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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 12:1 - 12:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I beseech (παρακαλῶ)
See on consolation, Luk 6:24.
By the mercies (διὰ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν)
By, not as an adjuration, but as presenting the motive for obedience. I use the compassion of God to move you to present, etc.
Present
See on Rom 6:13. It is the technical term for presenting the Levitical victims and offerings. See Luk 2:22. In the Levitical sacrifices the offerer placed his offering so as to face the Most Holy Place, thus bringing it before the Lord.
Bodies
Literally, but regarded as the outward organ of the will. So, expressly, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:19; 2Co 5:10. Compare Rom 7:5, Rom 7:23. Hence the exhortation to glorify God in the body (1Co 6:20; compare Phi 1:20; 2Co 4:10). So the body is called the body of sin (Rom 6:6; compare Col 2:11). In later Greek usage slaves were called σώματα bodies. See Rev 18:13.
A living sacrifice (θυσίαν ζῶσαν)
Living, in contrast with the slain Levitical offerings. Compare Rom 6:8, Rom 6:11. “How can the body become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust. But more, this suffices not, but besides we must actively exert ourselves for good; the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ear ever at leisure for listening to God” (Chrysostom).
Acceptable (εὐάρεστον)
Lit., well-pleasing.
Which is your reasonable service (τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν)
Explaining the whole previous clause. Service, see on Rom 9:4. The special word for the service rendered by the Israelites as the peculiar people of God is very significant here. Reasonable, not in the popular sense of the term, as a thing befitting or proper, but rational, as distinguished from merely external or material. Hence nearly equivalent to spiritual. So Rev., in margin. It is in harmony with the highest reason.