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ROMANS CHAPTER 12
Rom_12:1-3 Paul exhorteth to holiness and conformity to God’s
will; and to think soberly of the gifts allotted every
man respectively.
Rom_12:4,5 We are all members of one body in Christ,
Rom_12:6-8 and should diligently exercise our several gifts for
the common benefit.
Rom_12:9-18 Sundry practical duties recommended,
Rom_12:19-21 Revenge is specially forbidden, and to do good for
evil enjoined.
Hitherto the apostle hath discoursed of matters of faith; in this and the following chapters he sets down precepts of holy life.
By the mercies of God: he useth the word in the plural number, to amplify and set forth the manifold mercies of God, in election, justification, adoption, &c.: q.d. Seeing you Gentiles have received so many and so great mercies from God; seeing he hath preferred you to his ancient people the Jews, and hath chosen and called you, when he hath rejected them; as you value these mercies, let the consideration of them engage you to all manner of holiness and new obedience.
That ye present; that you give, dedicate, and offer up, as spiritual priests.
Your bodies; yourselves, or, your whole man; a part is put for the whole; the body is named, because it is the soul’s instrument in the service of God.
A living sacrifice; the sacrifices of old were presented alive to God, and their blood was shed at the feet of the altar: a beast that died of itself, or was torn by wild beasts, was not so much as to be eaten, Exo_22:31 Lev_22:8. Conformable hereunto, God will have us offer up ourselves
a living sacrifice; i.e. we must be quickened and alive to God, and not dead in sins and trespasses.
Holy; as the sacrifices under the law were to be without blemish or defect, Exo_12:5 Lev_1:10 Deu_15:21.
Acceptable unto God; or, well pleasing uuto God. So were the appointed sacrifices under the law, Lev_1:9; so was the sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God, Eph_5:2; and so are all spiritual sacrifices under the gospel, Phi_4:18 Heb_13:16.
Which is your reasonable service; or, which is agreeable to reason; nothing is more reasonable, than that you should devote yourselves to God in this manner. Some think this is added, to show a difference between the sacrifice here required, and that of the Jews, which was of unreasonable beasts. Others, by reasonable service, understand spiritual service, and expound this place by 1Pe_2:5, where you read of spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Others think, that by reasonable you must understand such service as is according to the word of God; and this suits best with the Greek phrase in the text, logikhn latreian. The same word is used, 1Pe_2:2, and there it is rendered the milk of the word, and not reasonable milk. And so the service or worship here spoken of is opposed to that will worship, of which you read in Col_2:23.