Romans 12:1-10

A Surrendered Life

In Romans 12, Paul spends his time exhorting believers to surrender fully to the Spirit of God, to the likeness of Christ. It’s funny, as believers, we know the right answers, but we do not always do what is right. We share principles of living with people, but at times find it difficult to apply those principles in our own lives. We can give the best advice, and then fail to follow the same advice ourselves. The Apostle Paul would probably tell us that It is a matter of a surrendered life.

Christians are to lead truly surrendered lives to God. When we do, we know His peace, we strive to walk the walk, and most importantly, we recognize that we are saved to serve. Every Christian needs to be involved with serving God. Some become involved in His works with the heart of a servant, while others become involved half-heartedly, not giving their best for God. We may be able to fake it with people, but we cannot fake it with God.

The church today will applaud half-hearted efforts and say things like “thank God so and so is doing anything at all.” That is a sad testament to the personal relationship that some have with God. No fruit, no service, no conviction. We are to serve others and serve God with great joy in our hearts. When a person becomes involved in God’s work, that person has a great impact on others! The Apostle Paul is a pretty good example. Let’s see what Paul has to tell us tonight.

The Surrendered Christian

Romans 12:1 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.

Let me start with this. Paul is not telling us to literally sacrifice our bodies. He is telling us that a surrendered life means we daily give our bodies, mind, and heart over to Christ. Paul was a surrendered man. He turns to each of us and begins with pleading. The Greek word is parakaleō, and it means to beg but with the authority of the one who sent him. Paul is begging with the authority of Christ. Paul is speaking directly to true believers at this point. Begging believers to completely surrender to Christ Jesus. I want you to think about his audience for a moment, and think about the body of Christ today. Paul’s audience was made up of every kind of background imaginable. All were completely sold out to Jesus.

All believers, irrespective of their ethnic origin, are brothers and sisters in the one international family of God, and so all have precisely the same vocation to be the holy, committed, humble, loving and conscientious people of God.

Giving our bodies means our minds, our hearts, and our physical abilities as spiritual worship unto the LORD. What Paul is telling us is to surrender ourselves and to be fully, intelligently, and joyfully involved in our worship.

How do we get there? How do we be “that believer?”

Romans 12:2 NIV

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.

Most of us have heard, and most of us have experienced the concept of “being a product of ones environment.” We copy what we learn from the earliest age, whether right or wrong.

Paul is pointing out the fact that people are typically creatures of imitation. We need a copy to model. Ultimately there are only two models we can copy. The worlds model and God’s model.

These two value systems are incompatible. They are in direct collision with one another. The worlds value system and God’s value system are at such odds, that there is no reconciliation between the two.

The word “transformed” in the Greek is metamorphoo. This is where we get the word “metamorphosis” from.

Metamorphosis - a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.

Like metamorphosis, there are stages to the Christian transformation.

Christian Moral Metamorphosis.

Our mind is renewed by the Word and Spirit of God

We are able to discern and desire the will of God

We are increasingly transformed by the Word and the Spirit.

Once the believer has surrendered to Jesus Christ, has become a surrender Christian, another stage in our walk begins to develop.

The Serving Christian

Romans 12:3 NLT

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.

Paul issues a stark warning under God’s authority. Do not become puffed up or conceited. It was a problem in Paul’s day, and sadly this is a problem in today’s church.

We all should posses good self-esteem, the confidence in ourselves as a human being. Believers should not have an exaggerated self-esteem. Have you ever heard somebody say “I don't think I am better than anybody,” and then in the next breath, start bragging about their own: importance, popularity, position, ability, performance, wealth, title, etc… The problem is that it becomes a “look at me,” “look what I did,” “it’s all about me” mentality. The serving Christian recognizes that it is not just about “me” anymore. It is about us. What can we do to help one another as we all share in ministering the Word of God, the Gospel message, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The last line can be confusing: “measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.” The faith that Paul is talking about is what we will call our working faith. The gifts and the abilities each of us has been granted by God that we use to edify one another, build up the body, and share the Gospel. So, we are to measure ourselves by the way we use those gifts God has given us. This is backwards from normal thought.

Our starting point begins with the renewing of our minds daily. When we allow Him to renew our minds, we have the faith, drive, and confidence to use the gifts and talents God has given to each of us. Those gifts are used to build the church, disciple others, reflect Jesus, and to bring others Christ. Those areas of our lives are where we are to honestly evaluate and measure ourselves. The thing is, and you need to be good with this, is you may never know how far or who God has reached through you. Surrender, be the serving Christian, be the willing vessel. His word does not return void.

Romans 12:4 NLT

4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,

Romans 12:5 NLT

5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever met a family that everybody got along perfectly? Everybody had the same personality? There were never disagreements? Picture Perfect family? Of course not! Family is not perfect because it is made up of imperfect people! The body of Christ is no different.

I will say this, Thank God that we are each different. Imagine being around yourself all the time, everywhere you went? The point is that we are going to disagree, have differences of opinion, and act like brothers and sisters at times. It’s what we do with it though. Do we act worldly, prideful, unforgiving, or do we act like Christ when the not so good times occur?

Paul is speaking specifically about those who are true believers, those who have the indwelling of the Spirit. With Christ as the head, Paul states that we belong to each other.

The original manuscripts use the word “members.” I point this out because some have twisted Paul’s meaning. We should belong to and support a local church, we should all count ourselves members of a local church. The problem arises when a local church forgets that they are each part of the larger body of Christ. We all belong to each other.

Paul does not say “member” or “membership” as being part of a club, but members in the Body of Christ. Every believer is equally important in accomplishing God’s work. This brings us to being:

The Servant Christian

Romans 12:7–8 NLT

7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

I think this list speaks for itself. God gives everyone of His children in Christ a gift. It is up to us to squander those gifts or to use those gifts as servants of Christ, to the glory of God. We should find joy in exercising the gifts we are given. Holy Spirit is not going to give us a gift we hate. Our joy, our measure of faith comes from using those gifts to edify the body and to build His church. This brings us to a conclusion tonight:

Exercise Active Love

Romans 12:9–10 NIV

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

I use the NIV here because of the word “sincere.” The original manuscripts use the word anupokritos. What it means is “without hypocrisy.” To love without hypocrisy. This is at the very heart of Jesus Christ’s New Testament, New Covenant ethics. It is easy to say “I love you.” Like Jesus, Paul is talking about “love” in the verb form, requiring action.

A lot of people are good at play-acting. pretending, while having ulterior motives. When we show the love of Christ to someone it is never to be based on an impure motive: to seek gain, to boost self, to gain attention, or to gain position. Our brothers and sisters have the same emotional needs and spiritual needs that we have. I imagine everybody has gone through or is going through a season. A season when things do not seem right, or there is hurt, or pain of some kind. Believers who are not going through such things often forget what it is like to face those battles and struggles. Paul is telling us “do not become condescending, do not count yourselves better than those.

In His parable of the final Judgement, Jesus Christ said this:

Matthew 25:40 NLT

40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

We are to show that love within the body, but also to non-believers. It took me awhile to understand what Paul meant by “hating what is evil and clinging to good.” See love desires the very best for all people, not bad for people. We are supposed to stand against evil and come up beside those who are hurting, hungry, or destitute.

The deeper take away is this: There was a time for most believers that external motivation fed us internally. We looked to other things, other people, and worldly desires to make us feel good, we were like vacuum cleaners, sucking it all up. Now, with the indwelling of Holy Spirit, we experience an intrinsic love that can not help but flow out from us. Love does not know dissension or divisiveness.

Is it difficult to show the love of Christ to all people? It can be at times. Is it impossible? No. Does it take practice at times? Yes. We are on an incredible journey and part of that journey is making mistakes. God knows, that is why Jesus asked three times as many questions as he answered. The church is to live in love, and living in love is living in peace. God Bless you tonight.

Let’s Pray.