THREE COMMANDS TO LIVE BY

TODAY’S PASSAGE: 

Romans 12:1-5 NLT 1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. 3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

• God has done so much for us! Even though we don’t deserve it, God has given us life and purpose in Jesus Christ. He has forgiven our sins and shared the riches of His glory with us.
• There is only one way we can “truly” worship Him in response, to offer our lives as living and holy sacrifices.
• The phrase “a living and holy sacrifice” refers to a surrendered life, fully committed to God’s will and service.
• This surrendered life, dedicated to God’s will and service, is the greatest thing we can offer in light of all God has done for us!

• The word “world” is often used in the New Testament to refer to the “world system,” or the way that every human being lives by default.
• The Bible describes what this worldly way of living looks like in 1 John 2…

1 John 2:16 NLT – For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

• At some point in our lives, all of us chased after these empty things in pursuit of happiness and meaning.
• Now, we are commanded to stop living like everyone else – to abandon the chase for pleasure, possessions, and status.
• When we do that, God will begin to transform our thinking and change us from the inside out. The driving force of our lives will no longer be our sinful desires but a desire to fulfill God’s will and purpose for us.
• The happy result is a good, pleasing and perfect life that honors God and satisfies our souls.

• One of the first ways that our minds must be transformed is in developing the ability to see ourselves accurately.
• Human beings tend to have a warped and an inflated perspective of ourselves. We like to judge ourselves by our best intentions and everyone else by their worst mistakes.
• Paul is not telling us to start thinking of ourselves as worthless, but commands us to be honest with ourselves about what we’re good at and what we’re not.
• When we begin to see ourselves and others with the right perspective, it enables us and the Christians around us to fulfill God’s specific purposes for each of our lives in a beautiful and harmonious way, like a healthy human body functioning as it should.