and presented it dead. It could not be presented again. In opposition
to this, we are to present ourselves with all our living, vital energies. Christianity does
not require a service of death or inactivity. It demands vigorous and active powers in the
service of God the Saviour. There is something very affecting in the view of such a
sacrifice; in regarding life, with all its energies, its intellectual, and moral, and physical
powers, as one long sacrifice; one continued offering unto God. An immortal being
presented to him; presented voluntarily, with all his energies, from day to day, until life
shall close, so that it may he said that he has lived and died an offering made freely unto
God. This is religion.
Holy - This means properly without blemish or defect. No other sacrifice could be
made to God. The Jews were expressly forbid to offer what was lame, or blind, or in
anyway deformed; Deu_15:21; Lev_1:3, Lev_1:10; Lev_3:1; Lev_22:20; Deu_17:1;
compare Mal_1:8. If offered without any of these defects, it was regarded as holy, that is,
appropriately set apart, or consecrated to God. In like manner we are to consecrate to
God our best faculties; the vigor of our minds, and talents, and time. Not the feebleness
of sickness merely; not old age alone; not time which we cannot otherwise employ, but
the first vigor and energies of the mind and body; our youth, and health, and strength.
Our sacrifice to God is to be not divided, separate; but it is to be entire and complete.
Many are expecting to be Christians in sickness; many in old age; thus purposing to offer

4. unto him the blind and the lame. The sacrifice is to be free from sin. It is not to be a
divided, and broken, and polluted service. It is to be with the best affections of our hearts
and lives.
Acceptable unto God - They are exhorted to offer such a sacrifice as will be
acceptable to God; that is, such a one as he had just specified, one that was living and
holy. No sacrifice should be made which is not acceptable to God. The offerings of the
pagan; the pilgrimages of the Muslims; the self-inflicted penalties of the Roman
Catholics, uncommanded by God, cannot be acceptable to him. Those services will be
acceptable to God, and those only, which he appoints; compare Col_2:20-23. People are
not to invent services; or to make crosses; or to seek persecutions and trials; or to
provoke opposition. They are to do just what God requires of them, and that will be
acceptable to God. And this fact, that what we do is acceptable to God, is the highest
recompense we can have. It matters little what people think of us, if God approves what
we do. To please him should be our highest aim; the fact that we do please him is our
highest reward.
Which is your reasonable service - The word rendered “service” λατρείαν latreian
properly denotes worship, or the homage rendered to God. The word “reasonable” with
us means what is “governed by reason; thinking, speaking, or acting conformably to the
dictates of reason” (Webster); or what can be shown to be rational or proper. This does
not express the meaning of the original. That word λογικᆱν logikēn denotes what pertains
to the mind, and a reasonable service means what is mental, or pertaining to reason. It
stands opposed, nor to what is foolish or unreasonable, but to the external service of the
Jews, and such as they relied on for salvation. The worship of the Christian is what
pertains to the mind, or is spiritual; that of the Jew was external. Chrysostom renders
this phrase “your spiritual ministry.” The Syriac, “That ye present your bodies, etc., by a
rational ministry.”
We may learn from this verse,
(1) That the proper worship of God is the free homage of the mind. It is not forced or
constrained. The offering of ourselves should be voluntary. No other can be a true
offering, and none other can be acceptable.
(2) We are to offer our entire selves, all that we have and are, to God. No other offering
can be such as he will approve.
(3) The character of God is such as should lead us to that. It is a character of mercy; of
long-continued and patient forbearance, and it should influence us to devote
ourselves to him.
(4) It should be done without delay. God is as worthy of such service now as he ever
will or can be. He has every possible claim on our affections and our hearts.
CLARKE, “I beseech you therefore, brethren - This address is probably intended
both for the Jews and the Gentiles; though some suppose that the Jews are addressed in
the first verse, the Gentiles in the second.
By the mercies of God! - ∆ια των οικτιρµων του Θεου· By the tender mercies or
compassions of God, such as a tender father shows to his refractory children; who, on
their humiliation, is easily persuaded to forgive their offenses. The word οικτιρµος comes

5. from οικτος, compassion; and that from εικω, to yield; because he that has compassionate
feelings is easily prevailed on to do a kindness, or remit an injury.
That ye present your bodies - A metaphor taken from bringing sacrifices to the
altar of God. The person offering picked out the choicest of his flock, brought it to the
altar, and presented it there as an atonement for his sin. They are exhorted to give
themselves up in the spirit of sacrifice; to be as wholly the Lord’s property as the whole
burnt-offering was, no part being devoted to any other use.
A living sacrifice - In opposition to those dead sacrifices which they were in the
habit of offering while in their Jewish state; and that they should have the lusts of the
flesh mortified, that they might live to God.
Holy - Without spot or blemish; referring still to the sacrifice required by the law.
Acceptable unto God - Ευαρεστον· The sacrifice being perfect in its kind, and the
intention of the offerer being such that both can be acceptable and well pleasing to God,
who searches the heart. All these phrases are sacrificial, and show that there must be a
complete surrender of the person - the body, the whole man, mind and flesh, to be given
to God; and that he is to consider himself no more his own, but the entire property of his
Maker.
Your reasonable service - Nothing can be more consistent with reason than that
the work of God should glorify its Author. We are not our own, we are the property of the
Lord, by the right of creation and redemption; and it would be as unreasonable as it
would be wicked not to live to his glory, in strict obedience to his will. The reasonable
service, λογικην λατρειαν, of the apostle, may refer to the difference between the Jewish
and Christian worship. The former religious service consisted chiefly in its sacrifices,
which were δι’ αλογων, of irrational creatures, i.e. the lambs, rams, kids, bulls, goats, etc.,
which were offered under the law. The Christian service or worship is λογικη, rational,
because performed according to the true intent and meaning of the law; the heart and
soul being engaged in the service. He alone lives the life of a fool and a madman who
lives the life of a sinner against God; for, in sinning against his Maker he wrongs his own
soul, loves death, and rewards evil unto himself.
Reasonable service, λογικην λατρειαν, “a religious service according to reason,” one
rationally performed. The Romanists make this distinction between λατρεια, and δουλεια,
latreia and douleia, (or dulia, as they corruptly write it), worship and service, which they
say signify two kinds of religious worship; the first proper to God, the other
communicated to the creatures. But δουλεια, douleia, services, is used by the Septuagint
to express the Divine worship. See Deu_13:4; Jdg_2:7; 1Sa_7:3, and 1Sa_12:10 : and in
the New Testament, Mat_6:24; Luk_6:23; Rom_16:18; Col_3:24. The angel refused
δουλειαν, douleia, Rev_22:7, because he was συνδουλος sundoulos, a fellow servant; and
the Divine worship is more frequently expressed by this word δουλεια, douleia, service,
than by λατρεια, latreia, worship. The first is thirty-nine times in the Old and New
Testament ascribed unto God, the other about thirty times; and latreia, worship or
service, is given unto the creatures, as in Lev_23:7, Lev_23:8, Lev_23:21; Num_28:18;
yea, the word signifies cruel and base bondage, Deu_28:48 : once in the New Testament
it is taken for the worship of the creatures, Rom_1:25. The worshipping of idols is

6. forbidden under the word λατρεια, latreia, thirty-four times in the Old Testament, and
once in the New, as above; and twenty-three times under the term δουλεια, douleia, in the
Old Testament; and St. Paul uses δουλευειν Θεᆞ, and λατρευειν Θεᆞ indifferently, for the
worship we owe to God. See Rom_1:9, Rom_1:25; Rom_12:1, Gal_4:8, Gal_4:9;
1Th_1:9; Mat_6:24. And Ludouicus Vives, a learned Romanist, has proved out of Suidas,
Xenophon, and Volla, that these two words are usually taken the one for the other,
therefore the popish distinction, that the first signifies “the religious worship due only to
God,” and the second, “that which is given to angels, saints, and men,” is unlearned and
false. - See Leigh’s Crit. Sacra.
GILL, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,.... The
apostle having finished the doctrinal part of this epistle, proceeds to that which is more
practical; and enforces the several duties of religion, upon the principles he had before
laid down, a method generally observed by him in all his epistles. The illative particle
"therefore", shows that the following exhortations are so many conclusions,
consequences, and inferences, deduced from what had been said in the latter part of the
preceding chapter; that since all things are of God, and by him and to him, then the
saints ought to present their bodies to him, and to know, approve, and do his will; and
since they have nothing but what they have received from him, they ought not to think
too highly of, or glory in their attainments. The introduction to these exhortations, is in a
very kind and affectionate manner; the saints are addressed as "brethren", and very
appropriately; since this expresses the relation they stood in to the apostle, for whom he
had an hearty love and concern; and therefore what he pressed them to was out of a
sincere regard to their good, as well as to the glory of God; also their relation to each
other, and which several of the duties he urges had a connection with; likewise their
relation to God, being of his family, having one and the same Father, and so under
obligation to regard his will, honour and reverence him: moreover, these things are
moved, not in an imperious way, in an authoritative manner, but by way of entreaty, "I
beseech you"; as an ambassador of Christ, and as though in his stead: nor are they
enforced by terrors, threats, and menaces, but "by the mercies of God"; that is, the
abundant mercy of God, displayed in their election, regeneration, and calling; than
which, nothing can have a greater influence on a believer, to engage him to holiness of
life and conversation; and shows, that the doctrines of grace are no licentious ones, nor
do they render useless precepts, exhortations, entreaties, cautions, and advice,
particularly such as follow;
that ye present your bodies; not barely that part of them commonly so called, for
this is not to be understood of a mere presentation of the body in public worship: for
though this ought to be, yet not without the heart engaged therein, otherwise bodily
exercise will be of no avail; nor of a bare abstinence from grosser sins done in the body,
and against it, and which defile and dishonour it; much less of a maceration, and keeping
under the body, by watchings, fasting, &c. and still less of an offering of the body at death
in a way of martyrdom, though this ought to be cheerfully complied with when called for:
but by their bodies are meant, themselves, their whole souls and bodies, all the powers
and faculties of their souls, and members of their bodies; and the presenting of them,
designs a devoting of them, with all readiness and willingness, to the service of God for
his honour and glory, without putting any confidence in, or placing any dependence

7. upon them; which would be sacrificing to their own net, and burning incense to their
drag; it includes the whole of their service, conversation, and religion, internal and
external. So the Jews (k) say,
"worthy is the portion of the righteous, who offer every day this offering before the Lord;
and what is it? ‫ונפשייהו‬ ‫,גרמייהו‬ "their bodies and their souls", which they offer before him.''
The allusion is to the rite of sacrificing, to the bringing of the slain beast, and laying it on the
altar, and there presenting and offering it to the Lord. Under the Gospel dispensation all
believers are priests; and the sacrifices they bring are not the bodies of slain beasts, but their own
bodies, their whole selves; and these
a living sacrificea living sacrificea living sacrificea living sacrifice, in opposition to the bodies of slain beasts offered under the legal dispensation,
and to the dead works of such as are destitute of faith in Christ, and to the lifeless performances
of the saints themselves at certain times; and designs such a presentation of themselves in the
performance of religious duties, as springs from a principle of life under the quickening
influences of the Spirit of God, with faith and fervency; though without any view to obtain life
hereby, for that is only by the offering up of the body of Christ once for all. Another epithet of
this sacrifice of our bodies to God is
holyholyholyholy, in allusion to the sacrifices under the law, which were separated from common use, and
devoted to God, and were not to have the least spot and blemish in them; and regards men
sanctified by the Spirit of God, and whose actions flow from a principle of holiness, and are
performed under the influence of the Holy Spirit; and such sacrifices as are both living and holy,
cannot but be
acceptable to Godacceptable to Godacceptable to Godacceptable to God through the mediation of his Son, by whom, as the persons, the souls and
bodies of his people, so their spiritual sacrifices, whether of prayer or praise, are only acceptable
to him:
which is your reasonable servicewhich is your reasonable servicewhich is your reasonable servicewhich is your reasonable service; it is agreeably to reason, and especially as sanctified, that men
who have their beings from God, and are upheld in them by him, and are followed with the
bounties of Providence; and especially who are made new creatures, and are blessed by him with
all spiritual blessings in Christ, that they should give up themselves to him, and cheerfully serve
him in their day and generation; such service is also agreeably to the Scriptures of truth, the
standard of filth and practice, and contain and enforce nothing but what is highly reasonable to

8. be complied with; it is such service as lies not in the slaying of irrational creatures, but in the
presenting of men endued with rational powers unto God; and is of a spiritual nature, performed
by spiritual men, under the influence of the Spirit of God: and is suitable to the nature and
perfections of God, and stands opposed to the corporeal and carnal service of the Jews.
HE RY, “We may observe here, according to the scheme mentioned in the
contents, the apostle's exhortations,
I. Concerning our duty to God, We see what is godliness.
1. It is to surrender ourselves to God, and so to lay a good foundation. We must first
give our own selves unto the Lord, 2Co_8:5. This is here pressed as the spring of all duty
and obedience, Rom_12:1, Rom_12:2. Man consists of body and soul, Gen_2:7;
Ecc_12:7.
(1.) The body must be presented to him, Rom_12:1. The body is for the Lord, and the
Lord for the body, 1Co_6:13, 1Co_6:14. The exhortation is here introduced very
pathetically: I beseech you, brethren. Though he was a great apostle, yet he calls the
meanest Christians brethren, a term of affection and concern. He uses entreaty; this is
the gospel way: As though God did beseech you by us, 2Co_5:20. Though he might with
authority command, yet for love's sake he rather beseeches, Phm_1:8, Phm_1:9. The
poor useth entreaty, Pro_18:23. This is to insinuate the exhortation, that it might come
with the more pleasing power. Many are sooner wrought upon if they be accosted kindly,
are more easily led than driven. Now observe,
[1.] The duty pressed - to present our bodies a living sacrifice, alluding to the sacrifices
under the law, which were presented or set before God at the altar, ready to be offered to
him. Your bodies - your whole selves; so expressed because under the law the bodies of
beasts were offered in sacrifice, 1Co_6:20. Our bodies and spirits are intended. The
offering was sacrificed by the priest, but presented by the offerer, who transferred to God
all his right, title, and interest in it, by laying his hand on the head of it. Sacrifice is here
taken for whatsoever is by God's own appointment dedicated to himself; see 1Pe_2:5. We
are temple, priest, and sacrifice, as Christ was in his peculiar sacrificing. There were
sacrifices of atonement and sacrifices of acknowledgment. Christ, who was once offered
to bear the sins of many, is the only sacrifice of atonement; but our persons and
performances, tendered to God through Christ our priest, are as sacrifices of
acknowledgment to the honour of God. Presenting them denotes a voluntary act, done by
virtue of that absolute despotic power which the will has over the body and all the
members of it. It must be a free-will offering. Your bodies; not your beasts. Those legal
offerings, as they had their power from Christ, so they had their period in Christ. The
presenting of the body to God implies not only the avoiding of the sins that are
committed with or against the body, but the using of the body as a servant of the soul in
the service of God. It is to glorify God with our bodies (1Co_6:20), to engage our bodies
in the duties of immediate worship, and in a diligent attendance to our particular
callings, and be willing to suffer for God with our bodies, when we are called to it. It is to
yield the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness, Rom_6:13. Though
bodily exercise alone profits little, yet in its place it is a proof and product of the
dedication of our souls to God. First, Present them a living sacrifice; not killed, as the
sacrifices under the law. A Christian makes his body a sacrifice to God, though he does
not give it to be burned. A body sincerely devoted to God is a living sacrifice. A living
sacrifice, by way of allusion - that which was dead of itself might not be eaten, much less

9. sacrificed, Deu_14:21; and by ways of opposition - “The sacrifice was to be slain, but you
may be sacrificed, and yet live on” - an unbloody sacrifice. The barbarous heathen
sacrificed their children to their idol-gods, not living, but slain sacrifices: but God will
have mercy, and not such sacrifice, though life is forfeited to him. A living sacrifice, that
is, inspired with the spiritual life of the soul. It is Christ living in the soul by faith that
makes the body a living sacrifice, Gal_2:20. Holy love kindles the sacrifices, puts life into
the duties; see Rom_6:13. Alive, that is, to God, Rom_6:11. Secondly, They must be holy.
There is a relative holiness in every sacrifice, as dedicated to God. But, besides this, there
must be that real holiness which consists in an entire rectitude of heart and life, by which
we are conformed in both to the nature and will of God: even our bodies must not be
made the instruments of sin and uncleanness, but set apart for God, and put to holy uses,
as the vessels of the tabernacle were holy, being devoted to God's service. It is the soul
that is the proper subject of holiness; but a sanctified soul communicates a holiness to
the body it actuates and animates. That is holy which is according to the will of God;
when the bodily actions are no, the body is holy. They are the temples of the Holy Ghost,
1Co_6:19. Possess the body in sanctification, 1Th_4:4, 1Th_4:5.
[2.] The arguments to enforce this, which are three: - First, Consider the mercies of
God: I beseech you by the mercies of God. An affectionate obtestation, and which should
melt us into a compliance: dia tōn oiktirmōn tou Theou. This is an argument most sweetly
cogent. There is the mercy that is in God and the mercy that is from God-mercy in the
spring and mercy in the streams: both are included here; but especially gospel-mercies
(mentioned ch. 11), the transferring of what the Jews forfeited and lost by their unbelief
unto us Gentiles (Eph_3:4-6): the sure mercies of David, Isa_55:3. God is a merciful
God, therefore let us present our bodies to him; he will be sure to use them kindly, and
knows how to consider the frames of them, for he is of infinite compassion. We receive
from him every day the fruits of his mercy, particularly mercy to our bodies: he made
them, he maintains them, he bought them, he has put a great dignity upon them. It is of
the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, that our souls are held in life; and the
greatest mercy of all is that Christ hath made not his body only, but his soul, an offering
for sin, that he gave himself for us and gives himself to us. Now surely we cannot but be
studying what we shall render to the Lord for all this. And what shall we render? Let us
render ourselves as an acknowledgment of all these favours - all we are, all we have, all
we can do; and, after all, it is but very poor returns for very rich receivings: and yet,
because it is what we have, Secondly, It is acceptable to God. The great end we should all
labour after is to be accepted of the Lord (2Co_5:9), to have him well-pleased with our
persons and performances. Now these living sacrifices are acceptable to God; while the
sacrifices of the wicked, though fat and costly, are an abomination to the Lord. It is God's
great condescension that he will vouchsafe to accept of any thing in us; and we can desire
no more to make us happy; and, if the presenting of ourselves will but please him, we
may easily conclude that we cannot bestow ourselves better. Thirdly, It is our reasonable
service. There is an act of reason in it; for it is the soul that presents the body. Blind
devotion, that has ignorance for the mother and nurse of it, is fit to be paid only to those
dunghill-gods that have eyes and see not. Our God must be served in the spirit and with
the understanding. There is all the reason in the world for it, and no good reason can
possibly be produced against it. Come now, and let us reason together, Isa_1:18. God
does not impose upon us any thing hard or unreasonable, but that which is altogether
agreeable to the principles of right reason. Tēn logikēn latreian humōn - your service
according to the word; so it may be read. The word of God does not leave out the body in
holy worship. That service only is acceptable to God which is according to the written
word. It must be gospel worship, spiritual worship. That is a reasonable service which we

10. are able and ready to give a reason for, in which we understand ourselves. God deals with
us as with rational creatures, and will have us so to deal with him. Thus must the body be
presented to God.
JAMISO , “Rom_12:1-21. Duties of believers, general and particular.
The doctrinal teaching of this Epistle is now followed up by a series of exhortations to
practical duty. And first, the all-comprehensive duty.
I beseech you therefore — in view of all that has been advanced in the foregoing
part of this Epistle.
by the mercies of God — those mercies, whose free and unmerited nature, glorious
Channel, and saving fruits have been opened up at such length.
that ye present — See on Rom_6:13, where we have the same exhortation and the
same word there rendered “yield” (as also in Rom_12:16, Rom_12:19).
your bodies — that is, “yourselves in the body,” considered as the organ of the inner
life. As it is through the body that all the evil that is in the unrenewed heart comes forth
into palpable manifestation and action, so it is through the body that all the gracious
principles and affections of believers reveal themselves in the outward life. Sanctification
extends to the whole man (1Th_5:23, 1Th_5:24).
a living sacrifice — in glorious contrast to the legal sacrifices, which, save as they
were slain, were no sacrifices at all. The death of the one “Lamb of God, taking away the
sin of the world,” has swept all dead victims from off the altar of God, to make room for
the redeemed themselves as “living sacrifices” to Him who made “Him to be sin for us”;
while every outgoing of their grateful hearts in praise, and every act prompted by the love
of Christ, is itself a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor (Heb_13:15, Heb_13:16).
holy — As the Levitical victims, when offered without blemish to God, were regarded
as holy, so believers, “yielding themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead,
and their members as instruments of righteousness unto God,” are, in His estimation,
not ritually but really “holy,” and so
acceptable — “well-pleasing”
unto God — not as the Levitical offerings, merely as appointed symbols of spiritual
ideas, but objects, intrinsically, of divine complacency, in their renewed character, and
endeared relationship to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.
which is your reasonable — rather, “rational”
service — in contrast, not to the senselessness of idol-worship, but to the offering of
irrational victims under the law. In this view the presentation of ourselves, as living
monuments of redeeming mercy, is here called “our rational service”; and surely it is the
most rational and exalted occupation of God’s reasonable creatures. So 2Pe_1:5, “to offer
up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
SPURGEO , “Rom_12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
Paul is a calm reasoner. He is a bold starer of truth, but here he comes to pleading with us. I think
that I see him lift the pen from the paper and look round upon us, as. with the accent of entreaty, he
says, “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, by God’s great mercy to you, his
many mercies, his CONTINUED mercies.” What stronger plea could the Apostle have? “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.”
Rom_12:1. By the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,

11. holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Though he beseeches you to do it, he claims a right to it. It is but your reasonable service. Do we
need to be entreated to be reasonable? I am afraid that we do sometimes. And what are we to do?
To present our bodies to God, not our souls alone, to make real, practical work of it. Let this flesh
and blood in which your body dwells be presented unto God, not to be killed and to be a dead
sacrifice, but to live and still to be a sacrifice, a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable to him.
This is reasonable. God help us to carry it out.
PULPIT, “I beseech you therefore, brethren (he does not command, as did Moses in the
Law; he beseeches; he is but a fellow-servant, with his brethren, of Christ; he does not "lord it over
God's heritage" (cf. 1Pe_5:3), but trusts that they will of their own accord respond to "the mercies of
God" in Christ, which he has set before them), by the mercies of God ("Qui misericordia Dei recte
movetur in omnem Dei voluntatem ingreditur. At anima irae obnoxia vix quiddam juvatur
adhortationibus," Bengel), that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. The verb παραστῆσαι is the usual one for
the presenting of sacrificial animals at the altar (Xen., 'Anab.,' 6.1.22; Lucian, 'De Sacrif.,' 13.
The LXX in LeRom_16:7, Rom_16:10, has στήσει . Cf. Luk_2:22 : Col_1:22, Col_1:28,
and supra, 6.13). Our bodies are here specified, with probable reference to the bodies of victims
which were offered in the old ritual. But our offering differs from them in being "a living sacrifice,"
replete with life and energy to do God's will (cf. Psa_40:6, Psa_40:7, Psa_40:8,
and Heb_10:5, Heb_10:6, Heb_10:7), yea, and oven inspired with a new life—a life from the dead
(Rom_6:13). Further, the thought is suggested of the abuse of the body to uncleanness prevalent in
heathen society (cf. Rom_1:24). The bodies of Christians are "members of Christ," "temples of the
Holy Ghost," consecrated to God, and to be devoted to his service (cf. 1Co_6:15, etc.); and not in
heart only, but in actual life, of which the body is the agent, we are to offer ourselves, after the
example of Christ. Your reasonable service ( τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν ὑµῶν ) must be taken in
apposition to "present your bodies, rather than to "sacrifice," it being the act of offering, and not the
thing offered. that constitutes the λατρεία . This word is especially used for the ceremonial worship
of the Old Testament
(cf. Exo_12:25, Exo_12:26; Exo_13:5; Rom_9:4; Heb_8:5; Heb_9:1, Heb_9:6, Heb_9:9; Heb_10:2;
Heb_13:10), the counterpart of which in Christians is, according to St. Paul, not ceremonial service,
but rather that of a devoted life (cf. Act_27:23; Rom_1:9; Php_3:3; 2Ti_1:3; Hebrews 41:28). The
epithet λογικὴν has been variously understood. It probably means rational,denoting a moral and
spiritual serving of God, in implied opposition to mechanical acts of outward worship. "Respectu
intellectus et voluntatis" (Bengel). It may be taken to express the same idea as οἱ Πνεῦµατι
Θεῷ λατρεύοντες (Php_3:3), and πνευµατικὴν θυσίαν (1Pe_2:7; of. Joh_4:24). Though the offering
of the body is being spoken of, yet "bodily self-sacrifice is an ethical act" (Meyer). Cf. 1Co_6:20. The
word itself occurs in the New Testament only here and in 1Pe_2:2, where its meaning, though
obscure, may be similar.
CALVI , “After having handled those things necessary for the erection of the kingdom of God,
— that righteousness is to be sought from God alone, that salvation is to come to us alone from his
mercy, that all blessings are laid up and daily offered to us in Christ only, — Paul now passes on,
according to the best order, to show how the life is to be formed. If it be, that through the saving
knowledge of God and of Christ, the soul is, as it were, regenerated into a celestial life, and that the
life is in a manner formed and regulated by holy exhortations and precepts; it is then in vain that you
show a desire to form the life aright, except you prove first, that the origin of all righteousness in
men is in God and Christ; for this is to raise them from the dead.
And this is the main difference between the gospel and philosophy: for though the philosophers
speak excellently and with great judgment on the subject of morals, yet whatever excellencyshines

12. forth in their precepts, it is, as it were, a beautiful superstructure without a foundation; for by omitting
principles, they offer a mutilated doctrine, like a body without a head. Not very unlike this is the
mode of teaching under the Papacy: for though they mention, by the way, faith in Christ and the
grace of the Holy Spirit, it yet appears quite evident, that they approach heathen philosophers far
nearer than Christ and his Apostles.
But as philosophers, before they lay down laws respecting morals, discourse first of the end of what
is good, and inquire into the sources of virtues, from which afterwards they draw and derive all
duties; so Paul lays down here the principle from which all the duties of holiness flow, even this, —
that we are redeemed by the Lord for this end — that we may consecrate to him ourselves and all
our members. But it may be useful to examine every part.
1.I therefore beseech you by the mercies (miserationes — compassions) of God, etc. We know that
unholy men, in order to gratify the flesh, anxiously lay hold on whatever is set forth in Scripture
respecting the infinite goodness of God; and hypocrites also, as far as they can, maliciously darken
the knowledge of it, as though the grace of God extinguished the desire for a godly life, and opened
to audacity the door of sin. But this exhortation teaches us, that until men really apprehend how
much they owe to the mercy of God, they will never with a right feeling worship him, nor be
effectually stimulated to fear and obey him. It is enough for the Papists, if they can extort by terror
some sort of forced obedience, I know not what. But Paul, that he might bind us to God, not by
servile fear, but by the voluntary and cheerful love of righteousness, allures us by the sweetness of
that favor, by which our salvation is effected; and at the same time he reproaches us with
ingratitude, except we, after having found a Father so kind and bountiful, do strive in our turn to
dedicate ourselves wholly to him. (377)
And what Paul says, in thus exhorting us, ought to have more power over us, inasmuch as he
excels all others in setting forth the grace of God. Iron indeed must be the heart which is not kindled
by the doctrine which has been laid down into love towards God, whose kindness towards itself it
finds to have been so abounding. Where then are they who think that all exhortations to a holy life
are nullified, if the salvation of men depends on the grace of God alone, since by no precepts, by no
sanctions, is a pious mind so framed to render obedience to God, as by a serious meditation on the
Divine goodness towards it?
We may also observe here the benevolence of the Apostle’ spirit, — that he preferred to deal with
the faithful by admonitions and friendly exhortations rather than by strict commands; for heknew that
he could prevail more with the teachable in this way than in any other.
That ye present YOUR bodies, etc. It is then the beginning of a right course in good works, when
we understand that we are consecrated to the Lord; for it hence follows, that we must cease to live
to ourselves, in order that we may devote all the actions of our life to his service.
There are then two things to be considered here, — the first, that we are the Lord’ — and secondly,
that we ought on this ACCOUNT to be holy, for it is an indignity to God’ holiness, that anything,
not first consecrated, should be offered to him. These two things being admitted, it then follows that
holiness is to be practiced through life, and that we are guilty of a kind ofsacrilege when we relapse
into uncleanness, as it is nothing else than to profane what is consecrated.
But there is throughout a great suitableness in the expressions. He says first, that our body ought to
be offered a sacrifice to God; by which he implies that we are not our own, but have entirely passed
over so as to become the property of God; which cannot be, except we renounce ourselves and
thus deny ourselves. Then, secondly, by adding two adjectives, he shows what sort of sacrifice this
ought to be. By calling it living, he intimates, that we are sacrificed to the Lord for this end, — that
our former life being destroyed in us, we may be raised up to a new life. By the term holy, he points
out that which necessarily belongs to a sacrifice, already noticed; for a victim is then only approved,
when it had been previously made holy. By the third word,acceptable, he reminds us, that our life is

13. framed aright, when this sacrifice is so made as to be pleasing to God: he brings to us at the same
time no common consolation; for he teaches us, that our work is pleasing and acceptable to God
when we devote ourselves to purity and holiness.
By bodies he means not only our bones and skin, but the whole mass of which we are composed;
and he adopted this word, that he might more fully designate all that we are: for the members of the
body are the instruments by which we execute our purposes. (378) He indeed requires from us
holiness, not only as to the body, but also as to the soul and spirit, as in1Th_5:23. In bidding us
to present our bodies, he alludes to the Mosaic sacrifices, which were presented at the altar, as it
were in the presence of God. But he shows, at the same time, in a striking manner, how prompt we
ought to be to receive the commands of God, that we may without delay obey them.
Hence we learn, that all mortals, whose object is not to worship God, do nothing but miserably
wander and go astray. We now also find what sacrifices Paul recommends to the Christian Church:
for being reconciled to God through the one only true sacrifice of Christ, we are all through his grace
made priests, in order that we may dedicate ourselves and all we have to the glory of God. No
sacrifice of expiation is wanted; and no one can be set up, without casting a manifest reproach on
the cross of Christ.
Your reasonable service This sentence, I think, was added, that he might more clearly apply
and CONFIRM the preceding exhortation, as though he had said, — “ yourselves a, sacrifice to
God, if ye have it in your heart to serve God: for this is the right way of serving God; from which, if
any depart, they are but false worshippers.” If then only God is rightly worshipped, when we observe
all things according to what he has prescribed, away then with all those devised modes of worship,
which he justly abominates, since he values obedience more than sacrifice. Men are indeed
pleased with their own inventions, which have an empty show of wisdom, as Paul says in another
place; but we learn here what the celestial Judge declares in opposition to this by the mouth of Paul;
for by calling that a reasonable service which he commands, he repudiates as foolish, insipid, and
presumptuous, whatever we attempt beyond the rule of his word. (379)
(377) By “” the Apostle refers, as some think, to the various sects of God’ mercy, such as election,
vocation, justification, and final salvation. [Grotius ] considers that God’ attributes are referred to,
such as are described in Exo_34:6. [Erasmus ], QUOTING [Origen ], says, that the plural is used
for amplification, in order to show the greatness of God’ mercy, as though the Apostle had said, “
God’ great mercy.” [Schleusner ] renders the clause, “per summam Dei benignitatem — by God’
great kindness,” that is, in bringing you to the knowledge of the gospel. So “ of mercies,” in 2Co_1:3,
may mean “ merciful Father,” or the meaning may be, “ Father of all blessings,” as mercy signifies
sometimes what mercy bestows, (Phi_2:1,) as grace or favor often means the gift which flows from
it. According to this view, “” here are the blessings which God bestows, even the blessings of
redemption. — Ed.
(378) The word σώµατα “” he seems to have used, because of the similitude he adopts respecting
sacrifices; for the bodies of beasts we are to consecrate our own bodies. As he meant before by
“” Rom_6:13, the whole man, so he means here by “” that is, themselves.
They were to be living sacrifices, not killed as the legal sacrifices, they were to be holy, not maimed
or defective, but whole and perfect as to all the members, and free from disease. SeeLev_22:19.
They were to be acceptable , εὐάρεστον “placentem — pleasing,” [Beza ]; “” [Doddridge ]. It was not
sufficient under the law for the sacrifices themselves to be holy, blameless, such as God required;
but a right motive and a right feeling on the part of the offerer were necessary, in order that they
might be accepted or approved by God. Without faith and repentance, and a reformed life, they
were not accepted, but regarded as abominations. See Psa_51:19; Isa_1:11

14. It is said by [Wolfius ], that all the terms here are derived from the sacrificial rites of the law, and that
Christians are represented both as the priests who offered, and as the sacrifices which were offered
by them. — Ed.
(379) The word λογικὴν “” was considered by [Origen ], and by many after him, as designating
Christian service consonant with reason, in opposition to the sacrifices under the law, which were
not agreeable to reason. But [Chrysostom ], whom also many have followed, viewed the word as
meaning what is spiritual, or what belongs to the mind, in contradistinction to the ritual and external
service of the law; but there is no example of the word having such a meaning, except it
be 1Pe_2:2, which is by no means decisive. Rational, or reasonable, is its meaning, or,
what AGREES with the word, as Phavorinus explains it. There is no need here to suppose any
contrast: the expression only designates the act or the service which the Apostle prescribes; as
though he said, “ I exhort you to do is nothing but a reasonable service, consistent with the dictates
of reason. God has done great things for you, and it is nothing but right and just that you should
dedicate yourselves wholly to him.” This seems to be the obvious meaning. To draw this expression
to another subject, in order to set up reason as an umpire in matters of faith, is wholly a perversion:
and to say, that as it seems to refer to the word in 1Pe_2:2, it must be so considered here, is what
does not necessarily follow; for as λόγος sometimes means “” and sometimes “” so its derivative
may have a similar variety. — Ed.
Unknown author, “Pursue God and in pursuing God He will make your paths
straight (Prov. 3:5-6) by reveavling Himself, His Word, and His ways to you. As we
continue to pursue the Lord we become more atuned to His will. It’s as if we have an
antenna and as we run after God the picture becomes more and more clear. Then
we are able to say, “Oh, I understand God! (As far as we can humanly, that is.)
Your ways really do work and are perfect.” And the more we see the clear picture,
the more we trust in God and see experientally that His ways are perfect. The best
part of it is that as we continue along our hearts are changed, we are transformed as
we stare at the face of Christ. Reflect with me today on your pursuit of Christ. Ask
yourself, “Do I struggle with knowing what God’s will for me is?” If yes, then ask
the Lord, “Why?” Is it unbelief? Rebellion? Fear? Whatever it is confess it before
Him today.”
Unknown author, “We offer ourselves to God since He has shown us such great
mercy. As I was studying, I came across a different translation of this verse and it
was just so wonderful to me, “When you think of what he has done for you, is this
too much to ask?” ( LT) I think that hits it on the head. So often we can come up
with excuses, mostly without even being conciously aware, of why we shouldn’t or
can’t fully give ourselves to God. That’s why I love this translation, When you think
of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?” Seriously, is it too much for
God to ask for our complete dedication when he gave up His Son for us? ow, how
can anyone answer, “Yes, it is too much to ask!” Who would even be so bold? It’s a
humbling question that our hearts already know the answer. Offering our self to
God is not only an act of spiritual worship or submission, but it is giving Him what
is rightfully His, “You are not your own [...] You were bought with a price.
Therefore, honor God with your body” (1 Cor. 6:19b-20).

15. Beet, “We present our bodies when we resolve to look
upon them henceforth as belonging only to God, and resolve to use
our bodily powers only to advance His purposes. This is practi-
cally the same as presenting ourselves to God : for only through our
body does the world act upon us and we upon the world. But the
mode of thought is different. This ver. looks upon the man within
as the priest who lays upon the altar, not the body of a dead sheep,
but his own living body. Sacrifice: Phil. iv. 18, Heb. xiii. 1$,
I P. ii. 5. Our body has now the sacredness associated in the
mind of a Jew with the animals laid on the brazen altar. Living :
suggested by the contrast of the Mosaic sacrifices. While our feet
can run and our lips speak, we give them to God that they may
run and speak for Him. Holy, Presentation to God makes our
bodies holy, as it did the sacrificial animals, Ex. xxix. 37. Hence-
forth our bodies exist only to work out God's purposes. Comp.
carefully vi. 19. Well-pleasing to God: xiv. 18, 2 Cor. v. 9, Eph.
v. 10, Phil. iv. 18, Heb. xiii. 16, 21. Although the bodies of some
of Paul's readers had been defiled by sin, and their powers wasted
in the service of idols, yet when laid upon the altar they were
acceptable to God. They were acceptable because a man's own
body is the noblest sacrifice he has to offer. Service : as in i. 9,
25, ix. 4, Heb. ix. I, 6. It keeps up the reference to Jewish ritual.
To present our bodies, is the worship prescribed by God for us
Rational, A Mosaic sacrifice might be a purely mechanical offer-
ing in which the intelligence had no part. But the sacrifice re-
quired from us, since it is our own body, can be offered only by the

16. act of the reasoning spirit within.
Bosworth, “General statement: Though the present evil age
has not yet ended you must no longer live its life.
Through the spiritual re-enforcement that your
higher nature has experienced you must even now
live the life of the Spirit Age to come and make pre-
liminary demonstration of the will of God, 12: 1-2.”
"Since God through all the generations has been mercifully
preparing the race for the glory of the New Age, I beseech you,
my Brothers who have yielded to his mercy and have felt the
power of the New Age, to take the very flesh bodies, which once
made you slaves of sin and which still link you to this present
evil age of flesh, and lay them resolutely on the altar of God.
Let them be a living sacrifice, untouched by priestly knife, purified
from all the base uses they once served, no longer a foul offense to
God but well pleasing to him. This will be the fitting form of
worship for you to offer to God in the spiritual world which you
have begun to enter (i). Do not follow the pattern of life that
prevails in this evil age, but live as if you had already been
granted the glorious bodies that shall be yours in the New Age.
This is now possible since your higher nature has been so re-
enforced that you are able to make demonstration of the will of
God, doing everything that is good, well-pleasing to him, and as
it shall be in the perfect Coming Age
It takes believing passages like 1CO 6:19-20 "Or do you not know that your body is

17. a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you
are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body."
This is taught in ROM 6:13 "and do not go on presenting the members of your body to
sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
Some style him the pearl of great price,
And says he 's the fountain of joys ;
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys :
Like Judas, the Savior they kiss,
And while they salute him, betray :
Ah ! what will profession like this
Avail in his terrible day ?
If ask'd what of Jesus I think ?
Though still my best thoughts are but poor ;
I say. He 's my meat and my drink.
My life, and my strength, and my store.
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
My Saviour from sin and from thrall,
My hope from beginning to end.
My portion, my Lord, and my all.
GEORGE MATHESON, “So is it with Thee, Thou Son of the Highest.
Thou hast nothing to attract but Thine own
beauty. Thou hast put off the best robe of
the Father; Thou hast assumed the dress of
the prodigal son. It is in a soiled garment that
Thou hast solicited my love. Thou hast come
to me footsore and weary — a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. Thou hast offered
me no gifts of material glory. Thou hast asked
me to share Thy poverty. Thou hast said:

18. " Wilt thou come with me to the place where
the thorns are rifest, to the land where the roses
are most rare? Wilt thou follow me down
the deep shadows of Gethsemane, up the steep
heights of Calvary? Wilt thou go with me
where the hungry cry for bread, where the sick
implore for health, where the weary weep for
rest? Wilt thou accompany me where pain
dwells, where danger lurks, where death lies?
Wilt thou walk with me through the lanes and
alleys where the poor meet and struggle and
die? Wilt thou live with me where the world
passes by in scorn, where fashion pauses not
to rest, where even disciples have of ten. for-
saken me and fled? Then is thy love com-
plete, my triumph perfected. Then have I
reached the summit of human glory; for thou
hast chosen me for myself alone, and without
the aid of earth I have drawn thy heart to
heaven."
CHARLES SIMEON, “DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD RECOMMENDED
Rom_12:1. 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.
THE end of all true religion is, to bring men to God. From him they have fallen, and to him must they
be restored. Whatever INSTRUCTIONS have not this object in view, are of small value. The
Gospel itself would be an empty speculation, if it did not teach us to hope for some practical effects.
There are some who would separate principle from practice: but not so the Apostle Paul: he
expected not fruit indeed without a root; nor hoped to raise an edifice, without laying a foundation:
but, when his foundation was firmly laid, he deferred not to build upon it. In all the preceding part of
this epistle he has shewn how sinners are to find acceptance with God; and has proved the
sovereignty of God in the disposal of his blessings. But, having finished his argument, he does not
leave us there; he goes on to shew the practical effects of his principles; and urges us, from the
consideration of all God’s mercies, to devote ourselves unreservedly to his service.
That we may ENTER fully into the exhortation before us, we shall consider,

19. I. The duty to which we are exhorted—
There is in the words before us an evident allusion to the sacrifices that were offered under the law.
The victims were brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and were there slain;
and their bodies were disposed of according to the particular directions given in the law, as suited to
the occasions on which the offerings were made; some being wholly burnt upon the altar, and
others partly burnt, and partly eaten by those who ministered before the Lord. In reference to these,
we are required to “present our bodies (which is here put for our whole selves) a living sacrifice unto
the Lord;” that is, we should, with the full concurrence of our inmost souls, devote ourselves to God,
1. To fulfil his will—
[We must not strain a metaphor too far. The sacrifices under the law were intended to make
atonement for sin: but this is no part of our office; Christ, our great sacrifice, having, by his own
body once offered, made a full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. It
is only as far as the victim was surrendered entirely to God, that the metaphor is applicable to us:
and in this view it is frequently used; the whole body of believers being themselves an offering to the
Lord [Note: Rom_15:16.], and “a spiritual priesthood also, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ [Note: 1Pe_2:5.].”
Hear then to what an extent we are to be given up to God: May “the very God of peace,” says the
Apostle, “sanctify you wholly: and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Th_5:23.].” No part of us
should be under the dominion of any other lord: but “as we have formerly yielded both the members
of our bodies and the faculties of our souls, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, we must
henceforth yield them wholly unto God, as those that are alive unto God [Note:Rom_6:12-
13; Rom_6:19.].” Every sin, of whatever kind, must be mortified; and every grace, however difficult
and self-denying, be brought into habitual exercise — — —]
2. To be disposed of for his glory—
[If God call for our whole persons, as it were, to be consumed by fire upon his altar, we must not
draw back; but must say with the Apostle, “I am ready, not only to be bound, but also to die, for the
Lord’s sake.” So far from regarding such an event with dread, we should rather consider it as our
highest honour. Thus it was that Paul viewed it: “If,” says he, “I be offered upon the sacrifice and
service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all: do ye also joy and rejoice with me
[Note: Php_2:17-18.];” for, so far am I from regarding such an event as a matter of condolence, that
I look upon it as a fit subject for mutual congratulations. I mean not that such an end is to be sought
for by us; but it is cheerfully to be SUBMITTED to, if God in his providence should call us to it.

20. We should regard sufferings for Christ’s sake with a holy indifference, “desiring only that Christ
should be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or death [Note:Php_1:20.].” Of course, all minor
sacrifices of property, or reputation, or liberty, are to be welcomed by us, and gloried in, as means
of honouring and glorifying our incarnate God [Note:1Pe_4:12-14.]. In a word, “we should neither
live unto ourselves, nor die unto ourselves; but live and die unto God only; so that, both living and
dying, we may be the Lord’s [Note:Rom_14:7-8.].”]
But let us mark more particularly the beauty and emphasis of,
II. The exhortation itself—
St. Paul presses upon us the performance of this duty,
1. From the obligations we owe to God—
[In all the preceding part of this epistle, St. Paul has been unfolding the great mystery of redemption
as wrought out for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and as applied to us by the Spirit, according to the
eternal counsels of the Father. By the consideration of these “mercies” he urges us to give up
ourselves to God. It was for this very end that these mercies were vouchsafed to us. Wherefore did
our blessed Saviour “give himself for us?” Was it not “to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify
unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works?” And to what did the Father predestinate us,
but to be conformed to THE IMAGE of his Son?” Let these ends then be answered in us: and let
us remember, that, “having been bought with a price, we are not our own; but are bound to glorify
God with our bodies and our spirits, which are his [Note: 1Co_6:20.].”]
2. From the nature of the service itself—
[It is good in itself.—“God calls us not unto uncleanness, but to holiness.” He says, “Be ye holy; for I
am holy.” The sacrifices under the law were to be without spot or blemish: and such also are we to
be: “We should present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy.” True it is, that till we are renewed by the
Holy Spirit we cannot be holy: but it is equally true, that, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ
aright, he will give us his Holy Spirit, by whom we shall be “created after God in righteousness and
true holiness,” and “be changed into Christ’s image, from glory to glory.”
It is also “acceptable to God.”—Nothing in the UNIVERSE is so pleasing to him as a broken and
contrite heart. As for all the legal sacrifices, he had no delight in them, any farther than they typified
the Lord Jesus, and were offered with a reference to him. They were even odious to him, when
presented by ungodly worshippers, who relied on them for acceptance, whilst they lived in wilful sin
[Note: Isa_1:11-14.]. A heart filled with gratitude to him, and devoted to his service, was “more than

21. thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil [Note: Mic_6:6-8.]: and every act of obedience
proceeding from faith and love, is in his sight the most acceptable tribute that can possibly be
offered [Note: Psa_50:9-14. Heb_13:15-16.].”
It is also most worthy of a rational being. Any service short of an entire surrender of the soul to God
is irrational and absurd. How can it possibly be, that the heart-searching God should approve of
formal and hypocritical services! If he had no delight in the blood of bulls and of goats, how can we
suppose that he should have pleasure in lying words, and hypocritical professions? But in the
surrender of the soul to him, there is something that commends itself to the judgment of every
considerate mind. True, we cannot add to his glory or happiness by any thing that we can do: but
still we may employ for him the bodies he has created, and the souls he has redeemed: and in so
doing, we render him the best service of which our nature is capable; and shall asuredly receive
from him at last that token of his approbation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”]
APPLICATION —
[Let me now, brethren, after the Apostle’s example, address you in the language of entreaty. We
might, as standing in the place of Almighty God, command you: but for love sake we rather
“beseech you.” O consider what mercies you have received at God’s hand, and are yet hoping to
receive, through the sacrifice of his only dear Son — — — Think too how reasonable is the service
to which we call you; how profitable to you, and how pleasing to God — — — We entreat you not to
withhold it: we entreat you not to defer it another hour. If indeed you can prove it unreasonable, or
unprofitable, or unacceptable to God, we are content that you shall reject it as folly, and decry it as
enthusiasm: but if you cannot find one substantial objection against it, or one reasonable excuse for
declining it, then, we beseech you, act as becomes persons already on the brink and precipice of
eternity, and speedily to stand at the judgment-seat of Christ. Give yourselves up to Him who
bought you with his blood: give yourselves to him, to be saved in his appointed way, and to glorify
him in every situation which you may be called to fill. If he calls you to act for him, “whatsoever your
hand findeth to do, do it with all your might:” and if to suffer for him, “rejoice that you are counted
worthy to suffer for his sake.” Thus shall the end of all God’s mercies to you be duly answered, and
his glory be advanced in your everlasting salvation.]
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, “The Body for God
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.—Rom_12:1.
1. What St. Paul says to us here is no single or partial lesson dropped by the way. Standing where it
does in his writings, it carries an exceptional weight of authority and breadth of meaning. It forms a
kind of midpoint in the greatest and most comprehensive of his early Epistles. The two divisions of

22. the Epistle are joined together by this text, itself St. Paul’s own text and foundation for the moral
teaching which follows it, as it is at the same time the immediate conclusion from the doctrinal
teaching which has gone before. The doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans is justification by faith;
the practical lesson of the Epistle to the Romans is self-consecration to God.
2. “I beseech you therefore”—take the words separately in order to understand the mind of the
Apostle.
(1) Notice, TO BEGIN with, the word “therefore”; it connects this great appeal with what had gone
before. St. Paul had been laying before his Roman readers the marvellous provision of grace, the
sovereign love of God in adopting us into sonship; he had been picturing the wondrous wealth and
resource of the Father’s love: “Of him, and through him, and to him are all things: I beseech
you therefore.” That is always St. Paul’s way: first the doctrine, then the duty; first the creed, then
the character: because of what God has done, live in accordance with His will; first the principle of
redemption, then the individual life that follows. It is so in the Epistle to the Ephesians; for the first
three chapters he shows the marvellous light and life and heavenly possibility in Christ, then he
adds in striking suddenness, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk
worthy.”1 [Note: A. E. Joscelyne.]
(2) “I beseech you.” This is the entreaty of a man who was himself living the life of bodily
consecration to God. St. Paul had given himself up altogether to God, body, soul, and spirit. And
now he was filled with the conscious strength and triumph of this sublime unity. His life was full-
orbed and rounded perfectly. Every thought, every aim, every desire had in it the might of God; of
God, and through God, and to God was the beat of every pulse, the throb of every thought, the life
of every desire, and the strength of every work. There was of necessity in this man a constant
sense of triumph. He moved about with a calm untroubled confidence, quite sure that all things were
working together for the glory of the Lord, and for his good. There sang ever in his soul the music of
those who serve God day and night in His holy temple. And then, in all the consciousness of this
blessed life, he thinks of the half-hearted, of those who come far enough out of the far country to
lose the husks of the swine, but not far enough to get the bread of the Father’s house. These are
the miserable people of the world, who admit the claims of God, and yet do not give themselves up
to them; who pull for heaven, and yet do not cast off the rope that holds them to the shore. The
Apostle’s soul is stirred within him, and at once with a demand and an entreaty he cries: “I beseech
you, by the mercies of God, that ye give yourselves right up and wholly to God!” If this religion is
worth anything it is worth all the mind and heart and strength that we can put into it.
(3) “I beseech you.” Note the tenderness and winsomeness of St. Paul’s language. “I beseech you.”
He struck the keynote there. It was his favourite word—he loved to play on the gentler notes in
presenting Christ to men. His preaching was predominantly persuasive, pleading, and tender.

23. Predominantly—it did not leave out the severities. Sometimes there was the voice of God’s wrath in
it, there were visions of the terrors of the Lord and of a judgment throne. But he was always most at
home when he assumed the gentleness of a mother. “I beseech you.” There is the sweet ring of that
appeal in all his Epistles: “I beseech you by the gentleness of Christ”; “I beseech you by the
compassions of Christ”; “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God”; “I might be
bold to enjoin thee, yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee.” We are told that in preaching he lifted
up his hand. We can almost see that raised hand. It is never a clenched fist; it is never shaken in
the face of a congregation; it is stretched out as if it would lay hold of people and sweetly constrain
them. It quivers with emotion, and there is the sound of tears in his voice. “By the space of three
years,” he says, “I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”
(4) “I beseech you.” Paul is speaking to Jews and Gentiles alike, united in the one Church, all taught
by their own several histories that a Christless world is a world on the way downwards into darkness
and death, all now raised to a new and endless and fruitful life in the crucified and risen Lord, all
receivers of this gift by no claim of wages earned but by the mercy of the God who loved them. It is
the sons of purity that he calls to suffer pain. It is to the souls captivated by love that he appeals for
an exercise of self-denial. “Ye,” he says, “who have yourselves been made white, ye who have
received the mercy of your God, ye who by Divine grace have already reached the inner shrine of
the sanctuary, I appeal to you to bear the burdens of humanity. I ask not those in the outer court. I
ask not those who are one with the degraded multitude. I ask not those who are partners in the
same sin as that of their guilty brother, and who, therefore, might be expected to bear his infirmities.
I ask the white-robed. I appeal to the spotless. I call upon the pure in heart who see God. I cry, “If a
man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual, restore!” “I beseech you by the mercies of God
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.”
When vaccination was introduced in Aberdeen, there existed a strong popular prejudice against it
and a corresponding reluctance on the part of parents to allow their children to undergo that
operation. It “went over” the medical men of Aberdeen to disabuse people’s minds of the fear that it
“would do more harm than good.” This having come to Dr. Kidd’s knowledge, he was determined
that it should not go over him. He accordingly took up the subject with characteristic energy, and at
once set himself to acquire as much knowledge and information regarding it as he could from the
local medical men and other available sources. In this way he soon mastered the theory of
vaccination, but would not rest content until he had mastered the practice also; and having found a
willing coadjutor in the person of a medical friend, he was soon able to perform the operation
himself. Thus equipped, he frequently from the pulpit enforced on parents the duty of having their
children vaccinated, and of giving them the benefit of that invaluable discovery. On one of these
occasions he said, “If you mothers have any scruple about taking your children to a doctor, bring
them to me, at my house, any week-day morning, between nine and ten o’clock, and I’ll vaccinate
them for you myself. You don’t seem afraid to entrust the souls of your children to my care, and

24. surely you won’t have any fear to entrust me with their bodies.” This appeal had a wonderful effect,
and many mothers came to his house with their children at the daily appointed time. The result
came to be that the prejudice against vaccination gradually subsided, and Dr. Kidd was soon able to
discontinue his own amateur labours in favour of the medical men of the city, who, ere long, had as
much work of that kind on their hands as they were well able to overtake. His personal ascendancy
once more asserted itself, though even he had a stiff fight before he overcame the stubbornness
and fears of the people. They had such faith in the man that they at last submitted, when their own
judgment was unconvinced, and their own inclination was decidedly hostile.1 [Note: J. Stark,
Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 173.]
I
The Motive Force
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.”
It was not a little step that St. Paul was urging these Roman Christians to take: “I beseech you to
present your bodies a living sacrifice.” This act of consecration must have a motive adequate to
produce it. The life of consecration must have a dynamic equal to sustaining it. Where is the motive
power of the Christian life to be found?
1. It was in the “mercies of God” that the Apostle found his motive power. That plural does not mean
that he is extending his view over the whole wide field of the Divine beneficence, but rather that he
is contemplating the one all-inclusive mercy about which the former part of his letter has been so
eloquent—viz. the gift of Christ—and contemplating it in the manifoldness of the blessings which
flow from it. The mercies of God which move a man to yield himself as a sacrifice are not the
diffused beneficences of His providence, but the concentrated love that lies in the person and work
of His Son.
2. The emotionless moralist will tell you to do right for right’s sake, because goodness is beautiful in
itself and brings its own reward. And the stern moralist will advise you to pursue the clean and
righteous course because the other way ends in a harvest of shame and sorrow. And, of course,
both these voices are heard in the Bible; they are both used by the Christian preacher. But they are
low down in the Christian scale; they have little force in the Christian conscience. There is no ring of
persuasiveness in them, because there is no emotion and no fire. We never feel the kindling and
the inspiration until we get to the very furnace, the power-producing furnace of the Christian life, and
that is the soul-enthralling, love-creating mercies of God in Christ.
“The Well is deep.”
Thy saying is most true:

25. Salvation’s well is deep,
Only Christ’s hand can reach the waters blue.
And even He must stoop to draw it up,
Ere He can fill thy cup.
3. It is impossible to be too careful in observing the connexion between consecration and mercy, for
in the very vague theology of the present day there is a great deal which certainly has the
appearance of teaching that the blessed peace of a union with Christ is to be the result of entire
consecration. But we are here taught, not that we are to reach mercy as the result of the
completeness of our consecration, but that, having realized mercy, we should yield ourselves in
consecration to God. That union with the Lord Jesus must be given through the personal
appropriation of the mercy of God in Him.
One ship turns east, and another west
With the selfsame winds that blow;
’Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales,
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the waves of fate,
As we voyage along through life;
’Tis the set of the soul which decides the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
II
The Consecration

26. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
God.”
It is not often that the idea of sacrifice is associated with the thought of mercy. We commonly view it
as one of the obstacles to our belief in God’s mercy. In all religions but one, men sacrifice to God
when they think His mercy turned away; they sacrifice to avert His anger, to restore His smile. But
there is one religion which inverts the order—the religion of Christ. All other faiths say, “Sacrifice
that ye may win God’s favour”; Christianity says, “Win God’s favour that ye may sacrifice.” All other
faiths make sacrifice the root; Christianity makes sacrifice the flower.
It is the sacrifice of the body that St. Paul calls for. Let us look first at sacrifice, and secondly at the
sacrifice of the body.
i. Sacrifice
1. “Making sacrifices.”—We often speak of making sacrifices for Christ. That expression is not in the
Bible. On the contrary, it rather runs against the true view of the subject—for it seems to limit
sacrifice to particular acts, whereas the whole life is the sacrifice.
Was there ever a time when there were so many home-made Christians as there are to-day, man-
made, church-made Christians? Who does not know the recipe? Tie up the hands and say: “Sir, you
must not do that.” Tie up the feet and say: “You must not go to such and such places—at least,
when you are at home.” Gag the mouth, blind the eyes, stop the ears, and there is your Christian: a
creature with his heart hungering for the world as fiercely as ever, and whose only evidence of any
earnestness is in a constant discussion as to whether there is any harm in a score of questionable
or unquestionable things that he desires, and in the sincerity of his complaint that they are
forbidden.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
Dr. Stewart of Lovedale, his biographer tells us, could not endure the idea that missionaries were to
be pitied for the sacrifices they made. A member of his staff says: “One incident will live in my
memory for all time. It occurred in the course of a brief address he gave once at the weekly staff
prayer-meeting in the large hall at Lovedale. Something that he had heard or read moved him to
speak of the so-called sacrifices which men made when entering the mission-field. He flamed up at
the idea, and spoke with a burning torrent of words which showed us—just for the moment—the
liquid fires of devotion which he hid behind his reserve. As I write I can see, as though it were
yesterday, that tall form swaying with noble passion: Sacrifice! What man or woman could speak of
sacrifice in the face of Calvary? What happiness or ambition or REFINEMENT had any one
‘given up’ in the service of humanity to compare with the great sacrifice of Him who ‘emptied himself
and took upon himself the form of a servant’? It made some of us feel rather ashamed of our
heroics, for we knew that if ever a man since Livingstone had a right to speak like that it was Dr.
Stewart.”2 [Note: Stewart of Lovedale, 176.]

27. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing
good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such
a view, and with such a thought! it is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety,
sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a forgoing of the common conveniences and
charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let
this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter
be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.3 [Note: David Livingstone.]
People who make real sacrifices are never able to calculate self-complacently the good the said
sacrifices are doing them; just as people who really grieve are unable at the time to philosophize
about the good effects of grief.4 [Note: F. W. Robertson, Life and Letters, 435.]
2. True sacrifice.—Have you ever seen a forester cutting down a great tree? It falls to earth, never
to rise again; there will be no more shade or beauty, no more glory of summer green or autumn
gold. Is the tree wasted? No, it is sacrificed. One day a brave ship sails the seas; to build it the tree
was sacrificed. One day God’s church rises towards heaven; to form the roof the tree was
sacrificed. Have you ever seen men quarrying stone? It is torn out of the quarry, and split and
shattered, and carved and cut, and chiselled and hammered; one day we see the walls of a stately
cathedral, and there is the stone which was sacrificed. You watch a sculptor carving the marble; the
white fragments fall thickly, the marble wastes, but the beautiful image grows; it is not waste, but
sacrifice. Was Mary’s ointment wasted? No, the world has been sweeter for it ever since. Was
Gordon’s life wasted when he died at Khartoum, or Nelson’s when he fell at Trafalgar? Many a
devoted missionary, many brave men and delicate women have died of fever and savage torture,
and the world says, To what purpose was this waste? But theirs was a sacrifice to win souls. To
some people the crucifixion of our Master seems a waste of life; to the Church it is the great
sacrifice, which taketh away the sins of the world. “He that loseth his life shall find it.”
Listen to the parable of the earth, as it lies far down beneath the blue heaven, or as in the cold night
it looks up at the silver stars. “Here am I,” it mutters, “so far away from Him who made me. The
grass blades and the flowers lift up their heads and whisper to the breeze, the trees go far up into
the golden sunshine, the birds fly up against the very heaven, THE CLOUDS are touched
sometimes with glory as if they caught the splendour of the King, the stars are bright as if they
shone with the light of His presence. And I am down here! How can I ever climb up to Him who
made me?” And then the poor earth sighs again: “And that is not all—not even the worst of it. I am
only dull soil, without any beauty of form, or richness of colour, or sweetness of smell! All things
seem full of loveliness but me. How can I ever be turned into worth and blessedness?”
And now there comes the seed, and it is hidden in the earth. “Earth,” whispers the seed, “wilt thou

28. give me thy strength?”
“No, indeed,” replies the earth; “why should I give thee my strength? It is all I have got, and I will
keep it for myself.”
“Then,” saith the seed, “thou shalt be earth, and only earth, for ever and ever. But if thou wilt give
me thy strength thou shalt be lifted into another life.”
So the earth yields and gives up its strength to the seed. And the seed takes hold of it and lifts it up
and begins to turn it into a hundred forms of beauty; it rises with wondrous stem; it drinks in
sunshine and rain and air, mingling them with the earth’s strength and changing all to toughened
branch or dainty leaf, to rich flower or ripened fruit. Then its work is done as it ends in the seed. And
it cries to the earth: “Spake I not truly? Thou art not lost, but by sacrifice transformed to higher life,
to worth and beauty.”1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
All the winter-time the wine gives joy
To those who else were dismal in the cold;
But the vine standeth out amid the frost;
And after all, hath only this grace left,
That it endures in long, lone steadfastness
The winter through:—and next year blooms again;
Not bitter for the torment undergone,
Not barren for the fulness yielded up;
As fair and fruitful towards the sacrifice
As if no touch had ever come to it
But the soft airs of heaven and dews of earth;—
And so fulfils itself in love once more.2 [Note: Harriet E. H. King.]

29. 3. The permanent value of sacrifice.—Here lies the test by which we may try the fabric of our own
actions. We have—have now and for ever—only that which we have offered to others and to God.
Wherever the thought of self dominates in our schemes; wherever we identify the success of a
cause, however noble, with our own success; wherever we determine for our own pleasure, as far
as we can, the course of events great or small—there is the seed of ultimate corruption and decay
and failure. The fatal harvest may be early or it may be late, but it is prolific and it is certain. That
which is marked with the Cross has the pledge of permanence; that which bears the impress of self
must perish.
Sacrifice hallows what it touches. And under its hallowing touch values increase by long leaps and
big bounds. Here is a fine opportunity for those who would increase the value of gifts that seem
small in amount. Without stopping now for the philosophy of it, this is the tremendous fact. Perhaps
the annual foreign missionary offering is being taken up in your church. The pastor has preached a
special sermon, and it has caught fire within you. You find yourself thinking as he preaches, and
during the prayer following, “I believe I can easily make it fifty dollars this year. I gave thirty-five last
time.” You want to be careful not to make it fifty dollars, because you can do that easily. If you are
shrewd to have your money count the most, you will pinch a bit somewhere and make it sixty-two
fifty. For the extra amount that you pinch to give will hallow the original sum and increase its
practical value enormously. Sacrifice hallows what it touches, and the hallowing touch acts in
geometrical proportion upon the value of the gift.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]
ii. The Sacrifice of the Body
“Present your bodies,” says the Apostle. He does not say your “souls.” We are very ready at times
to say that we serve God in the spirit, though our deeds are somewhat mixed; and sometimes a
man will do a wrong thing and admit that it is not quite right, but “my heart is right,” he will say, “and
God looks upon the heart.” That is a kind of service that has no part or lot in Christ. A man who is
trying to sever his body from his spirit, a man who thinks religion is merely a thing of the spirit and
not of the outward life, a thing of the soul and not a thing of the body, is misreading the Gospel.
It is a matter of great interest, and even awe, to me, to observe how the nobler feelings can exist in
their intensity only where the whole nature, the lower too, is intense also; and how that which is in
itself low and mean becomes sublimated into something that is celestial. Hence, in the highest
natures I suppose goodness will be the result of tremendous struggle; just as the “bore,” which is
nothing in the Thames, becomes a convulsion on the Ganges, where the waters of a thousand
miles roll like a sea to meet the incoming tide of the ocean.2 [Note: F. W. Robertson, Life
and Letters, 215.]
1. What was St. Paul’s attitude to the body?
(1) It was not the pagan attitude of worship.—This attitude is perhaps best ILLUSTRATED by the

30. ancient Greeks. Their worship of the body took two forms—the worship of beauty and the worship of
physical strength. Their worship of beauty is a commonplace to every one who knows anything
whatever about the nation whose sculpture is the admiration and despair of later artists. With them
the artistic feeling was not a luxury of the wealthy, but was interwoven with the life of the whole
people. The most beautiful women of Greece were as famous as its greatest men. Their worship of
physical strength was shown especially by the place given to athletics in the great national festivals,
such as the Olympian Games. These games were not a mere sporting meeting, but a sacred
celebration. The winner was considered to reflect immortal glory upon the city which bare him. He
returned home in triumphal procession; he received a distinction which might be compared to our
conferring of the “freedom” of a city; a statue was erected in his honour; and sometimes his exploits
were celebrated in the loftiest poetry. So essential a part of Greek life were these games that
chronology was based upon them, the years being reckoned by Olympiads.
To-day there is among us much of this old pagan worship. Witness the “religion of the ballet,” the
portraits of professional beauties in the shop windows, and the extolling of sensuous charms in
much popular modern poetry. Witness, too, the exaggerated language that is used about the
elevating influence of art; as though the salvation of society from sin and misery were in mere
picture-galleries; as though the criminal classes would cease to be criminal if presented with season
tickets for the Royal Academy. Nor can we deny the existence of a widespread worship of physical
strength. In recent years we have seen the revival of the prize-fight and the canonization of St.
Slavin. These be thy gods, O Israel. These are the heroes whose names stand first on the modern
bead-roll of fame. And even health and innocent sports have been degraded by excessive
admiration. Games which used to be played for amusement have now become partly a science and
partly a trade.1 [Note: H. W. Horwill.]
(2) It was not the pseudo-Christian attitude—that the body is the seat of all evil.—Heresy at
Colosse took the form of hostility to the body as a physical organism. Some members of the Church
there hated the body instead of the evil heart of unbelief, and so became ascetics, injuring the body
and starving it. Hence St. Paul’s rebuke of those things which “have a show of wisdom in will-
worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of
the flesh.” This tendency was developed still further under the monastic system. One man lived for
fifty years in a subterranean cave, which was his way of hiding his light under a bushel. Some
buried themselves up to the neck in the burning sands of the desert. Some slept on bundles of
thorns. Some bound themselves to jump about on one leg. Another forced his body into the hoop of
a cart wheel, and remained in that position for ten years. Another, Saint Simeon Stylites—the most
conspicuous example of a man’s making himself a fool for Christ’s sake—is said to have kept
himself alive for thirty years on the top of a column, and, when too weak to stand any longer upright,
to have had a post erected on it to which he was fastened by chains. The monks of later days did
not go to such extremes, though they wore hair clothes, and in many other ways developed

31. considerable ingenuity in the manufacture of discomfort. In the Middle Ages there might have been
seen on the Continent long processions of “Flagellants” travelling from country to country, weeping
as they went, singing penitential hymns, and applying the scourge to their naked backs. And they
found that all this did not destroy sin.
This contempt for the body which St. Paul rebuked among the Colossians has not yet died out of
the Church. We are constantly speaking about the value of souls, and forget sometimes that these
souls are in bodies. How often we sneer at the body as though it were not worth attention! But great
indeed is the mistake of those who think they glorify God by sneering at or maltreating the body,
which is one of the noblest products of His skill. Would you compliment an inventor by destroying
his machine, by pulling it to pieces either literally or metaphorically?1[Note: H. W. Horwill.]
After dinner to the San Gregorio to Bee the frescoes, the “Martyrdom of St. Andrew,” the rival
frescoes of Guido and Domenichino, and afterwards drove about till dark, when we went to a most
extraordinary performance—that of the Flagellants. I had heard of it, and had long been curious to
assist at it. The church was dimly lit by a few candles on the altar, the congregation not numerous.
There was a service, the people making responses, after which a priest, or one of the attendants of
the church, went round with a bundle of whips of knotted cord, and gave one to each person who
chose to take it. I took mine, but my companion laughed so at seeing me gravely accept the whip,
that he was obliged to hide his face in his hands, and was passed over. In a few minutes the
candles were extinguished, and we were left in total darkness. Then an invisible preacher began
exhorting his hearers to whip themselves severely, and as he went on his vehemence and passion
increased. Presently a loud smacking was heard all round the church, which continued a few
minutes; then the preacher urged us to fresh exertions, and crack went the whips again louder and
faster than before, as he exhorted. The faithful flogged till a bell rang; the whips stopped, in a few
minutes the candles were lit again, and the priest came round and collected his cords. I had
squeezed mine in my hands, so that he did not see it, and I brought it away with me. As soon as the
candles were extinguished the doors were locked, so that nobody could go out or come in till the
discipline was over. I was rather nervous when we were locked up in total darkness, but nobody
whipped me, and I certainly did not whip myself. A more extraordinary thing (for sight it can’t be
called) I never witnessed. I don’t think the people stripped, nor, if they did, that the cords could have
hurt them much.1 [Note: The Greville Memoirs, i. 396.]
In regard to those atrocious scenes which formed the favourite Huron recreation of a summer night,
the Jesuits, it must be confessed, did not quite come up to the requirements of modern sensibility.
They were offended at them, it is true, and prevented them when they could; but they were wholly
given to the saving of souls, and held the body in scorn, as the vile source of incalculable mischief,
worthy the worst inflictions that could be put upon it. What were a few hours of suffering to an
eternity of bliss or woe? If the victim were heathen, these brief pangs were but the faint prelude of

32. an undying flame; and if a Christian, they were the fiery portal of Heaven. They might, indeed, be a
blessing; since, accepted in atonement for sin, they would shorten the torments of Purgatory. Yet,
while schooling themselves to despise the body, and all the pain or pleasure that pertained to it, the
Fathers were emphatic on one point—it must not be eaten. In the matter of cannibalism, they were
loud and vehement in invective.2 [Note: Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North
America, ii. 173.]
The ideals of different races and centuries have no doubt been very different. With us cleanliness is
next to godliness. With our ancestors it was the very reverse, and dearly they paid for their error, in
plagues and black death. According to the Venerable Bede, St. Etheldreda was so holy that she
rarely washed, except perhaps before some great festival of the Church; and Dean Stanley tells us
in his Memorials of Canterbury that after the assassination of Becket the bystanders were much
impressed, for “the austerity of hair drawers, close fitted as they were to the bare flesh, had hitherto
been unknown to English saints, and the marvel was increased by the sight—to our notions so
revolting—of the innumerable vermin with which the haircloth abounded—boiling over with them, as
one ACCOUNT describes it, like water in a simmering cauldron. At the dreadful sight all the
enthusiasm of the previous night revived with double ardour. They looked at each other in silent
wonder, then exclaimed, ‘See! see what a true monk he was, and we knew it not,’ and burst into
alternate fits of weeping and laughter, between the sorrow of having lost such a head, and the joy of
having found such a saint.”1 [Note: Lord Avebury, Peace and Happiness, 41.]
When Archbishop Whately was dying, his chaplain read to him the eighth chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans, and then QUOTED the words from the Epistle to the Philippians (Rom_3:20-21):
“We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body,” etc. The dying
man was pained, and asked for “the right thing” to be read to him. The chaplain then repeated it
again, with the rendering, with which we are now familiar in the Revised Version: “Who shall fashion
anew the body of our humiliation.” “That is right,” said the Archbishop; “there is nothing vile which
God has made.”
(3) It was the attitude of Christ.—One of the greatest lessons of the Incarnation was the honour put
by Christ upon the body by His living in it. Throughout His life He emphasized this regard for the
body by such parables as that of the Good Samaritan, and by such miracles as that of the Feeding
of the Multitudes. By the Apostles the figure of the body was used to show the connexion between
Christ and His Church. “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” In reading the
Epistles of St. Paul, we are especially startled by the constant references to the importance of the
body. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof; neither
present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto
God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” “The
body is for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.” “Glorify God therefore in your body”—“and in your