Romans 12:1-2: This Age – Our Generation
Monday, October 30, 2023
Jesus has spoken to his own generation and he speaks to ours.
I urge you, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (NAB)
Paul reminds us that our own generation lures us to sleep if we are not watchful.
So here’s what I want you to do. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (THE MESSAGE)
We might call one another to holiness, to newness of the heart, to openness of the mind.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. (DOUAY-RHEIMS AMERICAN)
A 17th Century depiction of Paul writing his epistles
We step outside of that familiar place where we begin as children, come to age as adolescents and form our conscience as adults. We examine our fears, our motives, our addictions and our loves. We take stock of our resources. We rest in God. When we examine our own generation, what do we have to say for ourselves? What do we have to say about this age?
When we use the scripture link and drop-down menus to examine other translations of these verses, we begin to see humanity’s march toward union in Christ.
Images from: https://christinesbiblestudy.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/book-of-romans-chiastic-structure/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle_to_the_Romans
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