Jordon ... this verse is instruction for the born again believer. The born again believer is told that he or she is to turn from the world. The result of turning from the world will be the transformation that occurs due to the renewing of the mind.
Start reading from vs 1:
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.
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.
vs 1 – we are to yield ourselves as a living sacrifice to God ... a living sacrifice to God as opposed to the dead sacrifice under the Old Covenant. We dedicate our lives to God which is our reasonable service.
The word "reasonable" is translated from the Greek word logikos.
Vines Expository Dictionary defines logikos as follows:
pertaining to "the reasoning faculty, reasonable, rational," is used in Rom 12:1, of the service (latreia) to be rendered by believers in presenting their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God." The sacrifice is to be intelligent, in contrast to those offered by ritual and compulsion; the presentation is to be in accordance with the spiritual intelligence of those who are new creatures in Christ and are mindful of "the mercies of God."
vs 2 – in order for us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, we are instructed to not be conformed this world (world here is translated from the Greek word = aiōn = this age) ... according to William McDonald aiōn refers to "the society or system that man has built in order to make himself happy without God".
We are to stop conforming to the world in which we live and the only way we can do this is by yielding ourselves to God ... allowing Him to conform us to the image of His Son ... which is the transformation which takes place in the renewed mind ... the mind of Christ.
Trench says that the renewing of our minds "is the gradual conforming of the man more and more to that new spiritual world into which he has been introduced and in which he now lives and moves...the restoration of the divine image”.
As we are transformed by the renewed mind, we test and prove God's good and acceptable and perfect will.
What is interesting to me in reading Rom 12:1-2 is that the verbs in these verses are as follows (the verbs are underlined):
present your bodies
living sacrifice
be not conformed to this age
be transformed by the renewing of your mind
may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God
What interests me is that the renewing of the mind is not a verb ... the words "renewing" and "mind" are nouns, not verbs. So we do not "renew our minds" ... the renewed mind is the mind of Christ which is something God gives the believer at the time he or she is born again ... think about that ...
As I was looking into the "living sacrifice", I thought about a song that might bless you ... please listen when you're in the mood for music ...
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