What is “spiritual worship” in Romans 12:1?
Romans 12:1 encourages us to be living sacrifices (expanded upon in the previous blog post here). That’s not all this verse teaches; let’s look at it again:
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. (Rom. 12:1 ESV)
Paul goes on to say that this is “your spiritual worship”. What do you think of when you think of the phrase “spiritual worship”? I think many of us think of something mystical, like God speaking to us in a special voice. And we think this is a personal thing, our personal internal worship between us and God.
That is not what is meant here at all. The translation does us a disservice here; the word translated “spiritual” here is not actually the word for “spirit” we see in many other places. It means something like logical, reasonable, or thoughtful. I think it helps to read this as “reasonable worship”. So the logic of the verse goes something like this: giving all of your life to serving God is a reasonable response to what Jesus has done for you. You are a new creation with a completely new way of living, and that is logical and reasonable and how it should be.
When you understand the gospel and trust in Jesus, it is no longer logical and reasonable to live the way you lived before. Everything has changed. You now live to serve and honour the One who saved you.
We often limit that word “worship” to activities like singing and meeting as a church family, and yes, those activities are included. Yet worship is more than singing and going to church, it is presenting your body to God for His service, as a living sacrifice. You worship God when you thoughtfully carry out your work as if you were working directly for Him. You worship God when you sacrificially love your family and friends, and when you give money to kingdom work. You worship God when you resist temptation and actively seek to build new godly habits. All of these things are logical and reasonable for Christians; let’s live them out today.