“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. 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.“ (Romans 12:1-2)
The world is in a state of social and spiritual chaos. We Christians must not get sucked into the malicious rhetoric of politics, social media, virtue signaling, and the cancel culture. We are to promote truth which is found in the Word of God. Most of what the world does, values, and celebrates is laced with evil and falsehoods and so is incompatible with the values of God’s Kingdom. No compromise can be made between the world and the Kingdom of God. The way of the world may at times prize mercy, but usually to those the system deems worthy of it. For those who do not support the worldly agenda, however, there is no mercy or forgiveness, only punishment. Yet God’s way is mercy to the undeserving, the removal of deserved punishment, based merely on His own will.
The way of the world is to always take, to get, not give, unless of course there is something given back in return. The way of the world is to sully every relationship with selfishness and abuse. The way of the Lord is to give without expecting a return. The way of the Lord is to love unconditionally, even to love our enemies and those who mistreat us.
Yet if we ignore the way of the Lord in favor of doing the things the way the world says, the way our flesh desires, we sin. Instead of offering ourselves to God, instead of examining all that we do and say, we let the world squeeze us into its mold, and shape it into its image.
Paul says that if we want to know and do God’s will, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The person who lacks such a renewed mind can never hope to know God’s perfect will, let alone carry it out. The only way to know God’s perfect will is by being transformedby faith in Christ alone. Once that happens, we are then in a constant state of renewal. We must keep submitting ourselves to God on His altar. If we want to know God’s will, if we want to be changed into His likeness, if we want to change this world for Jesus, we must allow Him to keep renewing us day by day by feeding on His Spiritual food, not the food of the media which renders us useless for the Kingdom of God. The food of the Lord Jesus is His word which works through the instruments of His Holy Spirit and His church to conform us to His pattern and His will through works of unselfish love, compassion, and mercy.
How does this look? Saint John Chrysostom, the 4th century Patriarch of Constantinople advised:
And how is the body to become a sacrifice? Let the eye look upon no evil thing, and it has already become a sacrifice; let the tongue say nothing filthy, and it has become an offering; let your hand do nothing evil, and it has become a whole burnt offering. But even this is not enough, for we must also have good works. The hand must do charitable deeds and alms, the mouth must bless those who curse it, and the ears must find time to listen to the reading of Scripture. For sacrifice allows of no unclean thing: sacrifice is the first-fruit of all other actions. Let us then with our hands, and feet, and mouth, and our entire body, yield a first-fruit unto God.