What does Romans 12:5 mean? (2024)

FAQs

What does Romans 12 verse 5 mean? ›

The church is like a body: Christ's body. Each Christian has a part to play using the specific spiritual gifts God has given to us. These gifts of grace provide all the power and ability we need to serve each other, but we must still do it, whether our gift is service, teaching, exhortation, mercy, or something else.

In the New Testament, it's living sacrifice because our sacrifice lives, and He brings life to us. So you are to be living sacrifices, sanctified by His power, His presence, and His redeeming grace, sanctified so that you are holy and without blame as you give the praise to the Lord.

Help me, Father, to find the place where you made me to fit into Jesus' body, the church. Until I know my exact place to serve and use my gifts, I pledge to work in all sorts of ministries so that your Spirit, and not just my own preference, will guide me into your place for me to serve.

Paul says to not think about yourself more highly than you ought to think but think with sober thinking. We need to think rightly about ourselves. We need to think properly about who we are and, in particular to the context, who we are together.

In this sermon on Romans 12:5-6 titled “Character of Unity,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains there are two elements to preserving the unity of a church. There is a spiritual unity that can only be brought about the Spirit of God and there is a necessary fundamental agreement of doctrine.

We are called to a life that appreciates the diversity of gifts and talents through which the body of Christ can function as God intends. This body functions from a posture of humility when each part is invited to contribute (Romans 12:5-6).

Romans 12 begins by asking the question, ''Since He owed us nothing and has given us great mercy, how should we respond? '' The answer is a life of self-sacrificing worship spent in serving the Lord and other believers, refusing revenge and overcoming evil with good.

A unique body is given to each of us by our loving Heavenly Father. He created it as a tabernacle for our spirits, to assist each of us in our quest to fulfill the full measure of our creation. Our bodies allow each of us to experience the great plan of salvation that He has designed for all His precious children.

The apostle Paul identifies three spiritual sacrifices that bless us and the people around us: (1) the sacrifices or offerings¹ of praise, (2) doing good, and (3) sharing with others. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise— the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.

There is only one head (Christ) and one body (the church). The character of the unity is that it is a spiritual unity. It is supernatural and divine. The unity of the church is the result of the creative work of the Holy Spirit.

Who is Romans 12 talking to? ›

Romans 12 highlights the social and community aspects of salvation. Paul was not writing to an individual but to the community of Christians in Rome, and his constant concern is their life together—with a special emphasis on their work.

Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Romans 12:3 As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. These verses relate to the way work should be done in the Church.

Romans 12:3b: “Think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Our measure of faith is a gift of God. Therefore, no Christian can boast over a non-Christian as if the Christian has achieved something by his strength or wisdom or virtue.

Paul is building a metaphor to describe the first purpose of every Christian. He is showing what it looks like to sacrifice our bodies and minds in service to God as a response to His great mercy to us. All Christians together are meant to operate as a single human body.

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” That is, “I desire to show mercy to you, I do not desire to demand a sacrifice of atonement from you.” God does not desire to extract from us sacrifices for our sins and promises that we'll do better next time and all the other things we might do to make up for our weakness.

To humble oneself is to acknowledge God as Lord and to obey as servant. In order to do so, then, the Son had to take “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). “We, as creatures, must obey our Creator, and he, as our brother, did the same.”

Sober-mindedness, according to Peter, means living with a single-minded focus. What is that focus? “Being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It means this; sober-mindedness is living with eternity in view.