Bible Commentaries

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I beseech — Volumus et iubemus we wish and we order, became the pope’s style, A. D. 606.

By the mercies of God — His manifold mercies, δια των οικτιρμων . Per miserationes amplificationis causa. (Beza.) We that have received so many mercies, must not only servire Deo, sed et adulate, serve God but even worship him, saith Tertullian. Mercy calls for duty; deliverance commands obedience, and there is so milch disingenuity in the contrary, that holy Ezra thinks heaven and earth would be ashamed of it,Ezra 9:13-14; Ezra 9:13-14 . The cords of kindness are called "the cords of a man,"Hosea 11:4; Hosea 11:4 ; rational motives befitting the nature of a man. So that to sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, and fits a man for destruction, Romans 9:22 ; like as when medicine which should remove the disease, doth co-operate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. No excess more dangerous than that of bread: no judgment more terrible than that of mercy despised and abused. Abused mercy turns into fury. Patientia laesa fit furor.

That ye present — As they of old did their sacrifices at the altar. With the burnt offering, which signified the sacrificing of the flesh, was joined the sin offering, that is, Christ. Faith applies Christ to the believer, and the believer to Christ.

Your bodies — That is, your whole person. Cainistce sunt, saith Luther, offerentes non persoham, sed opus personae. They are Cainists that offer to God the work done, but do not offer themselves to God.

A living sacrifice — In the old law they had many kinds of sacrifices killed and offered. Now, saith Origen, instead of a ram we kill our ireful passions; instead of a goat our unclean affections; instead of flying fowls our idle thoughts, …

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And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

To this world — To the corrupt customs and courses of wicked worldings. See them set forth, Romans 13:13 ; Ephesians 4:18-20 1 Peter 4:3 , and shun them. Erasmus rendereth it, Ne accommodetis vos ad figuram, Accommodate not yourselves to the figure and fashion of the world; do not impersonate and act the part of such; as a player doth, when he playeth the drunkard or wanton on the scaffold or stage (so μη συσχηματιζεσθε signifies). St Paul writeth to his Corinthians, not to company with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or idolaters, lest they should conform to them, 1 Corinthians 5:9-10 . For as the creatures living in the several elements are commonly of the temperature of the element they live in (as the fishes, cold and moist like the water; the worms, cold and dry as the earth, …), so are we apt to conform to the company we converse with. It is both hard and happy not to do as the rest do; but to be like fishes, that retain their sweetness in the salt sea; like salamanders, that remain unscorched in the fire; like pearls, that growing in the sea, have the colour and brightness of heaven; like oil, that will easily overtop all other liquors, and not commingle; ever holding constant a countermotion to the course of the world and corruptions of the times; that amidst all, a good conscience may be kept, that richest treasure and dearest jewel that ever the heart of man was acquainted with.

But be ye transformed — Gr. metamorphosed, the old frame being dissolved, and a new form acquired.

That ye may prove — so. By your practice.

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For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

But to think soberly — Gr. φρονειν εις το σωφρονειν , to be wise to sobriety. Socrates made no distinction between wisdom and sobriety, σοφιαν και σωφροσυνην non distinguebat. (Xenoph.) We shall be sober, if we take not that upon us that we have not, nor brag of that which we have. There is an elegancy in the original that cannot be rendered.

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For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

For as we have, &e. — See 1 Corinthians 12:12 , which is a commentary on this text.

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So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

One body in Christ — See Trapp on " 1 Corinthians 12:12 " See Trapp on " 1 Corinthians 12:13 "

And every one members — Try thy membership, if, 1. Sociable with Christ and Christians. 2. Useful and serviceable to the body. 3. Compassionate, as Paul; "Who is afflicted," saith he, "and I burn not?" I feel twinges when others are hurt; and I hold myself a debtor (as a member) to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and unwise, be they but of the body, Romans 1:14 .

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Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

According to the proportion — That form of sound words, 2 Timothy 1:13 , those principles of the doctrine of Christ, Hebrews 6:1 , with which all interpretations of Scripture must bear due proportion.

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Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

Or ministry — Take it either largely for the whole ministry, as 1 Corinthians 12:5 ; Acts 1:24-26 ; or more strictly for the office of a deacon, as Acts 6:1-6 .

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Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

Or he that exhorteth — The pastor properly so called. See Trapp on " Ephesians 4:11 "

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