Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
— Romans 12:1-2
Often we focus on verse 2 ("be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… "), and allow it to supersede verse 1. We place a higher priority on mental purity than on the collision of the physical and the spiritual worlds. But the segue from verse one to two is "and", not "but". The content of verse 1 is not less important.
There's a note in my Bible (I don't know when I wrote it) that says: according to Greek philosophy, the body was evil. The spirit was imprisoned in the material.
I think sometimes we Christians also adopt this attitude. We confuse Paul's condemnations of those who are "in the flesh" as referring to the body, when in reality this turn of phrase is meant to signify living according to the impulses, desires, and whims of the "old man"—our unredeemed selves who are still enslaved to sin. [1]
Our bodies are not evil. Quite the contrary—"everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer." (1 Timothy 4:4–5)
Ancient Gnosticism piled onto this bandwagon, treating the body as evil— something to be punished and reviled. Even today there are echos of this philosophy in some of our mindsets. But what, then, does this say about Jesus? The God of heaven gave up His throne to come to earth and redeem humankind from its slavery to sin and death. Jesus embraced physical living. He pooped, He burped, He got sick (probably vomited), He bled, He died.
He was God incarnate, Immanuel—meaning, "God with us, having come in bodily form." Gnosticism, in calling the body worthless or worse, "is incarnation's mortal enemy." [2]
What does the verse say?
"… present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God…"
We might be inclined to equate sacrificing with discarding. We might think that presenting our bodies as sacrifices to God gives us the right to throw them away or wound them "for the sake of" following God. For example, if I burn myself out "for the sake of" sharing the good news of Jesus, this is an acceptable application of presenting myself as a sacrifice, right?
No!
We are to be living sacrifices, not half-dead ones.
We are to be holy sacrifices, not ones whose holiness is disabled by exhaustion.
The sacrificial laws of the Old Testament stipulated animals free of blemishes were to be used for the sacrifices. [3] What makes us think that self-bruised, self-flagellated, self-abused bodies offered to God would ever be acceptable as sacrifices?
Presenting our bodies as living and holy sacrifices, acceptable to God, is our spiritual service of worship.
What does this mean?
It means that caring well for our bodies is an act of worship.
It means that taking the time to plan, prepare, and eat meals that are nutritious and proportional to our bodies' needs (i.e., not gluttonous) is an act of appreciation for the food we have access to.
It means that exercising is a rejection of presumptive attitudes that God will continue to provide good health for us no matter what we do with our bodies. [4]
It means that getting proper rest is an act of trust that God will keep the world spinning without us, and we don't have to check every item off of our "to-do" lists in order for the world not to cave in.
It means that taking care of health needs without putting them off is an act of gratitude: for a body that's trying its hardest to keep going against challenges; for the only body we'll ever have in this life; for the millions of things that are going right with our bodies, even if there are struggles in some areas.
When we "receive [our bodies] with with gratitude", this makes them acceptable to God, and our offering of our physical selves becomes our spiritual service of worship.
Lord God, please enable me to care for my body better. To enter into this spiritual service of worship more wholly, to be more holy, and acceptable to You. Amen.
NOTES
[1] For example, Romans 7:5, Galatians 5:17, Ephesians 2:3, and Colossians 2:13 use "in the flesh" to refer to the sinful impulses, desires, and whims of the "old man". However—this is where things get confusing—sometimes biblical writers use "in the flesh" to refer to being in the body, without a negative connotation (see Ephesians 1:22, 1 Peter 4:1). We need to be careful to not apply a meaning too generally without examining its context.
[2] Mark Buchanan, God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), page 2 of 7 in chapter 1 of ebook.
[3] See Leviticus 9:2, 14:10, 22:21 (this one actually says, "it must be perfect to be accepted"); Numbers 29:2–36; etc.
[4] This is the one I still struggle with.
