21 November 2020

What is your reasonable service?

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Ephesians 4 is quite clear of what our reasonable service should look like:

Ephesians 4:25-32 (MSG)”What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretence. Tell your neighbour the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. 26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. 28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work. 29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. 30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted. 31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

The service of obedient lives is the only reasonable or logical response to the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

Our acceptable service is “worship offered by the mind and the heart.” God loves you, and purchased you at a great cost; therefore, He wants your reasonable service in a spiritual act of worship. William Borden gave his life to missionary service, and as he lay dying left a note that said, “No reserve, no retreat, and no regrets.” His words remind me of another who gave his life in Ecuador as a young missionary. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose,” Jim Elliot.