Yesterday we saw the mercy of God as Paul outlines in his first 11 chapters, primarily chapters 9-11. Remember, that is the basis for his appeal that he is going to make to the Roman church. So we must start and dwell there. We must do our very best to grasp the mercy of God in salvation. If we do not, everything else Paul says here is for naught. So if you haven't read or listened to yesterday's devotional go back to that one now.
Romans 12:1–8
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Paul's appeal to them is to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God."
This sentence is loaded with OT references. Obviously "sacrifice" is a reference to the OT sacrificial system. Also, note that the word sacrifice is singular while the words leading up to it (you, brothers and sisters, your bodies) are plural. This means he is calling them to all present their bodies as a unified sacrifice to God. Paul is urging the various house churches in Rome which are divided along ethnic, Jew, Gentile lines to be unified and present themselves all as a single offering to God.
"Present" is a term used to describe one's religious duties to worship at the temple (see Lk 2:22; Eph. 5:27; Num. 16:9; Ps. 5:3). The words "holy" and "pleasing" denote offerings at the temple as well. The sacrifices were to be holy (set apart and spotless) and if they followed the requirements properly they would be pleasing to God.
The word "living" in some ways separates what Paul is talking about here from the OT system of sacrifice. Obviously, a sacrifice would be living then not living after the ceremony. But I think what Paul has in mind here is more of the idea that Christians are alive to God in Christ as he states in 6:11, 13 and 8:13). Our spirit has been made alive to God in Christ and we must offer our whole self to him in response and continue to live for him.
It's also likely that Paul views the church and the work that he is doing as a fulfillment of Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 66:
Isaiah 66:20 20 They will bring the remnant of your people back from every nation. They will bring them to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD.
The podcast below from the Bible Project discusses this connection in more detail.
The word bodies implies the whole person. It doesn't solely refer to our physical, material being, but our whole being. All of who we are (spiritual, emotional, physical beings) must be dedicated to God.
The phrase, "which is your spiritual worship" is a disputed translation. For instance the NIV translates it "true and proper worship". The NKJV translates it "reasonable service". Why the difference? Well, the term is often used by Greek philosophers to mean "reasonable" but it is closely linked in a few extra-biblical Jewish texts and 1 Peter (1 Pt 2:2-5) with "spiritual". The correlation, however, doesn't seem strong enough to render the meaning "spiritual". The meaning therefore is most likely "reasonable" or "true and proper". The idea being that giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to God is the only reasonable response to the mercies God has given his people.
Paul here grounds our worship in everything that we do. It isn't just religious activities that constitute worship, but everything that we do because all of who we are has been dedicated to God as worship to him. This, therefore, includes our work, our rest, our fun, our singing, our prayer, our Bible reading—all of it is worship to God.
Additional Content
*the discussion of this text primarily starts at 24:40 and goes to about 39:00. Obviously feel free to listen to the whole thing.
Reflection
Think of the image of you, along with your community, presenting your body (ie. all of who you are) to God as an offering to him—a living sacrifice to him. You are offering to him your work, your treasured possessions, your money, your devotion, your thoughts, your service, everything. And you're doing this with your community of Christ followers in a unified offering.