“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” – Romans 12: 1 (NKJV)
In most organisations, an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) document defines the permissible and non-permissible activities while using the organisation’s computer and internet infrastructure. An employee who uses their company’s computer to do things outside the AUP would not please their employee, and that might taint the evaluation of their service to the organisation.
Similarly, our service to God can be likened to the relationship between an employer and an employee. Our relationship exists to bring pleasure to God, but we must perform our duties according to God’s set standards. In Colossians 3:22-25, Apostle Paul gives us a template for how to carry out our service to earthly masters. However, more than that, we should perform our service to God with unparalleled devotion and commitment to pleasing Him.
From our anchor text, our reasonable service to God is, first and foremost, a presentation of ourselves as a living sacrifice. This means that our service begins by being dead to self and living for God (Romans 6:11-13). Being dead to self means abandoning the ambitions of the flesh and ultimately yielding to Him (Luke 9:23, 2 Timothy 2:4). Everything we do in serving Him is rooted in this very decision.
Romans 12:2 tells us the next step in our reasonable service: Choosing to be different from the world around us. We can achieve this by adopting a new perspective shaped by the unchanging Word of God (2 Corinthians 3:18, James 1:22-25). With this transformed worldview, we can discern God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will amidst contrary suggestions, thereby always pleasing Him (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 5:15-17). Our reasonable service to God is incomplete without this work of righteousness.
Finally, dear believer, our service is not unto ourselves but to the One who saved us and called us to serve in holiness and righteousness (Luke 1:75). Therefore, our service must please Him, not ourselves or the world.
From now on, choose to serve God continually in a way that truly pleases Him.
Bible Reading Plan: 1 Timothy 5-6