Offering our bodies to God

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1
The word ‘offering’ conjures up images of animals being killed on an altar. So it can be quite hard to stomach what Paul is saying here, that we ought to offer our bodies to God. But notice what he says: “as living sacrifices”. This means that not just our spirits, but our bodies also are to be used in a way that is devoted to God.
The body is the vehicle that carries your spirit around. An ancient school of thought was that the body was evil but the spirit was pure, and the two were thus disconnected. Therefore it didn’t matter what you did in your body, it couldn’t affect your spirit. The truth is far from this. For example, sexual sin affects your spirit (1 Cor. 6:18-20). It is not just something that affects your body. Instead of sin, we should use our bodies to help people in a way that brings glory to God. As Paul said elsewhere, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13).
Paul says this is our spiritual act of worship. Worship is not just singing songs. It is a lifestyle. Every day, every moment, we have the opportunity to worship God through what we do, say, and think about. And we do this “in view of God’s mercy”. Mercy means not getting what you deserve (in contrast to grace, which is getting what you don’t deserve). God has delivered us from sin’s punishment. The least we can do is commit ourselves to him, 100%.