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Mid-Week with Christ
August 19, 2020

Renewed Minds

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Romans 12:1-8

 
1 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. 2 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. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
 

Prayer for the Day

 
Heavenly Father, by the power of Your Spirit cause us to be conformed to Your Son Jesus, that His thoughts might always be our thoughts. Amen.

For several chapters Paul has been laying out, in his letter to the Church in Rome, his theology about Jesus. Now he begins to lay out the consequences of this theology in the lives of Christians. He re-frames, first of all, what it means to worship God. Our response to God's gifts is no longer to offer up turtle doves, bulls and rams on the Temple altar. Our bodies themselves become the sacrifice. And the sacrifice begins with a renewal of our minds.

The mind remains a mystery to us. It is the most powerful computational device we know of. It can design machines and buildings, create works of art, compose music and imagine things that do not even exist. It can also deceive and manipulate others, drive us to the most destructive kinds of behavior, and even lead us to despair of life itself. The first thing that must be sacrificed to God's service, then, is our mind.

Sin drives us to find what will benefit us personally. The mind of Christ seeks God's will, which desires to serve others. Sin causes us to think very highly of ourselves and to think little of others. The mind of Christ thinks nothing of itself and elevates others. Sin makes us think that we are islands, containing everything needful for life. The mind of Christ sees how each person is uniquely gifted so that only together are we truly complete.

Sin strives to conform us to the world. But the Spirit we have received by grace seeks to conform our minds to Jesus Christ's. 
 
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