Living Sacrifices
Paul opens with the core call: offer the body to God as a living sacrifice and let the mind be remade instead of shaped by the world. That is the kind of worship that fits mercy.
T1herefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Paul moves to the self-estimate that fits this new life: sober judgment measured by faith, because each person is one member of a shared body where gifts are unequal but complementary.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.
Paul names a short sample of gifts — prophecy, service, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, mercy — and urges each to be practiced with its proper tone and measure.
6We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; 7if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.