I am reading Romans 12 this morning because the other day my wife and I read this passage and experienced the richness of God's Word in such practical matters of life. The thought began with the realization that the Apostle Paul is dedicating a whole chapter to give us glimpses of what a transformed or renewed life can look like in our daily moments.
This morning, as I began reading the first two verses of this chapter, the first thing that grabbed my attention is the phrase "this is your spiritual worship". What is Paul referring to? He is affirming that spiritual worship includes our physical dimension--namely, our bodies. When we present our bodies--our physical dimension--holy and acceptable to God in any situation, not just on Sunday morning, we are engaging in spiritual worship.
I was chatting with someone the other day about how the term "worship"--when referring to specific segments of a corporate gathering--has served us well in some sense but has also reduced the scope of our personal worship. The term often conditions us to compartmentalize when we worship God. Biblically speaking, we do find instances where worship was a dedicated segment or event that was purposefully oriented toward God. But worship, as introduced by Paul here, is not limited to an event or a segment in a corporate gathering. Spiritual worship begins when I regard both my physical and non-physical life as a living sacrifice I can offer to God while I am engaging in any or every activity of life.
Let's stay in verses 1 and 2 to emphasize a couple of things. The first is that the qualifiers for a physical life that becomes spiritual worship are: sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This means there is an intentionality to bring to God our physical life. That we are leaning on Grace to live in a way that is aligned with his nature and plans. So eating our hearts out, driven by the motivation of wanting more and more, may not be a spiritual worship act. But perhaps eating in a way that considers in love the needs of others is. The second qualifier is found in verse 2. Paul points out that our mind needs to be engaged ina certain way in order to pursue this spiritual worship. Specifically, it needs to be renewed so that the outcome is that we test and discern what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. This is where a worshipful life begins to show certain kind of fruit. Spiritual worship entails more than signing hymns, songs or employing other meaningful liturgy.
So spiritual worship involves our physical and non-physical life, and the opportunity to do this is not limited to a segment or event; the opportunity to do this begins when we consciously open our eyes each new day. Spiritual worship is evidenced in the way we handle our physical life and ultimately in the way we test and approve the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. If we seek to actively worship God in some way or another but show no signs of transformation in the way we think and live, I would question if we are really worshiping God spiritually.
Let us consider how to grow in spiritual worship, both through our regular events (personal and corporate rhythms and practices) and also through the way we engage our physical and non-physical life before God. If we don't, we run the risk of being like the people described by the prophet Isaiah: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught." (29:13)
Diego Cuartas
