Paul on Lifestyle Worship

Paul develops this thought further in Romans 12:1. As an appropriate response (“Therefore”) to all the wonderful “mercies of God” he has been explicating in chapters 1–11 of his epistle, he enjoins believers to present as their “bodies,” that is their entire lives, to God living sacrificial gifts of thanksgiving. There is to be no sacred/secular compartmentalization in the lives of Christians. Paul reminds us elsewhere that we have been “bought with a price,” and again the fitting response is to “glorify God in your bodies” (1 Cor 6:20). As “temples of the Holy Spirit,” both individually (1 Cor 6:19) and corporately as the church (1 Cor 3:16), the place of worship is always present with us, and the time for worship is always NOW: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).

by Ron Man