Romans 12:1 : I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Instead of giving a command Paul put forth all his apostolic authority in this tender appeal--"I beseech you." The riches of God's mercy as manifested in his provisions for man's salvation in and through the gospel should be a mighty appeal to man to give him all his powers. "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Our bodies are to be presented as living sacrifices. This is not said, as so many suppose, "in contrast with dead sacrifices of the Old Testament"; for no Jew ever offered a dead animal as a sacrifice. Living animals were brought to the altar. Paul commands, "Present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" " . . . even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification" (Romans 6:13; Romans 6:19). So the meaning is, present your bodies alive to righteousness--alive to God. The body is dead to sin. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). This does not refer to the resurrection of the body, but to its use in the serv-ice of God now. Our bodies, once dead in sin, are now, by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, made alive in the service of God; they are to be presented to God as living, active instruments in his service. "Holy." With the Greeks the word here translated "holy" meant, "devoted to the gods." Any gift made to their gods was said to be devoted, holy. It is easy to see its application. Our bodies, as living sacrifices, are devoted to the worship and service of God. Anything taken out of common use and devoted to God is holy. Our bodies are therefore important; in fact, no command can be obeyed, and no kind of service to God can be rendered, without the use of the body. And as the spirit of man thus uses his body, it is called a spiritual service. The common version has, "reasonable service." Some have concluded that Paul was urging the breth-ren to do what God said on the grounds that his de-mands were just and equitable, as if one should advise another to buy a piece of property because the price was reasonable, that is, just and right! That no in-spired writer would do. The word occurs one other time in the New Testament there King James has sincere, the American Standard has spiritual (1 Peter 2:2). There are no carnal ordinances in Christianity every acceptable service is a spiritual service. And to thus devote our bodies as instruments of service to him is acceptable to him, a spiritual service.