I beseech you. Romans 12:1 A lesson to ministers A. Barnes, D.D. Ministers of the gospel should be gentle, tender, and affectionate. They should be kind in feeling, and courteous in manner — like a father or mother. Nothing is ever gained by a sour, harsh, crabbed, dissatisfied manner. Sinners are never scolded either into duty or into heaven. Flies are never caught with vinegar. No man is a better or more faithful preacher because he is rough in manner, coarse, or harsh in his expressions, or sour in his intercourse with mankind. Not thus was the Master or Paul. ( A. Barnes, D.D. )

Benson Commentary Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1 . I beseech you therefore, brethren — Paul uses to suit his exhortations to the doctrines he has been delivering. So here the general exhortation to universal holiness, grounded on, and inferred from, the whole of the preceding part of the epistle, is contained in the first and second verses. Particular advices and precepts follow from the third verse to the end of the epistle. By the mercies — ??? ??? ????????? , the bowels of mercies, or tender mercies of God — The whole sentiment is derived from chap. 1.-5.; the expression itself is particularly opposed to the wrath of God, Romans 1:18 . It has a reference here to the entire gospel, to the whole economy of grace or mercy, delivering us from the wrath of God, and exciting us to all duty. “The love,” says Macknight, “which God hath expressed in our redemption by Christ, and in making us [true] members of his church, is the most winning of all considerations to engage us to obey God; especially as his commands are calculated to make us capable of the blessings he proposes to bestow on us in the next life. We should therefore habitually recollect this powerful motive, and particularly when any difficult duty is to be performed.” That — Instead of the animal victims, whose slaughtered bodies you have been accustomed to offer, either to the true God, or to idols, you would now present — As it were, at his spiritual altar; your own bodies — That is, yourselves, as he expresses himself, Romans 6:13 , a part being put for the whole; and the rather, as in the ancient sacrifices of beasts, to which he alludes, the body was the whole. These also are particularly named, in opposition to the abominable abuse of their bodies, of which the heathen were guilty, mentioned Romans 1:24 . And several other expressions follow, which have likewise a direct reference to other expressions in the same chapter. To this we may add, that having taught, Romans 7:5 ; Romans 7:18 ; Romans 7:23 , that the body, with its lusts, is the source and seat of sin, he exhorted the Romans, very properly, to present their bodies to God a sacrifice, by putting the lusts and appetites thereof to death. It may be proper to observe, also, that the word ?????????? , here rendered to present, is the word by which the bringing of an animal to the altar to be sacrificed was expressed. A sacrifice — Dedicated to God entirely and irrevocably; (for in the ancient sacrifices, the animals were wholly given, and were not taken back again;) made dead to the world and sin, being slain by the commandment, ( Romans 7:9 ,) or by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and is quick and powerful to effect this death, ( Hebrews 4:12 ,) and living by that life which is mentioned Romans 1:17 ; Romans 6:4 , &c. that is, by faith in the gospel, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus; and thus made a living sacrifice indeed; holy — A sacrifice such as the holy law requires, and the Holy Spirit produces. This is spoken in allusion to the sacrifices under the law being required to be without blemish. Acceptable — A sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. The sum is, Let your whole souls, with all their faculties, and your bodies, with all their members, being sanctified and animated by divine grace, be dedicated to, and employed in the service of him to whom you are under such immense obligations. Which is your reasonable service — Such a sacrifice is reasonable, not merely because, as Beza observes, it is the sacrifice of a rational creature; whereas the sacrifices of birds and beasts, &c, were sacrifices, ?????? ???? , of irrational animals; but because the whole worship and service is highly, nay, infinitely reasonable, being the worship and service of faith, love, and obedience, the objects of which are divine truth and love, and wise, just, holy, and kind commands: or, in other words, affections and dispositions, words and actions, suited to the divine perfections, and the relations subsisting between us and God, as our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Saviour, friend, and father in Christ Jesus. And as the sacrifice is thus reasonable, it is equally reasonable that we should offer it, being under indispensable, yea, infinite obligations so to do. So that in offering this sacrifice, and in all things, a Christian acts by the highest reason, from the mercy of God inferring his own duty. Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2 . And be not conformed — Neither in judgment, spirit, nor behaviour; to this vain and sinful world — Which, neglecting the will of God, entirely follows its own; but be ye transformed — Regenerated and created anew; by the renewing of your minds — Of your understandings, wills, and affections, through the influence of the Spirit of God, Titus 3:5 . Thus, Ephesians 4:22-25 , the new man is described as renewed in the spirit of his mind; that is, in all his faculties; in his affections and will, as well as in his understanding: in consequence whereof his whole conduct becomes holy and virtuous. That ye may prove — May be enabled to discern, approve, and know, not merely speculatively, but experimentally and practically, and by sure trial; what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God — The will of God is here to be understood of all the preceptive part of Christianity, which is in itself so excellently good, so acceptable to God, and so perfective of our nature: and it is here “set in opposition, on the one hand, to the idolatrous rites of worship practised by the heathen, which in their own nature were extremely bad; and, on the other, to the unprofitable ceremonies and sacrifices of the law of Moses, concerning which God himself declared that he had no pleasure in them, Hebrews 10:5-9 . The rites of Moses, therefore, in which the Jews gloried, were no longer acceptable to God. Whereas the duties recommended by the apostle are of eternal obligation, and separate the people of God from the wicked in a more excellent manner than the Jews had been separated from idolaters by the rites of Moses.” — Macknight. Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3 . For I say — As if he had said, You must be renewed, in order that you may walk as it is your indispensable duty and great privilege to do. He proceeds to show what that will of God is, which he had just spoken of: through the grace which is given to me — He chiefly means, given him as an inspired apostle, whereby he was qualified and authorized to direct the believers at Rome, in their duty in general, and in the exercise of their gifts, and the execution of their offices in particular. And he modestly mentions the grace of God as the source of his authority and qualifications for this office, lest he should seem to forget his own direction; to every one that is among you — To all and each of you, who profess Christianity at Rome: well would it have been if the Christians there had always remembered his advice! Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think — On account of any special gift conferred on him, or any public office assigned him in the church; not to be lifted up with pride on account of it, or of his own wisdom or understanding, so as to arrogate to himself, or take upon him, more authority than he ought. But to think soberly — To think of himself, of his gifts or office, with modesty and humility; according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith — From which all other gifts and graces flow. And surely, as if he had said, When you consider it is God who hath given all, there will appear little reason to magnify yourselves on any distinguishing share of his bounty, which any one may have received; especially when you remember that this distribution is made not only, or chiefly, for your own sakes, but out of regard to the good of the whole. From the apostolic caution and advice here given, we may infer that “irregularities in the exercise of spiritual gifts had taken place, or were likely to take place, at Rome as at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 12:14 , at Philippi, Php 2:3 , and Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 . These the apostle endeavoured to correct, or prevent, by the excellent rules prescribed in this passage.” Romans 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: Romans 12:4-8 . For as we have many members — The apostle proceeds to illustrate his advice by a comparison taken from the members of the human body. All members have not the same office — But different members are appointed to different purposes. So we — Several believers, having different gifts and offices; are one body — All make up one body under Christ the head; and members one of another — Closely connected together, and nearly related to one another, and so bound to be helpful to one another. Having then gifts differing — In their nature, design, and use, although the ultimate tendency of all is the same; according to the grace that is given to us — Gifts are various, but grace is one; and grace, free grace, is the spring and origin of all the gifts which are given to men. It is grace that appoints the offices, calls and qualifies persons to fill them, and works in them both to will and to do. But by grace here the apostle seems chiefly to intend the favour which God manifested, in different respects and degrees, in bestowing gifts upon men. In the primitive church there were divers extraordinary gifts, as that of tongues, that of discerning of spirits, that of healing, with some others mentioned 1 Corinthians 12:4-10 . But the apostle speaks here chiefly, if not only, of those that are ordinary. Whether prophecy — This, considered as an extraordinary gift, is that whereby things to come are foretold, or heavenly mysteries are declared to men. But it seems here to signify the ordinary gift of interpreting the Scriptures, and preaching the word of God, which is also the meaning of the expression, 1 Corinthians 14:1 ; 1 Corinthians 14:3 . Let us prophesy according to the proportion, or analogy rather, of faith. Or, as Peter expresses it, 1 Peter 4:11 , as the oracles of God; according to the general tenor of them; according to that grand scheme of doctrine which is delivered therein, touching the original and fallen state of man, the person and offices, the deity and atonement of Christ, justification by faith, sanctification by the Holy Spirit, inward and outward holiness, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, a general judgment, and an eternal state of happiness or misery. There is a wonderful analogy between all these doctrines, and a close and intimate connection between the chief heads of that faith which was once delivered to the saints. Every article, therefore, concerning which there is any question, should be determined by this rule: every doubtful scripture interpreted according to the grand truths which run through the whole. Macknight, however, thinks that “the extent and energy of inspiration which was bestowed on some of the believers, is rather intended here, called the measure of faith, Romans 12:3 ; and that the meaning of the apostle’s direction is, that such as enjoyed the prophetic inspiration were not to imagine, that because some things were revealed to them, they might speak of every thing; but that in prophesying, they were to confine themselves to what was revealed to them.” Or ministry — Although every office performed for the edification of the church was called ???????? , ministry, (see Ephesians 4:12 ,) and hence the word is applied to the apostleship itself, Acts 1:17 ; Acts 1:25 ; Acts 6:4 ; and to the evangelist’s office, 2 Timothy 4:5 ; yet, as the ministry here spoken of is joined with teaching, exhorting, distributing, and showing mercy, which were all stated offices in the church, it is probable that it was also a stated office, and most probably that of deacons, appointed to superintend the temporal affairs of the Christian societies: concerning whom see note on Acts 6:2-3 . Let us wait on our ministering — Let a man employ himself actively and faithfully in his ministration; or he that teacheth — The ignorant, who is appointed to instruct the catechumens, and to fit them for the communion of the church; let him attend to his office of teaching with humility, tenderness, patience, and diligence; or he that exhorteth — Whose peculiar business it was to urge Christians to perform their duty, or to comfort them in their trials, let him continue in his exhortation. He that giveth — Any thing to a charitable use; let him do it with simplicity — Namely, of intention, and unfeigned liberality: neither seeking the applause of men, nor having any other sinister end in view, which he could desire to conceal. Let him act with disinterestedness and impartiality. He that ruleth or presideth, (Greek, ???????????? ,) that hath the care of a flock, (see 1 Timothy 5:17 ,) or presideth in the distribution of charities, which sense the preceding and following clauses appear rather to favour: or, that is appointed to see that they do their duty in any department, ( Romans 16:2 ,) with diligence — Let him perform his office faithfully. He that showeth mercy — In any instance, particularly in relieving the poor and afflicted; with cheerfulness — Rejoicing that he has such an opportunity of being useful to his fellow-creatures. Romans 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Romans 12:7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Romans 12:8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Romans 12:9-11 . Having spoken of faith and its fruits, Romans 12:3 , he comes now to speak of love. Let love be without dissimulation — Not in pretence, but in reality; not in word and tongue only, but in deed and in truth, 1 John 3:18 . In consequence of loving God because he hath first loved you, sincerely love and desire the temporal and eternal welfare of all mankind; and let all your expressions of mutual friendship be as free as possible from base flattery and vain compliment. Abhor that which is evil — In every instance; and cleave to that which is good — Both inwardly and outwardly, whatever ill-will or danger may follow: practise benevolence and every other virtue with the greatest determination and perseverance of mind. Be kindly affectioned one to another — Or, as the very expressive words of the original, ?? ?????????? , ??? ???????? ??????????? , may be rendered, In love to one another, as brethren in Christ, show that kindness of affection which near relations bear to one another. So Macknight, who justly observes, “the force of the word ??????????? , can hardly be reached in any translation.” It is compounded of a word signifying that affection which animals, by instinct, bear to their young; and so teaches us, that Christian charity must be warm and strong, like that, and joined with delight, which the word also implies. In honour preferring one another — That is, let each, in his turn, be ready to think better of his brethren than of himself, which he will do, if he habitually consider what is good and excellent in others, and what is evil or weak in himself. It may imply also the preventing others in every office of respect and kindness; and, out of regard to their advantage, giving up, with as good a grace as possible, any thing in which our own honour or personal interest may be concerned. The original words, however, ?? ???? ???????? ???????????? , are interpreted by some, In every honourable action going before, and leading on one another. Not slothful in business — That is, being diligent and industrious in your particular callings; or in your endeavours to advance the glory of God, and the good, especially the spiritual good, of one another, as the singular phraseology of the original, ?? ?????? ?? ??????? , is thought by many to imply: “not slothful in the concerns of God and one another,” says Dr. Whitby; — “in care for each other be not slothful,” Macknight; — “perform not your duty slothfully, unwillingly, and heavily, but diligently,” Baxter; — “whatsoever you do, do it with your might,” Wesley. Although it is proper that Christians should attend to, and be diligent in prosecuting their temporal business, yet it does not appear that was the chief thing the apostle had in view in this passage. Fervent in spirit — Zealous and earnest, especially in all the duties of religion, and in every business diligently and fervently serving the Lord; doing all to God, and not to man; making God’s will your rule, and his glory your end, in all your actions. Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Romans 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Romans 12:12-18 . Rejoicing in hope — Of perfect holiness and everlasting happiness; or of the glory of God; ( Romans 5:2 ;) and of eternal life, Titus 1:2 ; patient in tribulation — To which you may be exposed for the cause of Christ, or in whatever you may be called to suffer, according to the wise disposals of God’s gracious providence; continuing instant in prayer — That you may stand firm in the faith, and have a seasonable deliverance from your trouble. Distributing to the necessities of the saints — As far as is in your power; accounting nothing your own which their relief requires you to communicate. It is remarkable that the apostle, treating expressly of the duties flowing from the communion of saints, yet never says one word about the dead. Given to, ????????? , pursuing hospitality — Not only embracing those that offer, but seeking opportunities to exercise it: a precept this, which the present circumstances of Christians rendered peculiarly proper, and indeed necessary; especially toward those strangers that were exiles from their own country, or were travelling in the cause of Christianity. To which we may add, that the want of public inns, (which were much less common than among us,) rendered it difficult for strangers to get accommodations. Bless — That is, wish well to, and pray for, them which persecute you — That pursue you with evil intentions, and find means to bring upon you the greatest sufferings. Bless, and curse not — No, not in your hearts, whatever provocations you may have to do so. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, &c. — Maintain a constant sympathy with your Christian brethren, as the relation in which you stand to them, as members of the same body, requires. Be of the same mind one toward another — Desire for others the same good which you wish for yourselves. Or, “let each condescend to the rest, and agree with them as far as he fairly and honourably can: and where you must differ, do not by any means quarrel about it, but allow the same liberty of sentiments you would claim.” So Doddridge. Mind not high things — Desire not riches, honour, or the company of the great; but condescend to men of low estate — To the meanest concerns of the meanest Christians, and stoop to all offices of Christian kindness toward them. Be not wise in your own conceits — So as to think you do not need the guidance of the divine wisdom, or the advice and counsel of your Christian brethren, Proverbs 3:5 ; Proverbs 3:7 . Recompense to no man evil for evil — Nor imagine that any man’s injurious treatment of you will warrant your returning the injury. Provide things honest in the sight of all men — Think beforehand: contrive to give as little offence as may be to any. Take care that you do only such things as are justifiable and unexceptionable; such as may be above the need of excuse, and may appear, at the first view, fair and reputable. The word ???????????? , rendered provide, signifies, to think of the proper method of doing a thing, before we proceed to action. If it be possible — That is, so far as it may be done, 1st. Without dishonouring God; 2d, With a good conscience; 3d, If men’s abuses be not insufferable; that is, as far as is consistent with duty, honour, and conscience; live peaceably with all men — Even with heathen and unbelievers, with whom you have any dealings. Romans 12:13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12:16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Romans 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Romans 12:19-20 . Dearly beloved — So he softens the rugged spirit; avenge not yourselves — On those that have injured you, whatever wrongs you may receive; but rather give place unto wrath — Yield to the wrath of the enemy: for it is written, Vengeance is mine — It properly belongs to me; and I will repay — The deserved punishment; saith the Lord — Or perhaps the original expression, ???? ????? ?? ???? , might be more properly rendered, leave room for wrath; that is, the wrath of God, to whom vengeance properly belongs. “This precept,” says Macknight, “is founded, as in religion, so in right reason, and in the good of society. For he who avenges himself, making himself accuser, and judge, and executioner, all in one person, runs a great hazard of injuring both himself and others, by acting improperly, through the influence of passion.” Therefore — Instead of bearing any thoughts of hurting them that abuse you, however unkindly and unjustly; if thine enemy hunger, feed him — Even with your own hand: yea, if it be needful, put bread into his mouth: if he thirst, &c. — That is, on the whole, do him all the good in thy power: for in so doing — As Solomon urges, ( Proverbs 25:21 ,) thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head — Thou wilt touch him so sensibly, that he will no more be able to stand against such a conduct, than to bear on his head burning coals; but will rather submit to seek thy friendship, and endeavour, by future kindness, to overbalance the injury. “The metaphor is supposed to be taken from the melting of metals, by covering the ore with burning coals. Thus understood, the meaning will be, In so doing, thou wilt mollify thine enemy, and bring him to a good temper. This, no doubt, is the best method of treating enemies: for it belongs to God to punish the injurious, but to the injured to overcome them, by returning good for evil. “So artists melt the sullen ore of lead, By heaping coals of fire upon its head: In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, And, pure from dross, the silver runs below.” That the expression is used here in this sense, seems evident from the following verse, where we are commanded to overcome evil with good. Romans 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21 . Be not overcome of evil — As all are who avenge themselves; but — Even if you see no present fruit, yet persevere; and overcome evil with good — Conquer your enemies with kindness and patience, which is the most glorious victory, and a victory which may certainly be obtained, if you have the courage to adhere to that which, being good, is always in its own nature, on the whole, invincible, to whatever present disadvantage it may seem obnoxious. Blackwall, after having praised the language in which this precept is delivered, adds, “This is a noble strain of Christian courage, prudence, and goodness, that nothing in Epictetus, Plutarch, or Antonine, can vie with. The moralists and heroes of paganism could not write and act to the height of this.” Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Chapter 25 CHRISTIAN CONDUCT THE ISSUE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH Romans 12:1-8 AGAIN we may conjecture a pause, a long pause and deliberate, in the work of Paul and Tertius. We have reached the end, generally speaking, of the dogmatic and so to speak oracular contents of the Epistle. We have listened to the great argument of Righteousness, Sanctification, and final Redemption. We have followed the exposition of the mysterious unbelief and the destined restoration of the chosen nation; a theme which we can see, as we look back on the perspective of the whole Epistle, to have a deep and suggestive connection with what went before it; for the experience of Israel, in relation to the sovereign will and grace of God, is full of light thrown upon the experience of the soul. Now in order comes the bright sequel of this mighty antecedent, this complex but harmonious mass of spiritual facts and historical illustrations of the will and ways of the Eternal. The voice of St. Paul is heard again; and he comes full upon the Lord’s message of duty, conduct, character. As out of some cleft in the face of the rocky hills rolls the full pure stream born in their depths, and runs under the sun and sky through green meadows and beside the thirsty homes of men, so here from the inmost mysteries of grace comes the message of all-comprehensive holy duty. The Christian, filled with the knowledge of an eternal love, is told how not to dream, but to serve, with all the mercies of God for his motive. This is indeed in the manner of the New Testament; this vital sequence of duty and doctrine; the divine Truths first, and then and therefore the blessed Life. To take only St. Paul’s writings, the Ephesian and Colossian Epistles are each, practically, bisected by a line which has eternal facts before it and present duties, done in the light and power of them, after it. But the whole Book of God, in its texture all over, shows the same phenomenon. Someone has remarked with homely force that in the Bible everywhere, if only we dig deep enough, we find "Do right" at the bottom. And we may add that everywhere also we have only to dig one degree deeper to find that the precept is rooted in eternal underlying facts of divine truth and love. Scripture, that is to say, its Lord and Author, does not give us the terrible gift of a precept isolated and in a vacuum. It supports its commandments on a base of cogent motive; and it fills the man who is to keep them with the power of a living Presence in him; this we have seen at large in the pages of the Epistle already traversed. But then, on the other hand. the Lord of Scripture does not leave the motive and the Presence without the articulate precept. Rather, because they are supplied and assured to the believer, it spreads out all the more amply and minutely a moral directory before his eyes. It tells him, as a man who now rests on God and loves Him, and in whom God dwells, not only in general that he is to "walk and please God" but in particular "how" to do it. { 1 Thessalonians 4:1 } It takes his life in detail, and applies the will of the Lord to it. It speaks to him in explicit terms about moral purity, in the name of the Holy One: about patience and kindness, in the name of redeeming Love; about family duties, in the name of the Father and of the Son; about civic duties, in the name of the King Eternal. And the whole outline and all the details thus become to the believer things not only of duty but of possibility, of hope, of the strong interest given by the thought that thus and thus the beloved Master would have us use His divine gift of life. Nothing is more wonderfully free, from one point of view, than love and spiritual power. But if the love is indeed given by God and directed towards Him in Christ, the man who loves cannot possibly wish to be his own law, and to spend his soul’s power upon his own ideas or preferences. His joy and his conscious aim must be to do, in detail, the will of the Lord who is now so dear to him; and therefore, in detail, to know it. Let us take deep note of this characteristic of Scripture, its minuteness of precept, in connection with its revelation of spiritual blessing. If in any sense we are called to be teachers of others, let us carry out the example. Richard Cecil, wise and pregnant counsellor in Christ, says that if he had to choose between preaching precepts and preaching privileges he would preach privileges; because the privileges of the true Gospel tend in their nature to suggest and stimulate right action, while the precepts taken alone do not reveal the wealth of divine life and power. But Cecil, like his great contemporaries of the Evangelical Revival, constantly and diligently preached as a fact both privilege and precept; opening with energetic hands the revealed fulness of Christ, and then and therefore teaching "them which had believed through grace" not only the idea of duty, but its details. Thomas Scott, at Olney, devoted his week night "lecture" in the parish church almost exclusively to instructions in daily Christian life. Assuming that his hearers "knew Christ" in personal reality, he told them how to be Christians in the home, in the shop, in the farm: how to be consistent with their regenerate life as parents, children, servants, masters, neighbours, subjects. There have been times, perhaps, when such didactic preaching has been too little used in the Church. But the men who, under God, in the last century and the early years of this century, revived the message of Christ Crucified and Risen as all in all for our salvation, were eminently diligent in teaching Christian morals. At the present day, in many quarters of our Christendom, there is a remarkable revival of the desire to apply saving truth to common life, and to keep the Christian always mindful that he not only has heaven in prospect, but is to travel to it, every step, in the path of practical and watchful holiness. This is a sign of divine mercy in the Church. This is profoundly Scriptural. Meanwhile, God forbid that such "teaching how to live" should ever be given, by parent, pastor, schoolmaster, friend, where it does not first pass through the teacher’s own soul into his own life. Alas for us if we show ever so convincingly, and even ever so winningly, the bond between salvation and holiness, and do not "walk accurately" { Ephesians 5:15 } ourselves, in the details of our walk. As we actually approach the rules of holiness now before us, let us once more recollect what we have seen all along in the Epistle, that holiness is the aim and issue of the entire Gospel. It is indeed an "evidence of life," infinitely weighty in the inquiry whether a man knows God indeed and is on the way to His heaven. But it is much more; it is the expression of life; it is the form and action in which life is intended to come out. In our orchards (to use again a parable we have used already) the golden apples are evidences of the tree’s species, and of its life. But a wooden label could tell us the species, and leaves can tell the life. The fruit is more than label or leaf; it is the thing for which the tree is there. We who believe are "chosen" and "ordained" to "bring forth fruit," { John 15:16 } fruit much and lasting. The eternal Master walks in His garden for the very purpose of seeing if the trees bear. And the fruit He looks for is no visionary thing; it is a life of holy serviceableness to Him and to our fellows, in His Name. But now we draw near again and listen: I exhort you therefore, brethren, by means of the compassions of God; using as my logic and my fulcrum this "depths of riches" we have explored; this wonderful Redemption, with its sovereignty, its mercy, its acceptance, its holiness, its glory; this overruling of even sin and rebellion, in Gentile and in Jew, into occasions for salvation; these compassionate indications in the nearer and the eternal future of golden days yet to come; -I exhort you therefore to present, to give over, your bodies as a sacrifice, an altar offering, living, holy, well pleasing, unto God; for this is your rational devotion. That is to say, it is the "devotion," the "cultus," the worship service, which is done by the reason, the mind, the thought and will, of the man who has found God in Christ. The Greek term, "latreia," is tinged with associations of ritual and temple; but it is taken here, and qualified by its adjective, on purpose to be lifted, as in paradox, into the region of the soul. The robes and incense of the visible sanctuary are here out of sight; the individual believer is at once priest, sacrifice, and altar; he immolates himself to the Lord, -living, yet no longer to himself. But observe the pregnant collocation here of "the body" with "the reason." "Give over your bodies"; not now your spirit, your intelligence, your sentiments, your aspirations, but "your bodies," to your Lord. Is this an anticlimax? Have we retreated from the higher to the lower, in coming from the contemplation of sovereign grace and the eternal glory to that of the physical frame of man? No more than the Lord Jesus did. when He walked down from the hill of Transfiguration to the crowd below, and to the sins and miseries it presented. He came from the scene of glory to serve man in its abiding inner light. And even He, in the days of His flesh, served men, ordinarily, only through His sacred body: walking to them with His feet; touching them with His hands; meeting their eyes with His; speaking with His lips the words that were spirit and life. As with Him so with us. It is only through the body, practically, that we can "serve our generation by the will of God." Not without the body but through it the spirit must tell on the embodied spirits around us. We look, we speak, we hear, we write, we nurse, we travel, by means of these material servants of the will, our living limbs. Without the body, where should we be, as to other men? And therefore, without the surrender of the body, where are we, as to other men, from the point of view of the will of God? So there is a true sense in which, while the surrender of the will is all-important and primary from one point of view, the surrender of the body, the "giving over" of the body, to be the implement of God’s will in us, is all important, is crucial, from another. For many a Christian life it is the most needful of all things to remember this: it is the oblivion, or the mere half recollection, of this which keeps that life an almost neutral thing as to witness and service for the Lord. And do not grow conformed to this world, this "aeon," the course and state of things in this scene of sin and death; do not play "the worldling," assuming a guise which in itself is fleeting, and which for you, members of Christ, must also be hollow: but grow transfigured, living out a lasting and genuine change of tone and conduct, in which the figure is only the congenial expression of the essence-by the renewal of your mind, by using as an implement in the holy process that divine light which has cleared your intelligence of the mists of self-love, and taught you to see as with new eyes "the splendour of the will of God"; so as that you test, discerning as by a spiritual touchstone, what is the will of God, the good, and acceptable, and perfect (will). Such was to be the method, and such the issue, in this development of the surrendered life. All is divine in origin and secret. The eternal "compassions," and the sovereign work of the renewing and illuminating Spirit, are supposed before the believer can move one step. On the other hand the believer, in the full conscious action of his renewed "intelligence," is to ponder the call to seek "transfiguration" in a life of unworldly love, and to attain it in detail by using the new insight of a regenerated heart. He is to look, with the eyes of the soul, straight through every mist of self-will to the now beloved Will of God, as his deliberate choice, seen to be welcome, seen to be perfect, not because all is understood, but because the man is joyfully surrendered to the all-trusted Master. Thus he is to move along the path of an ever-brightening transfiguration; at once open eyed, and in the dark; seeing the Lord, and so with a sure instinct gravitating to His will, yet content to let the mists of the unknown always hang over the next step but one. It is a process, not a crisis; "grow transfigured." The origin of the process, the liberation of the movement, is, at least in idea, as critical as possible; "Give over your bodies." That precept is conveyed, in its Greek form ( ???????ˆ?? , aorist), so as to suggest precisely the thought of a critical surrender. The Roman Christian, and his English younger brother, are called here, as they were above, { Romans 6:13 ; Romans 6:19 } to a transaction with the Lord quite definite, whether or no the like has taken place before, or shall be done again. They are called, as if once for all, to look their Lord in the face, and to clasp His gifts in their hands, and then to put themselves and His gifts altogether into His hands, for perpetual use and service. So, from the side of his conscious experience, the Christian is called to a "hallowing of himself" decisive, crucial, instantaneous. But its outcome is to be a perpetual progression, a growth, not so much "into" grace as "in" it, { 2 Peter 3:18 } in which the surrender in purpose becomes a long series of deepening surrenders in habit and action, and a larger discovery of self, and of the Lord, and of His will, takes effect in the "shining" of the transfigured life "more and more, unto the perfect day". { Proverbs 4:18 } Let us not distort this truth of progression, and its correlative truth of the Christian’s abiding imperfection. Let us not profane it into an excuse for a life which at the best is stationary, and must almost certainly be retrograde, because not intent upon a genuine advance. Let us not withhold "our bodies" from the sacred surrender here enjoined upon us, and yet expect to realise somehow, at some vague date. a "transfiguration, by the renewal of our mind." We shall be indeed disappointed of that hope. But let us be at once stimulated and sobered by the spiritual facts. As we are "yielded to the Lord," in sober reality, we are in His mercy "liberated for growth." But the growth is to come, among other ways, by the diligent application of "the renewal of our mind" to the details of His blessed Will. And it will come, in its true development, only in the line of holy humbleness. To exalt oneself, even in the spiritual life, is not to grow; it is to wither. So the Apostle goes on: For I say, through the grace that has been given me, "the grace" of power for apostolic admonition, to everyone who is among you, not to be high-minded beyond what his mind should be, but to be minded toward sober-mindedness, as to each God distributed faith’s measure. That is to say, let the individual never, in himself, forget his brethren, and the mutual relation of each to all in Christ. Let him never make himself the centre, or think of his personal salvation as if it could really be taken alone. The Lord, the sovereign Giver of faith, the Almighty Bringer of souls into acceptance and union with Christ by faith, has given thy faith to thee, and thy brother’s faith to him; and why? That the individual gifts, the bounty of the One Giver, might join the individuals not only to the Giver but to one another, as recipients of riches many yet one, and which are to be spent in service one yet many. The One Lord distributes the one faith power into many hearts, "measuring" it out to each, so that the many, individually believing in the One, may not collide and contend, but lovingly cooperate in a manifold service, the issue of their "like precious faith" { 2 Peter 1:2 } conditioned by the variety of their lives. So comes in that pregnant parable of the Body, found only in the writings of St. Paul, and in four only of his Epistles, but so stated there as to take a place forever in the foreground of Christian truth. We have it here in the Romans, and in larger detail in the contemporary 1 Corinthians. { 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 } We have it finally and fully in the later Epistolary Group, of the first Roman Captivity-in Ephesians and Colossians. There the supreme point in the whole picture, the glorious Head, and His relation to the Limb and to the Body. comes out in all its greatness, while in these earlier passages it appears only incidentally. But each presentation, the earlier and the later, is alike true to its purpose. When St. Paul wrote to the Asiatics he was in presence of errors which beclouded the living splendour of the Head. When he wrote to the Romans, he was concerned rather with the interdependence of the limbs, in the practice of Christian social life. We have spoken of "the parable of the Body." But is the word "parable" adequate? "What if earth be but the shadow of heaven?" What if our physical frame, the soul’s house and vehicle, be only the feebler counterpart of that great Organism in which the exalted Christ unites and animates His saints? That union is no mere aggregation, no mere alliance of so many men under the presidency of an invisible Leader. It is a thing of life. Each to the living Head, and so each to all His members, we are joined, in that wonderful connection with a tenacity, and with a relation, genuine, strong, and close as the eternal life can make it. The living, breathing man, multifold yet one, is but the reflection, as it were, of "Christ Mystical," the true Body with its heavenly Head. For just as in one body we have many limbs, but all the limbs have not the same function, so we, the many, are one body in Christ, in our personal union with Him, but in detail, limbs of one another, coherent and related not as neighbours merely, but as complementary parts in the whole. But having endowments-according to the grace that was given to us-differing, be it prophecy, inspired utterance, a power from above, yet mysteriously conditioned { 1 Corinthians 14:32 } by the judgment and will of the utterer, let it follow the proportion of the man’s faith, let it be true to his entire dependence on the revealed Christ, not left at the mercy of his mere emotions, or, as it were, played upon by alien unseen powers; be it active service, let the man be in his service, wholly given to it, not turning aside to covet his brother’s more mystic gift; be it the teacher, let him likewise be in his teaching, wholehearted in his allotted work, free from ambitious outlooks from it; be it the exhorter, let him be in his exhortation; the distributer of his means, for God, with open handedness; the superintendent, of Church, or of home, with earnestness; the pitier, (large and unofficial designation!) with gladness, doubling his gifts and works of mercy by the hallowed brightness of a heart set free from the aims of self, and therefore wholly at the service of the needing. This paragraph of eight verses lies here before us, full all along of that deep characteristic of Gospel life, surrender for service. The call is to a profoundly passive inward attitude, with an express view to a richly active outward usefulness. Possessed, and knowing it, of the compassions of God, the man is asked to give himself over to Eternal Love for purposes of unworldly and unambitious employment in the path chosen for him, whatever it may be. In this respect above all others he is to be "not conformed to this world"-that is, he is to make not himself but his Lord his pleasure and ambition. "By the renewal of his mind" he is to view the Will of God from a point inaccessible to the unregenerate, to the unjustified, to the man not emancipated in Christ from the tyranny of sin. He is to see in it his inexhaustible interest, his line of quest and hope, his ultimate and satisfying aim: because of the practical identity of the Will and the infinitely good and blessed Bearer of it. And this more than surrender of his faculties, this happy and reposeful consecration of them, is to show its reality in one way above all others first; in a humble estimate of self as compared with brother Christians, and a watchful willingness to do-not another’s work but the duty that lies next. This relative aspect of the life of self-surrender is the burthen of this great paragraph of duty. In the following passage we shall find precepts more in detail; but here we have what is to govern all along the whole stream of the obedient life. The man rich in Christ is reverently to remember others, and God’s will in them, and for them. He is to avoid the subtle temptation to intrude beyond the Master’s allotted work for him. He is to be slow to think, "I am richly qualified, and could do this thing, and that, and the other, better than the man who does it now." His chastened spiritual instinct will rather go to criticise himself, to watch for the least deficiency in his own doing of the task which at least today is his. He will "give himself wholly to this," be it more or less attractive to him in itself. For he works as one who has not to contrive a life as full of success and influence as he can imagine, but to accept a life assigned by the Lord who has first given to him Himself. The passage itself amply implies that he is to use actively and honestly his renewed intelligence. He is to look circumstances and conditions in the face, remembering that in one way or another the will of God is expressed in them. He is to seek to understand not his duties only, but his personal equipments for them, natural as well as spiritual. But he is to do this as one whose "mind" is "renewed" by his living contact and union with Iris redeeming King, and who has really laid Iris faculties at the feet of an absolute Master, who is the Lord of order as well as of power. What peace, energy, and dignity come into a life which is consciously and deliberately thus surrendered! The highest range of duties, as man counts highest, is thus disburthened both of its heavy anxieties and of its temptations to a ruinous self-importance. And the lowest range, as man counts lowest, is filled with the quiet greatness born of the presence and will of God. In the memoirs of Mme. de la Mothe Guyon much is said of her faithful maidservant, who was imprisoned along with her (in a separate chamber) in the Bastille, and there died, about the year 1700. This pious woman, deeply taught in the things of the Spirit, and gifted with an understanding far above the common, appears never for an hour to have coveted a more ambitious department than that which God assigned her in His obedience. "She desired to be what God would have her be, and to be nothing more, and nothing less. She included time and place, as well as disposition and action. She had not a doubt that God, who had given remarkable powers to Mme. Guyon, had called her to the great work in which she was employed. But knowing that her beloved mistress could not go alone, but must constantly have some female attendant, she had the conviction, equally distinct, that she was called to be her maidservant." A great part of the surface of Christian society would be "transfigured" if its depth was more fully penetrated with that spirit. And it is to that spirit that the Apostle here definitely calls us, each and every one, not as with a "counsel of perfection" for the few, but as the will of God for all who have found out what is meant by His "compassions," and have caught even a glimpse of His Will as "good, and acceptable, and perfect." "I would not have the restless will That hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do Or secret thing to know I would be treated as a child, And guided where I go." Romans 12:8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Chapter 26 CHRISTIAN DUTY: DETAILS OF PERSONAL CONDUCT Romans 12:8-21 ST. PAUL has set before us the life of surrender, of the "giving over" of faculty to God, in one great preliminary aspect. The fair ideal (meant always for a watchful and hopeful realisation) has been held aloft. It is a life whose motive is the Lord’s "compassions"; whose law of freedom is His will; whose inmost aim is, without envy or interference towards our fellow servants, to "finish the work He hath given us to do." Now into this noble outline are to be poured the details of personal conduct which, in any and every line and field are to make the characteristics of the Christian. As we listen again, we will again remember that the words are levelled not at a few, but at all who are in Christ. The beings indicated here are not the chosen names of a Church Calendar, nor are they the passionless inhabitants of a Utopia. They are all who, in Rome of old, in England now, "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," "have the Spirit of God dwelling in them," and are living out this wonderful but most practical life in the straight line of their Father’s will. As if he could not heap the golden words too thickly together, St. Paul dictates here with even unusual abruptness and terseness of expression. He leaves syntax very much alone; gives us noun and adjective, and lets them speak for themselves. We will venture to render as nearly verbatim as possible. The English will inevitably seem more rough and crude than the Greek, but the impression given will be truer on the whole to the original than a fuller rendering would be. Your love, unaffected. Abominating the ill, wedded to the good. For your brotherly kindness, full of mutual home affection. For your honour, your code of precedence, deferring to one another. For your earnestness, not slothful. For the Spirit, as regards your possession and use of the divine Indweller, glowing. For the Lord, bond serving. For your hope, that is to say, as to the hope of the Lord’s Return, rejoicing. For your affliction, enduring. For your prayer, persevering. For the wants of the saints, for the poverty of fellow Christians, communicating; "sharing," a yet nobler thing than the mere "giving" which may ignore the sacred fellowship of the provider and the receiver. Hospitality-prosecuting as with a studious cultivation. Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. This was a solemnly appropriate precept, for the community over which, eight years later, the first great Persecution was to break in "blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke." And no doubt there was abundant present occasion for it, even while the scene was comparatively tranquil. Every modern mission field can illustrate the possibilities of a "persecution" which may be altogether private, or which at most may touch only a narrow neighbourhood; which may never reach the point of technical outrage, yet may apply a truly "fiery trial" to the faithful convert. Even in circles of our decorous English society is no such thing known as the "persecution" of a life "not conformed to this world," though the assault or torture may take forms almost invisible and impalpable, except to the sensibilities of the object of it? For all such cases, as well as for the confessor on the rack, and the martyr in the fire, this precept holds expressly: "Bless, do not curse." In Christ find possible the impossible; let the resentment of nature die, at His feet, in the breath of His love. To rejoice with the rejoicing, and to weep with the weeping; holy duties of the surrendered life, too easily forgotten. Alas, there is such a phenomenon, not altogether rare, as a life whose self-surrender, in some main aspects, cannot be doubted, but which utterly fails in sympathy. A certain spiritual exaltation is allowed actually to harden, or at least to seem to harden, the consecrated heart; and the man who perhaps witnesses for God with a prophet’s ardour is yet not one to whom the mourner would go for tears and prayer in his bereavement, or the child for a perfectly human smile in its play. But this is not as the Lord would have it be. If indeed the Christian has "given his body over," it is that his eyes, and lips, and hands, may be ready to give loving tokens of fellowship in sorrow, and (what is less obvious) in gladness too, to the human hearts around him. Feeling the same thing towards one another; animated by a happy identity of sympathy and brotherhood. Not haughty in feeling, but full of lowly sympathies; accessible, in an unaffected fellowship, to the poor, the social inferior, the weak and the defeated, and again to the smallest and homeliest interests of all. It was the Lord’s example; the little child, the wistful parent, the widow with her mite, the poor fallen woman of the street, could "lead away" His blessed sympathies with a touch, while He responded with an unbroken majesty of gracious power, but with a kindness for which condescension seems a word far too cold and distant. Do not get to be wise in your own opinion; be ready always to learn; dread the attitude of mind, too possible even for the man of earnest spiritual purpose, which assumes that you have nothing to learn and everything to teach; which makes it easy to criticise and to discredit; and which can prove an altogether repellent thing to the observer from outside, who is trying to estimate the Gospel by its adherent and advocate. Requiting no one evil for evil; safe from the spirit of retaliation, in your surrender to Him "who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not." Taking forethought for good in the sight of all men; not letting habits, talk, expenses, drift into inconsistency; watching with open and considerate eyes against what others may fairly think to be unchristian in you. Here is no counsel of cowardice, no recommendation of slavery to a public opinion which may be altogether wrong. It is a precept of loyal jealousy for the heavenly Master’s honour. His servant is to be nobly indifferent to the world’s thought and word, where he is sure that God and the world antagonise. But he is to be sensitively attentive to the world’s observation where the world, more or less acquainted with the Christian precept or principle, and more or less conscious of its truth and right, is watching, maliciously or it may be wistfully, to see if it governs the Christian’s practice. In view of this the man will never be content even with the satisfaction of his own conscience; he will set himself not only to do right, but to be seen to do it. He will not only be true to a monetary trust, for example; he will take care that the proofs of his fidelity shall be open. He will not only mean well towards others; he will take care that his manner and bearing, his dealings and intercourse, shall unmistakably breathe the Christian air. If possible, as regards your side (the "your" is as emphatic as possible in position and in meaning), living at peace with all men; yes, even in pagan and hostile Rome. A peculiarly Christian principle speaks here. The men who had "given over their bodies a living sacrifice" might think, imaginably, that their duty was to court the world’s enmity, to tilt as it were against its spears, as if the one supreme call was to collide, to fall, and to be glorified. But this would be fanaticism; and the Gospel is never fanatical, for it is the law of love. The surrendered Christian is not, as such, an aspirant for even a martyr’s fame, but the servant of God and man. If martyrdom crosses his path, it is met as duty; but he does not court it as eclat. And what is true of martyrdom is of course true of every lower and milder form of the conflict of the Church, and of the Christian, in the world. Nothing more nobly evidences the divine origin of the Gospel than this essential precept; "as far as it lies with you, live peaceably with all men." Such wise and kind forbearance and neighbourliness would never have been bound up with the belief of supernatural powers and hopes, if those powers and hopes had been the mere issue of human exaltation, of natural enthusiasm. The supernatural of the Gospel leads to nothing but rectitude and considerateness, in short to nothing but love, between man and man. And why? Because it is indeed divine; it is the message and gift of the living Son of God, in all the truth and majesty of His rightfulness. All too early in the history of the Church "the crown of martyrdom" became an object of enthusiastic ambition. Bu