Summit: Service
Romans 12:1-8 NASB
12 1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
OUTLINE
- Motivation (v. 1)
- Formation (v. 2)
- Maturation (v. 3-6)
QUESTIONS
- (v. 1) What has Paul been teaching thus far about the kindness and mercy of God toward us? (3:21-26; 5:1-11; 9:6-29; 11:30-32) Before Paul ever tells us what to do, why does he spend eleven chapters explaining what God has done for us and who we now are?
- (v. 1) What is true worship according to Paul?
- (v. 2) What does a transformed mind really want to do?
- (v. 3-5) How ought we to think of ourselves having received His mercy and grace? How do you think of yourself? How are we to think of others?
- (v. 6-8) What are the seven examples Paul gives of gifts to be exercised? What happens if we don’t exercise our gifts?