I 've never understood why people ask what a verse means to me. God does not set out to confuse us, and if the all knowing God wanted to confuse us there would certainly be more efficient ways than to write his sacred book in code. The Bible, then is intentionally written in a way that is understandable to those who know, and seek to know, the God who wrote it. It seems to me that we get so caught up in figuring out our own subjective view on what a given section of scripture says that we all but entirely miss the objective truth that God wrote. In our pursuit of personal revelation, we all too often miss the point of what is being said. In attempt to find what a given verse means "to me" we tend to divorce the passage from its original intent
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I must live every day in the knowledge that “I am not my own, for I was bought with a price.”(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV) I must go constantly before God and recognize in humility that all I have and all I am is truly His. That is what it means to offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Just as Abraham offered Isaac on the altar of Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) I must not attempt to hold anything back, but rather trust that God is always faithful to His promises. I must consider myself dead so that the life I live I may live solely in Christ.(Galatians 2:20 ESV) This verse also reveals a glimpse of the process of sanctification that is going on within me and all other disciples of Christ, as the "renewing of our minds" is done as God continues to draw us closer to himself, changing our thoughts and desires from the destructive cravings of sinful flesh to the holy and pure longings of a regenerated spirit and a reborn …show more content…
While I am sure I could think of several moments that I had to choose to sacrifice something I enjoyed for the sake of knowing God more intimately, to view the verse in this light would needlessly limit the scope of Paul 's words. Paul 's letter to the Romans contains within it a complete telling of the Gospel. As such, this passage is at the beginning of Paul 's discourse on how faith in Christ alters everyday life, as can be seen in later verses of chapter 12 speaking about how true Christianity marks its adherents with love, honor, hope, and continual prayer (Romans 12:9-13) In much the same way, the "renewing of our minds" is a ongoing process that marks and separates those who truly seek to know God, and the unregenerate world that has "no fear of God before their eyes" (Psalm 36:1 ESV )This passage applies to every situation I will ever come across, because I must always be offered to God as a pleasing and holy sacrifice. Paul 's command to "no longer conform to the pattern of this world" is not a command that is meant to only be obeyed in certain situations. God desires for us to always be set apart and holy. A counter-cultural fully separated, and holy people is the very people that God has a habit of forming no matter where you look in history, reaching from the Garden of Eden, to the covenant with Abraham, and up to the Azusa St. Revival
I must live every day in the knowledge that “I am not my own, for I was bought with a price.”(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV) I must go constantly before God and recognize in humility that all I have and all I am is truly His. That is what it means to offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Just as Abraham offered Isaac on the altar of Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) I must not attempt to hold anything back, but rather trust that God is always faithful to His promises. I must consider myself dead so that the life I live I may live solely in Christ.(Galatians 2:20 ESV) This verse also reveals a glimpse of the process of sanctification that is going on within me and all other disciples of Christ, as the "renewing of our minds" is done as God continues to draw us closer to himself, changing our thoughts and desires from the destructive cravings of sinful flesh to the holy and pure longings of a regenerated spirit and a reborn …show more content…
While I am sure I could think of several moments that I had to choose to sacrifice something I enjoyed for the sake of knowing God more intimately, to view the verse in this light would needlessly limit the scope of Paul 's words. Paul 's letter to the Romans contains within it a complete telling of the Gospel. As such, this passage is at the beginning of Paul 's discourse on how faith in Christ alters everyday life, as can be seen in later verses of chapter 12 speaking about how true Christianity marks its adherents with love, honor, hope, and continual prayer (Romans 12:9-13) In much the same way, the "renewing of our minds" is a ongoing process that marks and separates those who truly seek to know God, and the unregenerate world that has "no fear of God before their eyes" (Psalm 36:1 ESV )This passage applies to every situation I will ever come across, because I must always be offered to God as a pleasing and holy sacrifice. Paul 's command to "no longer conform to the pattern of this world" is not a command that is meant to only be obeyed in certain situations. God desires for us to always be set apart and holy. A counter-cultural fully separated, and holy people is the very people that God has a habit of forming no matter where you look in history, reaching from the Garden of Eden, to the covenant with Abraham, and up to the Azusa St. Revival