Are you becoming skilled?

Well, last week we didn’t even know what our series was called, but this week I can say we are continuing our series on / / Being a Living Sacrifice. As fun as that sounds!

And we get that from our main scripture for this series which is Romans 12:1-2. Let’s read that again this morning, Paul writing to the church in Rome, he says, / / 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. 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.

/ / Let your life be a living and holy sacrifice.

Paul says, this is what God finds acceptable and it is how we worship Him. Or as the ESV says it, / / ...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. The NLT just kind of breaks that down, a bit easier to understand. This is how we worship God. This is what is acceptable to Him. That your life is a living and holy sacrifice.

So, last week we looked through scripture to see that God isn’t asking us to BE a sacrifice but that scripture is abundantly clear, God desires Obedience MORE than sacrifice. In 1 Samuel 15 when Saul, King of Israel, had messed up and the prophet Samuel came to him and confronted him, he says in vs 22-23, / / “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols...”

We didn’t read that last part last week but it shows the severity of this idea of obedience over sacrifice when he compares rebellion to witchcraft.

And I think for me the nail in the coffin, so-to-speak, is Jeremiah 7:21-23, which really connects what we looked at in Exodus and how Jesus even brings up this whole idea in Matthew 9 and Matthew 12. Jeremiah says, / / This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says: “Take your burn offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves! When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings or sacrifices I wanted from them. This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’”

We see time and time again God’s desire and invitation met with the rejection of the mankind he loves and so in that he does whatever he can to keep that connection.

In Exodus 19 and 20 he invites the people of Israel onto Mt Sinai with Moses so that they can hear his voice and they reject that and say, “We don’t want to hear his voice, we are afraid. So Moses, you hear from God and tell us what He says.”

And as a result, instead of personal relationship they have second hand information. And even though Moses is revered as the greatest prophet of Israel, it was second best. Because of Israel’s decision not to hear directly from God they got a whole system of prophets hearing for them, mostly trying to get them to realize they were NOT obeying what God had said, they were breaking this covenant that they had agreed to. It’s a tragedy really.

Then we have the story of the kings themselves. In 1 Samuel the people come to the prophet and say, “We want our own king just like the other nations do.”

And God says, “Don’t worry, they aren’t rejecting you as the prophet, they are rejecting me as their king.” What was God’s design? To be the king of Israel himself. To lead the people. But they didn’t want that. So what does God do? He says, “Ok, you can have a king, but I have to warn you, it’s not going to go as well as you think it is...”

True story, just read the Old Testament. Israel only made it through three kings, Saul, David & Solomon before the nation split into the Northern kingdom of Israel and what became the nation of Judah. And then you have this story ongoing of the two nations and they even fight against each other. It’s a mess. But, you wanted your own king. I tried to warn you.

And when we look at the first instructions of God that He gives Israel, there isn’t even a sacrifice in them. The ten commandments don’t involve any sacrificing.

Now, here’s where this can get a bit confusing, because as I said last week the word / / sacrifice in Romans 12, the greek word thysia, means nothing more than sacrifice. It is either the act of sacrificing something, or the thing on the alter being sacrificed.

But, as I said last week, it’s adding the word Living in front of it that makes all the difference. The word / / living that Paul puts in front of it is the greek word zao, which is the verb, or action word of the word zoe, which is the word used when Jesus offers us life, be that in the present or eternal.

So, put those two together and what do you have? / / Paul is inviting us to the act of living a dying life.

How’s that for a thought?!?

But, what does that sounds like? It sounds very much like Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 16:24, / / “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Paul isn’t saying we need to die, he’s saying that we truly live by NOT obeying [or killing] our own desires - by so obeying God’s desires that we are no longer living out of our own.

This is a constant theme through the writings of Paul. The life of what he called “the flesh”, vs. the life of the Spirit.

He says in Galatians 5:16-17, / / So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

Been there? I have. To be a living choice of death is not easy. Think of the way we use the word sacrifice. Not in the sense of putting something on the alter to kill it, but sort of.

Ok, we really want to get out of debt, so we’re going to cut our budget as much as we can. For a season this will be a sacrifice.

Did we kill anything? Not physically, but we sure are putting something to death for a season to obtain a better goal, right?

I really want this business idea to work out, it’s going to take so much more time. I may have to sacrifice some of the other things I do.

Again, not killing anything, but putting aside what is getting in the way of the goal.

For me personally in my pursuit of recovery, I choose life by sacrificing my desire to eat whatever I want. That has to die. Physically, no, but I’m essentially putting that on the alter to achieve the goal of recovery.

So what’s Paul saying here? / / There is a way to honor God, and that is continually living in His way by putting to death our own way.

Let’s be honest though, it’s not easy. So how do we pursue a life of living death?

Today I want to look at a scripture in the book of Hebrews and we’re pull it apart a bit to see how we can embrace this idea of being a living sacrifice, and it’s going to tie this Old Testament sacrifice mentality into this idea of Obedience being greater than sacrifice, and much more. Alright, we’re going to read the whole of Hebrews 5,

/ / Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weakness. That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.

And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was. That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him,

“You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” (Psalm 2:7)

And in another passage God said to him,

“You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4 - the most quoted Psalm in the NT)

While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

OK, so that’s a pretty big chunk of scripture here, and there are some things in here we don’t have time to get into. The mention of Melchizedek, we saw him in our Daily Bible Reading last week. Kind of an obscure figure. But, if you don’t know who he is, that’s ok, nobody really understands him, he just shows up one day and is gone and never heard of again.

But I want to look at Hebrews 5 here and see how it leads us through the Old Testament and into the New Testament and following Jesus.

The first 10 verses are kind of split into sections and those sections lead us from one thing to the next talking about the High Priests and Jesus. The first section:

/ / 1. Description or Purpose of the High Priest

First we have this explanation of what the function or purpose of the High Priest is.

Every High Priest is chosen, or called by God.

They represent people before God.

They present gifts and offer sacrifices on behalf of those people.

Their purpose ultimately is for the atonement of sins, or dealing with the sin of the people in relation to God.

They offer sacrifice for their own sin as well.

This is not a job you can choose. “no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor.”

Ok, so that’s the first section. This is what the High Priest did.

/ / 2. Jesus is the Great High Priest

Next the writer of Hebrews defines Jesus as the Great High Priest. Both in vs 5 and vs 10

/ / …he was chosen by God… (vs 5)

…God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek… (vs 10)

In that first part he says that Jesus did NOT honor himself in that way but that he was chosen by God and then points to the two passages in Psalms that speak of the Christ, the Messiah who is to come. You are my Son, today I have become your Father, and You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

And then after a description of HOW he fulfills that duty as the High Priest he then again says in vs 10 that God chose, or designated him to be in that position.

/ / 3. How Jesus fulfills his duty as the High Priest

One of the things he says is a defining factor of the High Priest is that they too need sacrifice for the cleansing of sin, they are in that way like those who they represent. But we know that Jesus never sinned, so how does Jesus fulfill that in the priesthood?

In his description of Jesus he describes that in the same way as the High Priest can identify with those he represents, Jesus can also identify with us in that he learned obedience, even through suffering. vs 8, / / Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. The connection is previously made at the end of Hebrews 4:14-15, he says, …since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Needing the sacrifice is what made the High Priest sympathize with those they served. And even though Jesus did not need that, through his life on earth he experienced what we experience - he understands the frailty and weakness of humanity. And just like the rest of us, Jesus had multiple opportunities in his life to choose NOT to obey the Father. Right?

So, if sin is missing the mark, if it’s missing the instruction of God and his leading, if it’s being disobedient to His instruction, or simply not obedient to his instruction, we’re missing the mark. Jesus is well aware of this pull, this draw, this human nature to not be great at listening.

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, in his final moments before he is betrayed and crucified, he prays in Luke 22:42, / / “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

And that “not mine” can be easily looked over, but in it we see the humanity of our savior. He had his own desire. Of course he did. Who wants to go through what he was about to go through? And he knew it was coming. Yet, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, right?

And that moment in Gethsemane is echoed in vs 7 when he says, / / While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death… God if there is any way, let this cup pass from me…but, not my own desire but yours be done, and so, Jesus, acquainted with our humanity, our suffering, our restrictions, is elevated to the position of the perfect High Priest by God the Father because of his obedience! Hebrews 5:9, / / In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest.

OK, so that walks us through basically Genesis 3 where God has to remove Adam & Eve from the garden of Eden because they have been corrupted by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as such, we see in Genesis 3:22 God says, Look, we don’t want them to eat from the tree of life while corrupted by sin because then they would live for all eternity with their sin. So he removes them from the garden and here we have in the culmination of the priesthood through Jesus Christ, Hebrews 5:9 continues to say, / / …and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

He is the source of eternal salvation, that removing of the death brought on by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and re-offering the fruit of the tree of life through obedience to Christ Jesus. Not by works, but faith, because of the grace of God. Ephesians 2:8-10, / / God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvations is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

So, we are coming out of this sacrificial system where the High Priest would atone for the sins of humanity, which as we saw last week, God would much rather obedience than sacrifice in the first place - so, through the life of Jesus, the final sacrifice, God brings us back to an invitation of Obedience.

That’s such an interesting thought, isn’t it? The original design was what? Obedience, not sacrifice. And yet when grace was introduced through Jesus Christ, Paul had this problem in the churches that they suddenly thought grace allowed them to sin and be forgiven anyway, so let’s just keep on doing what we want. But the original design has not changed. God still desires obedience more than sacrifice, and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are now brought back to that invitation of obedience, but now it’s without the effect of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because death has been defeated.

Now we get to the end of our passage in Hebrews where it seems like someone is a little upset and kind of goes off on the readers. Let’s read it again because it’s been a few minutes, so let’s get a refresher.

Hebrews 5:11-14, / / There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

Ok, that’s harsh in a few different ways, isn’t it?

You’re spiritually dull

You don’t seem to listen

You should be teaching, but clearly can’t.

You still need to be taught the basics.

You’re like babies needing milk.

You’re an infant who doesn’t know how to do what is right.

You can’t handle solid food.

Thank you very much. And that can seem harsh and degrading, but Father John Behr says that this is not a warning, but an encouragement. And I like that, because I see it the same way.

Instead of hearing where we may be falling short, we can actually see in this passage of scripture an invitation to what Paul has said in Romans 12:1-2, that we are to be a living and holy sacrifice.

So, keys to being a living sacrifice.

/ / 1. Are you listening?

I pose this as a question because this is the encouragement we draw from the statement that the writer makes, You are dull of hearing. And the way it’s written in vs 11 is, There is much more we would like to say about this....

Meaning, There’s so much more we can give you, but we just can’t because you don’t really listen, you’ve become dull of hearing. If we tried to tell you, you wouldn’t understand anyway.

But the question has to be asked. Multiple times in the gospels Jesus says, / / He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Again in the book of Revelation it is stated multiple times, / / He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Paul says in Romans 10:17, / / So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. The ESV says, / / hearing the word of Christ.

In the final words of the book of Acts, Paul is speaking to the local Jewish leaders in Rome and quotes from the book of Isaiah and says in Acts 28:27, …the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes - so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.

Again, it sounds harsh, but if you turn it around and ask the question, “Are my ears open to listen?” Then you read that last line with hope rather than despair, because IF you can hear, then you can turn and God can heal you - that word heal means to make whole, to cure what the issue is. So whatever it is, physical, emotional, spiritual....when we hear, we can turn and God can heal.

So, the first encouragement is simply this, / / Are your ears open? Are you listening?

2. Do you accept what you hear?

Chris Green says that this call out of being dull of hearing is really saying that they have been unteachable.

I would suggest these are two different aspects here. I think anyone with kids understands this. I’ve said it before, “I know you heard me, but you weren’t listening...” meaning, you didn’t do what I said even though I know you heard me.

OK, let’s not just limit this to kids. How many times have I turned to Kelley after she has said something and I have to admit, “Sorry, I heard you, but I didn’t catch that. Can you repeat that please?”

We have the saying, In one ear and out the other, for good reason...

Proverbs 2:2 says, / / Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding...

You can’t just hear it, you have to truly listen to what it’s saying, you have to be open to what you are hearing and open to how it will lead you into something.

If being dull of hearing is equatable to being unteachable, then open ears is being teachable. And so when he says, You SHOULD be teaching, but you can’t, Chris Green says that what’s really being said is, you can’t teach, because you aren’t teachable. And being teachable is more than just hearing, it’s submitting yourself to the instruction of someone who understands something greater than you for the purpose of implementing that into your own life.

Essentially....discipleship to Jesus.

Jesus said it in John 14:15, / / If you love Me, obey my commandments.

James echoes it in James 1:22, / / But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

So, the second encouragement is really, / / What are you doing with what you are hearing?

/ / 3. Are you still drinking milk?

The writer calls this unlistening unteachable thing “drinking milk”. I think this is a great definition of the Grace of God.

As I said earlier, Jesus being our Great High Priest is not our ticket to living the life we want in our own design, but it’s the invitation to go back to obedience, and we are all at different stages and points in our walk with God.

For years I didn’t understand addiction, I didn’t understand how I was missing the mark. I was drinking milk, in that aspect, I was not aware of the solid food, the elevated revelation. But when it all came to light and I realized there are things I just cannot do if I am going to truly follow God’s design for my life, I had to choose, do I want to keep drinking milk, stay dull of hearing, not embrace this opportunity, or do I want to chew meat? Do I want the solid food of discipleship, of following Jesus into this next level of both sacrifice and freedom?

Sugar isn’t a problem for a lot of people. Food isn’t an issue for everybody. Paul actually says in Romans 14:23, talking specifically about food and what other people may have problems with that you don’t, he says, / / But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

Now, you have to hear that in the context of our relationship with Christ. It’s written in a way that can sound like, “whatever you decide is sin, is sin.” No, whatever God has led you to realize in your life that is holding you back from His purposes and plans for your life, those things that are causing death, not life, that for you is a sin. And again, I’ve said this before. We have to not only think of sin as “you did a bad thing” - but as Romans 3:23 defines it, / / For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

If sin is missing the mark, and Philippians 3:13-14 says, and reading this from the KJV, / / …forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Reaching toward the MARK!… The NLT says it this way, / / Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. The ESV says, / / I press on toward the goal...

Here’s how I think this is the Grace of God. God doesn’t hit us with all of our shortcomings and failures and issues all at once. He is kind, loving, compassionate and merciful. I was 39 when I realized I was an addict. God preserved my life for years in the midst of me “drinking milk” until I was mature enough to handle “solid food”. Even the metaphor alone assures us we get to move from things easy to digest as we learn to digest more and more.

/ / 4. Are you ready for solid food?

Again, Father John Behr says this is not warning but encouragement. When Hebrews 5:14 says, Solid food is for those who are mature, that is an invitation to maturity.

What does it mean to be able to handle solid food?

This isn’t saying you’ve arrived, it is saying you’ve realized you need to sit at the table and eat.

Hebrews 5:13 in the RSV says this, / / for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child.

The NLT says, / / For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.

The invitation to sit at the table and eat solid food is the invitation to chew on and digest what it means to live a righteous life!

And that only comes by being willing to put down the bottle of milk. Hebrews 6:1 says, / / So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.

The invitation to Solid Food is an invitation to do more than just simply accept that Christ is the savior of the world, but to give your life to following Him.

Following Jesus Christ is not in thought and theory, it is in listening to his words, observing his example and following that example by obeying his instructions.

But you gotta chew through that. It’s not milk. At 39 I had to chew through addiction. At 40 I’m still chewing. At 41 I’ll be chewing and chewing and chewing, spiritually, not physically…terrible connection as an example.... But my chewing through the teachings of Jesus and digesting the word and the spirit will aid in my fight against chewing in the physical, right? Maybe it’s actually the perfect example… What are we chewing to satisfy us? Are we chewing through the word and spirit or are we simply chewing on the pleasures of this life?

Again, he who has ears to hear, will you listen and follow?

/ / 5. Maturity produces discernment

The last point I want to make this morning from this scripture is that maturity produces discernment. The last part of our passage in Hebrews says this, / / Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

who through training.....chewing.... listening....being teachable.... it produces a skill.

The RSV says, / / …for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

faculties - let’s call that your God given mental, physical and spiritual powers… ok, you’re having your abilities trained.

The ESV says, / / for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

I’ve said for a long time that I think discernment is one of the most lacking disciplines in the Christian faith, and yet here it is, it’s something that can be trained through practice by becoming mature when we chew through the solid food of the word and our discipleship to Christ.

OK, let’s wrap this up this morning.

Chris Green says, Jesus is the great High Priest, who is the source of our salvation as we obey him, but, we must in fact obey him. And to do that we have to grow up. We have to mature and become skilled [and experienced] in the word of righteousness.

To make this connection let’s read a couple verses from Hebrews 4 which really ties this together, even though it’s before what we’ve just gone through.

Hebrews 4:14-16, / / So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

If you’ve been here for a while you know my love for what is called the Serenity prayer, God give me the grace to accept with serenity the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Brad Jersak says, In the culture of addiction recovery, we’ve discovered a paradox rooted within the gospel itself - in fact, it’s there in the Sermon on the Mount. The paradox is this: / / Grace alone transforms but willing surrender is required. We’re not saved by works, but there’s some work involved on our part - it’s the ongoing struggle to surrender, let go and keep letting go.

/ / To mature in works of righteousness we MUST hold fast to the throne of grace - to God’s mercy and grace, WHILE working toward a life of righteousness.

God’s grace is necessary.

Thankfully God’s grace doesn’t show us the extent of our wrongdoing all at once.

God’s grace reveals to us where we are still drinking milk, and it’s time to eat solid food.

God’s grace invites us into the freedom of being obedient without the fear of failure.

And in turn obedience is the permission for Grace to empower strength.

Grace is like the sandwich model of constructive criticism, it’s the bread around the sandwich to obedience.

If you know the sandwich model of constructive criticism, it’s you tell someone something they are doing well, then you bring in the correction needed, letting them know what they need to fix or change, and then you close it up with another thing they’re doing well, so that they know they aren’t just being corrected.

This is what is happening here. Grace - Obedience - Grace. It’s by God’s grace that I can see my own humanity without it destroying me. Inviting me to the life of solid food, obedience, righteousness, maturity, thus bringing me to a place of his grace to fully live in those things.

/ / Grace invites me to obey and empowers me in the process.

One of the things that the writer of Hebrews is challenging is the idea that we can just sit and drink milk for the rest of our lives, without ever accepting the invitation to become a living sacrifice, a mature Christian living a life of righteousness.

The writer is saying, You’ve been drinking milk long enough, it’s time to get to the meat. But here’s the thing, you can trust me, you’ll love this meal.

Because waiting for God to transform you without being willing to obey what he has said is like waiting for the bus to bring you home without ever getting on it!

/ / The grace of God cannot empower you to do what you are unwilling to do.

So / / the invitation to be a living sacrifice, which Paul says is the way we worship God, is to give our lives to the training involved in becoming mature. / / Everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, but Solid food is for the mature and brings discernment on what is right and wrong - which gives us the opportunity to hit the mark, reach the goal, which is the high calling of God for our lives in Christ Jesus.

I’ll finish with this from 1 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul is writing to his protege, Timothy, and he says this, / / …train yourself to be godly. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

The Life Application Commentary says, Believers who do spiritual exercise really do have the best of both worlds - they receive immediate AND eternal benefits, and they benefit others as they instruct and model the Christian life.

To be teachable, chew on the word and spirit, digest it, or apply the teaching, and then to be an example and teach those who God brings into our lives.

To be a living sacrifice is to embrace the journey of becoming mature in Christ.