Lenten Reflection 9: The Result of Knowledge

Read: Romans 12:1-2 and 1 Timothy 6:13-16

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. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, ¹⁴ to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13-16)

When I was working on my Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I was blessed to have Dr. Wayne Grudem for a theology class that discussed the characteristics of God. Dr. Grudem began each class with a hymn. One of our assignments was to memorize Psalm 145. Another was to pay attention in our daily activities to how we saw the different characteristics of God in action and how we imitated them. He wanted us to list how we responded to that glimpse of God in our day.

There were times in class that we would be discussing incredible truths of God. A sort of awe would come over us as students and there would be a pause before Dr. Grudem might begin a song of praise to the God we were encountering. It wasn’t enough for us to know about God, Dr. Grudem wanted the things we were learning to move us to worship.

In 1 Timothy 6:13-14, Paul is charging Timothy to keep God’s commands. What does Paul give as the motivation or reason for obeying?

We often think of singing hymns and songs of praise as worship. But worship is much more than just singing. What else can be worship? What does Paul mean when he tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? How is that worship?

In the midst of Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to keep God’s commands, he slips into praise in verses 15-16. How does the knowledge of God lead us to praise?

C.S. Lewis wrote in his introduction to St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation: “I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”

Does the knowledge of God’s truth seem boring or lead you to praise? When you hear a message preached, how do you respond to the truths of God’s Word?