Romans 11:33-12:1 (NIV)
33 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Barclay — “for that is the only kind of worship which is truly spiritual.”)
Allow me to read a section from William Barclay’s commentary on this passage that I think you will find insightful.
“The word in verse 1 …translated worship, has an interesting history.
It is … the noun of a verb…[that] originally meant to work for hire or pay. It was the word used of the laboring man who gave his strength to an employer in return for the pay the employer would give him. It denotes, not slavery, but the voluntary undertaking of work.
It then came to mean quite generally to serve; but it also came to mean that to which a man gives his whole life. …In that sense, it came very near meaning to dedicate one’s life to.
Finally, it came to be the word distinctively used of the service of the gods. In the Bible it never means human service; it is always used of service to and worship of God.
Here we have a most significant thing. True worship is the offering to God of one’s body, and all that one does every day with it.
Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him, not something transacted in a church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. …
A [person] may say, “I am going to church to worship God,” but [they] should also be able to say, “I am going to the factory, the shop, the office, the school, the garage, … the mine, the shipyard, the field, … the garden, to worship God.” — William Barclay
