Weekly Devotions

Romans 12:1-8

The epistle of Romans provides what most scholar believe is the Apostle Paul’s greatest theology work.

In Romans we hear the way to salvation if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart you shall be saved. In Romans we hear that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. After Paul tells the community what God has done, he pivots and tells the community what their responsibilities are as believers in Jesus Christ.

Whereas it is true that we are saved by grace through faith, believers are not without responsibilities that reveal how they are to live out their faith. Paul first urges his community to use their bodies as witness to their faith through the choices they make. Christians are called to be living sacrifices where worship is not confined to ritual but reveal a way of life when God is placed at the center of our lives. Our bodies are to bear witness to what we believe. There is much that we can tell the world with our bodies by the choices we make. During the pandemic we have been told the importance of facial coverings and social distance as means of reducing the spread of the virus. But many they have chosen to ignore medical advice under the guise of freedom.

Paul not only urges his community to use their bodies as witness to their faith by the choices they make, Paul tells them to change their thinking as well. Their thinking is not to be informed by the culture but by the Spirit--be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul believes that it is possible for change to occur when the thinking of humanity is informed by the Spirit. With right thinking, persons will be able to make choices that honor God, build community and provide a witness of cooperation instead of competition.

Once our thinking is right, we will be able to see our need for one another and how the gifts and abilities of others should not be the things that threaten us but the thing that helps each of us to see our place in the world and the plan of God. Paul believes that God has given gifts to all of us and our gifts are to be used for God’s glory and our good. The recent pandemic has made us aware of how the gifts of God are at work in his people, meeting needs because they have yielded their bodies as living sacrifices.