^12:1Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters,¹ by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God²—which is your reasonable service. ^12:2Do not be conformed³ to this present world,⁴ but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve⁵ what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Conduct in Humility

^12:3For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you⁶ a measure of faith.⁷^12:4For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, ^12:5so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. ^12:6And we have different gifts⁸ according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. ^12:7If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; ^12:8if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.

Read in Logos

Romans 12:1: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Footnotes

1 Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in .
2 The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See . Taken as predicate adjectives, the terms alive, holy, and pleasing are showing how unusual is the sacrifice that believers can now offer, for OT sacrifices were dead. As has often been quipped about this text, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”
3 Although συσχηματίζεσθε (suschēmatizesthe) could be either a passive or middle, the passive is more likely since it would otherwise have to be a direct middle (“conform yourselves”) and, as such, would be quite rare for NT Greek. It is very telling that being “conformed” to the present world is viewed as a passive notion, for it may suggest that it happens, in part, subconsciously. At the same time, the passive could well be a “permissive passive,” suggesting that there may be some consciousness of the conformity taking place. Most likely, it is a combination of both.
4 Grk “to this age.”
5 The verb translated test and approve (δοκιμάζω, dokimazō) carries the sense of “test with a positive outcome,” “test so as to approve.”
6 The words “of you” have been supplied for clarity.
7 Or “to each as God has distributed a measure of faith.”
8 This word comes from the same root as “grace” in the following clause; it means “things graciously given,” “grace-gifts.”