A Renewed Mind
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1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Background - Date and occasion of writing?
Written by Paul during the end of his 3rd Missionary Journey. Most likely around 57 AD.
Paul yearned to travel to Rome and then on to Spain, but he also wanted to continue to Jerusalem to deliver the offering that was collected for the poverty stricken believers in Jerusalem (Acts 15:25-27).
The letter's main themes recount the story of salvation and justification, but they do so with a perspective of relational issues among Jews and Gentiles. It is believed the church in Rome was made up of mostly Gentiles but Jews had returned and there were struggles. The Roman church probably began as a Jewish church. Maybe Jews who returned from Pentecost and heard about Jesus began the church. Some suggest that Peter founded the church in Rome. Either way, it most likely began as a Jewish church. As the years went on, more Gentiles joined the church in Rome.
In AD 49 the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome over strife and disputes about Christ. Acts 18:2 confirms this expulsion. This also began to solidify the religious differences between Jews and Christians... Because of this expulsion, the Gentiles would have grown even more in number in the church in Rome. Yet, as time went on, the Jewish Christians would have returned to Rome and the Roman churches would have more conflict of what to do with relationships among Jews and Gentiles in one religion.
So, Paul deals with this in the Letter to the Churches in Rome.
ALL have sinned
ALL have access to the blessings and promises of Abraham by faith
ALL have access to Christ
ALL are made right with God because of Christ
ALL are dead to sin and alive in Christ because of faith in Christ
God is not done with Israel
BY GRACE WE ARE WHAT WE ARE!
We must live together in Christian unity because of what God has done for ALL of us!
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.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
THEREFORE… “What is this there for… wherefore the therefore”
What Paul has said through the letter leads to this point.Simply put, we are sinners saved by God’s grace given to EVERYONE whether JEW OR GREEK because of faith in Jesus Christ. This grace makes us dead to sin and our old life and alive to the NEW LIFE God is birthing in us.
What is God's mercy?
Salvation by faith
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
Because God has done this, by HIS MERCY...
We are to offer our ENTIRE being to God.
As a sacrifice was placed on the altar for God to use, we offer ourselves for GOD to use.
BUT… In order for God to use us we must break the mold...
We cannot conform. That is the way of ADAM! But, we follow the NEW ADAM, the NEW CREATION in JESUS CHRIST! (ROMANS 5)
We must be transformed. = Made new/recreated.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Born again
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
And, to do this our minds also must be remade.
Repentance LITERALLY means a changed mind which leads to a change of behavior.
Renewed mind
The mind is the source of our will - and therefore the source of our actions...
Counter of verse 1:28
Romans 1:28 (NIV)
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
BECAUSE of our sinfulness and our disobedience OUR minds are depraved, which leads to MORE sinfulness and disobedience!!
BUT A renewed mind allows us to throw off conforming to the world.
What is the world's standard?
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
The Purpose of this list is to show how messed up WE ALL ARE! If you read that list and do not find yourself guilty at some point YOU ARE READING IT INCORRECTLY!!
THE WORLD’S STANDARD...
The world says, "I am only accountable to myself"
"I write my own destiny"
"I've got the whole world in my hands"
I decide what is right for me
Just follow your heart...
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
I make my own path
I am in charge
Our world has a depraved mind - but this should not surprise us... In fact, we are promised that this would get worse...
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
However, the CHURCH should be counter to what the world thinks!
Those in Christ have a renewed mind and that leads to a different way of thinking, processing, AND THEN ACTING.
A new mind leads to new action!
This action is seen in how we come together as ONE BODY.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
It is seen in how we view governing authorities (or any who are in authority over us).
It is seen in how we love other Christians, even those who don’t eat certain foods, or who do. Even those who celebrate different holy days than others do...
Our faith may be personal, but it is NEVER PRIVATE. NOR IS IT INDIVIDUAL. We ARE in this TOGETHER!!!
It is not about only offering ourselves, it is about our offering ourselves and then our coming together with others who offer themselves SO THAT we TOGETHER can be the ONE BODY of Jesus.
We offer our bodies so that we can be a part of HIS BODY! And then, together, we offer HIS BODY to our world.
Because God is merciful, WE who are many are become ONE! SO WE CAN SERVE THE WORLD!