Romans 12:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And I, says the Apostle, beseech you by the same mercies by which you have been saved.

So also one who wishes to shame someone greatly benefited usually presents the benefactor himself as the one making the request.

What then do you beseech? Tell me. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, for your rational worship."

Since he said sacrifice, lest someone think that he commands bodies to be slain, he immediately added, "living."

Then, distinguishing it from the Jewish sacrifice, he continues: "holy, well-pleasing to God, your spiritual worship." The Jewish sacrifice was fleshly and not very well-pleasing.

Or: "What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices?" (Isa 1:11). Or: "Who has required this from your hands?" (Isa 1:12), God says.

In many other places of Scripture we see that God rejects the Jewish sacrifices.

But He does not reject this sacrifice. On the contrary, He even requires it, even when the Jewish sacrifice has been offered.

Therefore He said: "He who offers the sacrifice of praise honors Me" (Ps 49:23).

Again it is said: "I will praise the name of my God with a song, and this will be more pleasing to the Lord than a bull with horns and hoofs" (Ps 68:31-32).

In another place, rejecting the Jewish sacrifice and saying, "Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" the Lord added: "Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High" (Ps 49:13-14).

So also Paul commands here: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice."

But how, you ask, can the body serve as a sacrifice? Let the eye look at nothing evil, and it has already become a sacrifice.

Let the tongue say nothing shameful, and it has become an offering. Let the hand do nothing lawless, and it has become a whole burnt offering.

Or rather, even this is not enough. We must also do good. Let the hand practice almsgiving, the mouth bless those who offend, and the hearing constantly exercise itself in listening to the word of God.

A sacrifice has no impurity. It is the firstfruits of all.

Let us therefore offer to God the firstfruits of hands, feet, mouth, and everything else. Such a sacrifice is well-pleasing, just as the Jewish sacrifice was impure.

It is said: "Their sacrifices shall be to them like the bread of mourning" (Hos 9:4).

But our sacrifice is not like this. In the Jewish sacrifice, what was offered became dead. Our sacrifice makes what is offered alive.

When we put our members to death, then we shall be able to live.

This manner of sacrifice is new, and therefore the kind of fire is unusual.

There is no need for wood or combustible matter. Our fire burns by itself and does not consume the sacrifice, but rather gives it life.

God required such a sacrifice from of old. Therefore the Prophet said: "A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit" (Ps 50:19).

The three youths offered such a sacrifice, saying: "At this time we have no prince, nor prophet, nor place to offer sacrifice to Thee and find Thy mercy. But with a contrite heart and humble spirit may we be accepted" (Dan 3:38-39).

Notice how the Apostle uses the word with great precision. He did not say, Make your bodies a sacrifice, but, "Present them."

By this he as though said: You no longer have anything in common with them. You have given them to another.

As those who have supplied warhorses no longer have ownership over them, so you also have supplied your members for the war against the devil, for this dread campaign.

Do not draw them away for your own services.

Here the Apostle also indicates that, when preparing to offer our members as a sacrifice, we must make them blameless.

We present them not to some man living on earth, but to the very King of the universe, God.

We present them not only to be used in war, but so that the King Himself may sit upon them.

The Lord does not refuse to sit upon our members. He even greatly desires it.

What a king who serves the same Lord as we would not choose, the Master of Angels chooses.

Therefore, if your members must be offered and become a sacrifice, cut off from them every defilement. As long as there is anything defiled in them, they cannot be a sacrifice.

Thus the eye, if it looks at things that arouse sensual pleasure, cannot be offered as a sacrifice.

Nor can a hand that seizes and covets, feet that limp in their movement and go to spectacles, or a belly that serves sensual pleasure and kindles passions for enjoyments.

Nor can a heart that nourishes anger or impure love, or a tongue that speaks shameful things.

Therefore we must examine from every side whether there is anything defiled in our body.

If those who offered Old Testament sacrifices were obliged to inspect everything, they were not permitted to offer what lacked an ear or tail, or what was covered with scab or leprosy.

How much more must we, who offer not irrational sheep but ourselves, observe greater care and be pure in every respect.

Then it will be possible for us to say with Paul: "For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come" (2 Tim 4:6).

Because Paul was purer than every sacrifice, he called himself a sacrifice.

This will happen with us too if we destroy the old man, put to death the earthly members, and crucify the world to ourselves.

In that case we shall no longer need a knife, altar, or fire.

Or, more correctly, we shall need all these, but not made by hands. Everything will be given to us from above: fire from above and a knife from above.

The breadth of heaven will be an altar for us.

If, when Elijah offered a sensible sacrifice, the flame that came down from heaven consumed everything, water, wood, and stones, then this will be accomplished all the more with you.

If you have something unstable and worldly, yet offer the sacrifice with a true disposition, then the descending fire of the Spirit will consume everything worldly and fulfill the whole offering.

What then is "spiritual, or rational, worship"? It is inward service, life in Christ.

The one who serves and ministers in God's house, whatever he may be at another time, collects himself during the service and becomes more reverent.

So also we must spend our whole life in such a disposition of spirit, as those who perform service to God and minister sacredly.

This will be so if each day you offer sacrifices to God and become priest of your body and of the virtue that arises in the soul.

For example, when you offer chastity, almsgiving, meekness, and guilelessness.

By fulfilling this, you will perform spiritual worship, that is, worship that has nothing bodily, crude, or sensual.

Thus, by the very names, he encouraged the listener and proved that each person becomes priest of his own body and life.

Then the Apostle also speaks of the means by which one can achieve success in everything.

What is this means? "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2).

The form of this age is attached to the earth. It is low, short-lived, and has nothing exalted, lasting, or sound. Everything in it is distorted.

If you wish to walk the right path, do not imprint upon yourself the form of the present life, because there is nothing constant or firm in it.

Therefore the Apostle called it a form, as he also says elsewhere: "For the form of this world is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31).

There is nothing constant or stable in it. Everything is temporary.

For this reason he said, "this age," indicating its corruption. By the word form, he indicated its material character.

Whether you point to wealth, glory, bodily beauty, pleasures, or anything else that people consider great, all this is only a form, not the real thing.

It is an appearance, a mask, and not any enduring substance.

But do not be conformed to this, the Apostle says. Rather, be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

He did not say, Be transformed outwardly, but, Be transformed in essence.

By this he shows that the world has only an outward form, while virtue has not an outward form, but a true and substantial form.

It has natural beauty and has no need of external adornment or shapes that appear and disappear at the same time. All such things disappear before they appear.

Therefore, if you cast away the outward appearance, you will at once attain the true form.

Nothing is weaker than vice. Nothing grows old so quickly.

Then, since it is characteristic of people to sin daily, the Apostle consoles the listener by telling him to be renewed daily.

As we do with houses, constantly repairing those that have become old, so do also with yourself.

Have you sinned today? Has your soul grown old? Do not despair and do not lose heart.

Renew it by repentance, tears, confession, and good works. Never cease doing this.

But how can we do this? "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2).

He says that the Bodiless One must be served not by bodily purity, but by what is bodiless in us, that is, by the mind.

Therefore one must bring to God not sheep and calves, but oneself as a whole burnt offering. This is what it means to present a "living sacrifice."

“What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” it is said (Is 1:11). But God greatly requires the sacrifices of believers, that is, rational service. “Offer to God,” it is said, “a sacrifice of praise” (Ps 49:14), and: “He who offers praise as a sacrifice honors Me” (Ps 49:23). Rational service consists not only in addressing God by word, but also in living as Christians. No irrational passion must reign in us; the mind must govern all things. Each must be, as it were, a high priest for himself, slaughtering the evil hidden within him. He must always present himself as standing before God, trembling with fear in every action and word, like the high priest standing before the altar of God.

The ancients killed a sacrificial animal to signify that, because of sin, human beings had become subject to death. Now, by the gift of God, human beings have been cleansed and freed from the second death. Therefore they must offer a living sacrifice as a sign of eternal life. Now, unlike the former time, bodies are not sacrificed for bodies. Instead of bodies, the sins of the body must be destroyed (cf. Jn 8:34-36).

He called this sacrifice holy, rational, and well-pleasing in comparison with sacrifices of irrational animals. He shows that the Master and God is well pleased by it. For by the mouth of almost all the prophets God rebukes irrational sacrifices and ordains this sacrifice. It is said: “Offer to God a sacrifice of praise” (Ps 49:14), and: “A sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me” (Ps 49:23). Thousands of similar passages can be found in divine Scripture.

Then you too may say of yourself from the pledge of the heart: "I became like a wineskin in the frost, yet I did not forget Your statutes"; Ps 118:83. Knowing that you are Christ's, "crucify" your flesh, according to the apostolic voice, "with its passions and desires"; Gal 5:24. "Put to death your members which are on the earth," that is, not only the act of fornication, but also the impurity stirred up in the flesh by evil spirits. The one who awaits the crown of true, undefiled, and all-perfect virginity does not limit his struggle to this alone. Following the apostolic teaching, he struggles to put to death even the appearance and movement of this passion. Even this does not satisfy the one who strives with strong zeal to have angelic and most pure virginity dwell in his body. He prays that even the very memory of subtle desire may be destroyed. This occurs in thought alone, without movement or action of bodily passion, during the wandering of the mind. This can be accomplished only by help from above, and by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit alone. Are there such persons who are counted worthy of this grace? Thus the one who awaits the crown of pure, immaterial, and undefiled virginity crucifies his flesh through ascetical labors. By prolonged and unceasing self-restraint he puts to death his members which are on the earth. He crushes the outer man, thins him out, and makes him old and withered. Then, by faith, struggles, and the activity of grace, the inner man is renewed day by day. He advances toward what is better, grows by love, and is adorned with meekness. He rejoices with spiritual joy, is given rest by the peace of Christ, is led by grace, and is guarded by goodness. He is surrounded by the fear of God, illumined by understanding and knowledge, enlightened by wisdom, and instructed by humble-mindedness. By these and similar virtues, the mind, being renewed by the Spirit, comes to know within itself the impress of the Godlike image. It perceives the spiritual and ineffable beauty of the Master's likeness. It comprehends the wealth of the covenantal law of Wisdom, which teaches itself and understands itself. Therefore, my son, by the struggles mentioned above, make your youthful flesh thin and fatten your immortal soul. By the virtues already named, renew your mind through the cooperation of the Spirit. For youthful flesh, fattened with various foods and the drinking of wine, is like a boar ready for slaughter through the kindling of bodily pleasures. By these the soul is slaughtered, and the mind is taken captive by the burning of evil desire. It cannot resist fleshly pleasures. For an increase of blood drives away the Spirit. Especially in youth one must not even smell the taste of wine. Otherwise a double fire arises from the inward activity of passion and is externally drenched with the drinking of wine. By this fleshly pleasure burns more strongly and drives away from the soul the spiritual sweetness of painful compunction. It produces confusion and insensibility in the heart. For the sake of spiritual longing, the young should not even drink water to fullness. Scarcity of water greatly aids the acquisition of chastity. When you test this in practice, you will be convinced by experience. Do not think that we wish to impose on you a yoke of necessity by laying down a law or commanding this. Rather, with love we teach and counsel this as a means and good art that aids true virginity and reliable chastity. We leave it to your free will to do what it desires.

For what reasons, it is not my business to say. Those adorned with the divine priesthood and worthily attaining presidency, if they also preserve bodily purity, will truly be holier than those who are sanctified. In the Old Testament no one was allowed to perform priestly service except the priests alone. Yet at Pascha all were in a certain way deemed worthy of priestly rank, for each one slaughtered the lamb. So also in the New and unchanging Testament, those permitted to offer the bloodless sacrifice may perform that sacred service. Yet each person is appointed priest of his own body. This is not so that one not ordained may arrogate authority over those subject to him. Rather, by bringing vice under his power, he may prepare his body as a temple or sanctuary of purity.

That is, everywhere and in everything they must think, feel, and act according to the will of God, which directs us toward the highest and most perfect good. Although the general spirit of Christian life is depicted here more than particular rules of life, some of the Apostle’s words also indicate particular instructions, according to well-known interpreters. Thus Chrysostom, paying special attention to the comparison of a good Christian life with a pure sacrifice to God, says: “Since your members must be offered in sacrifice and are sacrifices, cut off every defilement from them. As long as there is anything defiled in them, they will not be a sacrifice. An eye that looks at things arousing lust cannot be offered in sacrifice. Likewise unfit for sacrifice are a grasping and covetous hand, feet that limp and enter the theater, a belly enslaved to pleasure and kindling passion for delights, a heart that nourishes anger and impure love, and a tongue that speaks shameful things.”

Since from the mercies of God, he says, countless blessings have been poured upon you, then be ashamed before them and fear them.

For these very mercies address you with the request that you reveal nothing in yourselves unworthy of them.

And I, says the Apostle, beseech you by these same mercies by which you have been saved.

So one who wishes to shame someone greatly benefited usually presents the benefactor himself as the one making the request" (Saint Chrysostom).

The experiences of life confirm that the strongest inducement to a God-pleasing life is the awareness of God's great benefactions.

This is true both in general toward the whole human race and especially toward the very person who is zealous for such a life.

This awareness gives birth to a warm feeling of gratitude and awakens readiness to dedicate to God all one's powers and all one's possessions.

It sows love, which withholds nothing for itself, but offers everything in sacrifice to Him whom the soul has loved.

"Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." He had already taught this earlier, saying: Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead (cf. Rom 6:12-13).

A little later he says: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.

As you once presented your members as slaves to impurity, and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness (cf. Rom 6:19).

There it is shown in detail how we can and must present a sacrifice to God from our bodies.

Namely, we must not obey them in their lusts. We must not give our members as instruments of sin, but hand them over as instruments of righteousness to God.

We must not make them slaves of impurity and sin, but compel them to labor for righteousness unto holiness.

Saint Chrysostom says: "You ask how the body can be a sacrifice. Eye, do not look at anything evil, and it has become a sacrifice.

Tongue, utter nothing shameful, and it has become an offering. Hand, do nothing lawless, and it has become a whole burnt offering.

But even this is not enough. We must do good. Let the hand distribute alms, the mouth bless those who offend, and the hearing constantly exercise itself in listening to the word of God.

A sacrifice is the firstfruits of what you have. Let us therefore offer to God the firstfruits of hands, feet, mouth, and everything else.

Notice what precision there is in Paul's words. He did not say, Prepare your bodies as a sacrifice, but, Present them.

By this he as though said: You no longer have authority over them. You have given them to another.

Those who supply warhorses, after supplying them, no longer have ownership over them.

So also you, having supplied your members for the war against the devil, for this dread campaign, must not draw them away to your own services."

The Apostle begins his lessons with how one ought to relate to the body.

The sinful life against which he arms Christians has been abandoned by them. It has been cut at the root by their resolve to resist sin, strengthened by the grace of renewal in baptism.

Yet this sinful life rests chiefly on the flesh. Self-pleasing, the soul of sinfulness, is almost exclusively pleasing to the flesh.

Therefore the one who has resolved not to indulge sin begins the new life from the first step by showing no indulgence to the body.

Saint Paul confirms this necessity and sanctifies it by his word, requiring that one continually make from one's body a sacrifice to God.

Whoever keeps his body as he ought truly offers such a sacrifice to God, always crucifying his flesh with its passions and lusts (cf. Gal 5:24).

Here too there is slaughter, and slaughter for God. There is a sacrifice to God.

This is called self-mortification, yet it brings not death, but true life.

The sacrifice under the law killed a living creature. The Christian sacrifice leaves what is offered alive and kindles life by the very sacrifice, or self-offering, to God.

The Apostle therefore called this sacrifice living.

Saint Chrysostom says: "Since he said sacrifice, lest someone think that he commands bodies to be slain, he immediately added living.

In the Jewish sacrifice, what was sacrificed became dead. Our sacrifice makes what is sacrificed alive.

When we put to death the members of the body, then we shall be able to live.

But the rule of this sacrifice is different, and therefore the kind of fire is unusual.

There is no need for wood or combustible matter. On the contrary, the fire is sustained among us by itself and does not burn up the sacrifice, but makes it even more alive.

God required such a sacrifice from of old. Therefore the Prophet said: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit (Ps 50:19).

The three youths offered such a sacrifice, saying: There is no prince, nor prophet, nor place to offer sacrifice and find mercy. But with a contrite soul and humble spirit may we be accepted (cf. Dan 3:38-39)."

This very sacrifice must also be holy. "Present a sacrifice holy."

Saint Chrysostom says: "Here the Apostle also indicates that, in offering our members as a sacrifice, we must make them irreproachable.

We present them not to an earthly man, but to the very King of the universe, God.

We present them not only to be used in war, but so that the King Himself may sit upon them.

The Lord does not disdain to sit upon our members. On the contrary, He greatly desires this.

What a king who serves the same Lord as we would not choose, the Master of Angels chooses.

Therefore, since your members must be offered and are a sacrifice, cut off from them every defilement.

So long as there is anything defiled in them, they will not be a sacrifice.

If the eye looks at things that arouse sensual pleasure, it cannot be offered as a sacrifice.

Equally unfit for sacrifice are a hand that seizes and covets, feet that limp and enter the theater, and a belly that serves pleasures and kindles passion for enjoyments.

So too are a heart that nourishes anger or impure love, and a tongue that speaks shameful things.

We must examine from every side whether there is anything defiled in our body.

If, in the Old Testament, those who offered sacrifices were obliged to inspect everything and were not allowed to offer what lacked an ear or tail, or had scabs or growths, how much more must we be careful.

We offer not irrational sheep, but ourselves. Therefore we must observe greater care and be pure in every respect.

We shall become pure if we consume the old man, put to death the earthly members, and crucify the world to ourselves.

In that case we shall no longer need a knife, an altar, or fire. Or, speaking more exactly, all these will be needed, but not made by hands.

They are given to us from above: fire from above, a knife from above, and the breadth of heaven will be an altar for us.

If Elijah offered a sensible sacrifice, and the flame that came down from heaven consumed everything, water, wood, and stones, then this will be accomplished all the more with you.

If there is anything worldly in you, yet you offer the sacrifice with the proper disposition, then the fire descending from the Spirit will consume this worldly thing and make the whole offering perfect."

A holy sacrifice, one would suppose, is already well-pleasing to God. Yet the Apostle considered it necessary to add separately: "Present a sacrifice well-pleasing to God."

By this the Apostle teaches that one must have the proper dispositions in the work of sacrifice, as Saint Chrysostom has just said.

Namely, one must offer this sacrifice to God with nothing extraneous in one's intention except pleasing God.

It is possible for a sacrifice pure in the act to be impure in intention.

It is also necessary that this sacrifice be performed in the spirit of faith in Christ.

Christ Himself passed along the way of the Cross. The salvation given to us by the Cross cannot be shared in except through a cross willingly taken up.

This takes place precisely when someone makes from his body a sacrifice to God.

You must be disposed in this way, the Apostle continues, so that spiritual worship may continually be performed in you.

Worship, λατρεία, means service to God, divine worship.

This service will be spiritual, that is, rational, noetic, and inward, when you present to God a sacrifice from holy bodies.

That everyone must perform such worship is accepted as needing no special proof or explanation.

The Apostle only points out the sure means to it. Offer your body to God as a sacrifice, and you will continually perform the spiritual service to God that you are obliged to perform.

In this way a sacrifice will always smoke upon your altar. It will not be fleshly, although the body is sacrificed in it.

The body will become both the sacrifice and the temple, in which the priest, the mind or spirit, offers sacrifice to God or performs God's service.

Saint Chrysostom says: "What is spiritual worship? It is inward service.

The one who serves and ministers in God's house, whatever he may be at other times, enters into himself during the service and becomes most reverent.

So also we must spend our whole life in such a disposition of spirit, as those who perform service to God and minister sacredly.

You will attain this if each day you offer sacrifices to God and become priest of your body and of the soul's virtue.

Offer now chastity, now almsgiving, now meekness and patience.

By fulfilling this, you will perform spiritual worship, that is, worship that has nothing bodily, crude, or sensual in it."