Romans 12:1

παρακαλῶ οὖν : the reference is to all that has been said since Romans 1:16, but especially to what more closely precedes. Cf. Ephesians 4:1; 1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Corinthians 4:16. The οὖν connects the two parts of the epistle, not formally but really, and shows the dependence of the “practical” upon the “doctrinal”. It is the new world of realities to which the soul is introduced by the Christian revelation on which Christian morality depends. It is relative to that world, and would become unreal along with it. διὰ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν : for the substantive see 2 Corinthians 1:3 (= רַחֲמִים, which has no singular). διὰ in such expressions (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 10:1) indicates that in which the motive is found: Winer, p. 477. The mercies are those which God has shown in the work of redemption through Christ, παραστῆσαι is not per se sacrificial: in chap. Romans 6:13; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:19 it is used of putting the body at the disposal of God or of sin: see also 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Colossians 1:22; Colossians 1:28; Ephesians 5:27. τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν is not exactly the same as ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς, yet no stress is to be laid on the words as though Paul were requiring the sanctification of the body as opposed to the spirit: the body is in view here as the instrument by which all human service is rendered to God, and the service which it does render, in the manner supposed, is not a bodily but a spiritual service. θυσίαν ζῶσαν : “living,” as opposed to the slain animals offered by the Jews. This seems to be the only case in which the new life as a whole is spoken of by Paul as a sacrifice a thank offering to God. A more limited use of the idea of θυσίᾳ is seen in Philippians 2:17; Philippians 4:18; cf. also Hebrews 13:15 f., 1 Peter 2:5. ἁγίαν : contrast Romans 1:24. εὐάρεστον according to all analogy (see concordance) should go with τῷ θεῷ, and this is secured by the order of the words in A [23] vulg. τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν ὑμῶν : in apposition not to τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν but to the presenting of the body as a living sacrifice. For other examples see Winer, 669. λατρεία (Romans 9:4; Hebrews 9:1; Hebrews 9:6; John 16:2) is cultus, ritual service, worship; and such a presentation of the body, as the organ of all moral action, to God, is the only thing that can be characterised as λογικὴ λατρεία, spiritual worship. Any other worship, any retention of Jewish or pagan rites, anything coming under the description of opus operatum, is foreign to the Christian θυσίᾳ; it is λατρεία which is not λογική, not appropriate to a being whose essence is λόγος, i.e., reason or spirit.

[23] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.