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THE KING’S BUSINESS
who call themselves Christians who take their fashions in dress, business, amuse ments and other things from this age or world. The only way to keep from being “ fashioned according to this age” is by being “ transformed by the renewing (or make anew) o f your mind.” It is the Holy Spirit who thus makes anew the inward mind and thus fashions the outward life according to a new pattern (John 3 :3-£. R. V .; Titus 3 :5 ). When the mind is thus made new “old things pass away, behold all things become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). W e get new thoughts, new desires, new purposes, new affections, new tastes, new ambitions, new ideals, new fashions, new everything. It is when we personally "accept Christ that- the Holy Spirit makes us anew (2 Cor; 5:17; John 1:12; 1 John 5 :1-4). Notice the adjectives used in the verse to describe God’s will, it is “good,” “acceptable” (or well-pleasing) and “ perfect.” God’s will is the best thing in all the universe and the wisest and sweetest prayer o f all is “ Thy will be done,” but it is only when we pre sent our bodieg to God a living sacrifice, and are transformed by the renewing o f our inmost life, and so are no longer fash ioned according to this age, that we can experimentally taste and test this “good,” “ well pleasing,” and “perfect will o f God.” vs. 3. “For I say, through the grace (add, that was) given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of him self more highly than he ought to think, out to think soberly (so to think, as to think soberly), according as God hath dealt to every (each) man the (a) measure of faith.” Paul here passes from our own bodies to the mystical body o f Christ, the Church. It is an illustration-of the keen ness and coherence o f Paul’s thinking as governed by the -Holy Spirit. There is nothing disjointed in Paul’s Epistles. One thing always leads to another closely related thing. Paul tells us that what he wrote was “through the grace that was given unto him,” and not through his own natural wisdom. There is a constant temptation to every man to hold a higher opinion of
for all o f us who would stir others up to do their duty. W e can accomplish far more by tender beseeching than we can by impe rious commanding. By “bodies” Paul means just what he says, we ought to recognize God’s ownership to every member o f our body and present every member o f our body to Him for His use (1 Cor. 6:20). While the seat o f religion is in the spirit, and will, and affections, and thoughts, the instrument through which religion expresses itself and works is the body. There was never a day in the history of this world when there was more need of insistence upon a religion arid Christian ity that affects the body and every member o f the body than today. Hands, feet, lips, ears, eyes, and the parts o f the body one does not wish to mention, every member of the body, should be consciously presented to Him, Who purchased us by the blood of the Son o f his love (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19). Having been presented to God, the body and every member o f it should be kept holy for Him and wholly for Him, to be used in His service and that alone and for His glory and that alone. In the Old Testament types the sacrifice was slain before it was laid upon the altar, but with us it is our “ living body,” full o f activity and power for accomplishment, that we should offer to God. The body thus offered is not a vile thing but a “holy thing” as belonging to God, and it is “ acceptable (rather, well pleasing) to God.” Will you thus please God? While it is the offering o f a body, nevertheless it is a “ spiritual” religious service because it is our spirit that presents the offering o f the body which it inhabits and through which it expresses itself. vs. 2. “And be not conformed to (fash ioned according to) this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that (the) good, and acceptable, and perfect will - of God." Having presented our bodies to God we will not get our fashions (see R. V .) from this present devil-governed age. (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4, R. V., Margin). How many there are
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