The Secret to Holy Living
Notes
Transcript
I. The Basis of Holiness
I. The Basis of Holiness
The Requirement is Your Choice
The Motive is God’s Mercy
All Believers are eligible
II. Present Your Bodies as a Sacrifice
II. Present Your Bodies as a Sacrifice
It is a living sacrifice
It is a holy sacrifice
It is an acceptable sacrifice
It is the worship of a rational being (λογικός)
as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
“If I were a Nightingale, I would do what Nightingales do. If a swan, then what swans do. But since I am a rational [λογικὀς] human being, I must sing hymns to God.” - Epictetus, Stoic Philosopher
“God places no value on sacrificial animals, but on the purity of the sacrificer’s rational (λογικός) spirit” - Philo, Jewish Philosopher
Thus BDAG understands λογικός to mean “thoughtful”
III. Transform your Mind to Approve God’s Will
III. Transform your Mind to Approve God’s Will
A. Negatively - avoid being pressed into the mold of worldly thinking.
A. Negatively - avoid being pressed into the mold of worldly thinking.
This present world [age] is the current value system, ethics, and beliefs that are in opposition to God
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
The World has a mold.
In Paul’s Day
Jewish thinking - legalism; focusing more on food laws, holy days, and circumcision more than on ethically doing God’s will.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Pagan thinking - pluralism; religion completely separate from ethics; rampant sexual immorality, idolatry, orgies.
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
In Our Day
Secularism
Pluralism
Bogus tolerance; gay rights; climate change; racial activism
It can be a passive process
The word is probably passive.
Common sense - if you are ignorant of the pressure to conform, you are probably going to be overcome by it. If you are aware of it, you are much less likely to bow to it.
B. Positively - seek to transform your thinking
B. Positively - seek to transform your thinking
The need for transformed thinking. You do not automatically think God’s Will, so even if you are actively nonconforming to the world, you still may have thinking that does not yet align with God’s will.
the process - your mind is renewed by changing how you think about God’s will in everything.
C. The Goal - To approve God’s Will
C. The Goal - To approve God’s Will
To transform, you have to know what you are turning into. the goal is to “approve” God’s will. That is, the word means to test and give a positive evaluation of something.
Now the “will of God” is here not an abstract theory. It’s easy to theorize that God’s will is perfect and we can all agree on it. But if it doesn’t impact your everyday life and thinking, then the theory doesn’t mean much. So by approving God’s will, it means that you approve of his direction in every area of life.
The three adjectives show us how we will view God’s will when we have successfully transformed our thinking.
It will seem good. That is, we will recognize that God’s will is the morally correct option.
It will be well-pleasing. Now that could mean that God is well pleased, but this seems a bit redundant. anything God wants is by definition well-pleasing. No, this is our evaluation of God’s will. In other words, we don’t think of God’s will like eating broccoli - good for you but nasty. When you have transformed your mind successfully, you will not only believe that God’s will is the right thing to do, it will be what really makes you happy, too.
It will be perfect - that is, doing God’s will has no errors, mistakes, or downsides. It will only benefit you. That does not mean that it will be easy or problem free. It means that when all is said and done, it produced only good things and no bad things.
The will of God is something that impacts not just our ethics, our worldview, and our religious habits, though it does that too. It impacts how you treat your family; how you react to mistreatment by others whether at work or by a friend, or from your own family. It changes how you do business, the kinds of hobbies you engage in. It changes your life goals. It changes how you view suffering, tragedy, or conflict. In other words, there is literally nothing that you think, feel, or do that isn’t impacted by God’s Will.