12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 8 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 9 – which is your reasonable service. 12:2 Do not be conformed 10 to this present world, 11 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve 12 what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
1 tn The words “This was” have been repeated from the previous verse to clarify that this is a continuation of that thought. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
2 tn Grk “toward a demonstration,” repeating and expanding the purpose of God’s action in v. 25a.
3 tn Or “righteous.”
4 tn Or “of the one who has faith in Jesus.” See note on “faithfulness of Jesus Christ” in v. 22 for the rationale behind the translation “Jesus’ faithfulness.”
5 tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”
6 tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.
7 tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”
8 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
9 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.
sn Taken as predicate adjectives, the terms alive, holy, and pleasing are showing how unusual is the sacrifice that believers can now offer, for OT sacrifices were dead. As has often been quipped about this text, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”
10 tn Although συσχηματίζεσθε (suschmatizesqe) could be either a passive or middle, the passive is more likely since it would otherwise have to be a direct middle (“conform yourselves”) and, as such, would be quite rare for NT Greek. It is very telling that being “conformed” to the present world is viewed as a passive notion, for it may suggest that it happens, in part, subconsciously. At the same time, the passive could well be a “permissive passive,” suggesting that there may be some consciousness of the conformity taking place. Most likely, it is a combination of both.
11 tn Grk “to this age.”
12 sn The verb translated test and approve (δοκιμάζω, dokimazw) carries the sense of “test with a positive outcome,” “test so as to approve.”