Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

In the Old Testament, a sacrifice that was acceptable to the Lord was an animal that was valuable to its owner. It could not be lame or defective in any way. To be a true sacrifice for sins, that animal would then be killed and sacrificed on the altar to God. Today we are called to offer our own bodies as living sacrifices. How is this possible if a sacrifice means putting to death or giving up something that is valuable to us? It could sound like we too are supposed to give up our physical bodies to death.

I read a story about a young girl in the early church whose brother had been martyred for his faith. She expressed her desire to give her life too for her Lord. In trying to talk her out of going through with this, an older person told her that although it may take courage to die for a cause, it may take even more courage to live for a cause. That’s the kind of sacrifice Paul is talking about here in our verse.

It does take courage (of which we may never know) for a Christian to give his life for his faith, but usually that’s over fairly quickly. Giving our bodies as living sacrifices may actually take even more courage. Being a living sacrifice means giving up our will for God’s will day after day, year after year, for the rest of our lives! And still, our verse today says that this is our true and proper worship. It is simply what is expected of us. Everything we receive from God is to be used for His service first of all. All of our lives are to be given to Him as living sacrifices.