NOTES for Rom 12:1-2

Speaking about Christian life and church ministries, Paul singles out in them the main thing that unites them all, and this is a person's spiritual renewal. A person himself must become a sacrifice to God, and this is possible only through the "renewal of the mind." From a Christian point of view, no other service can be considered reasonable.

Indeed, Christianity is not a religion, but life with Christ in His Kingdom. Everything else, including every ministry, is only a way and form of such life. And the Church is not a religious organization, but the body of Christ, as the apostle calls it, the spiritual space of those relationships that unite the faithful with Christ. The Church's main task is precisely this: to remain such a space, the body of Christ. And any ministry for any member of the Church, if we are speaking of genuine ministry, is possible only in the context of his relationship with Christ and as a form of the existence of such a relationship. One could say that every church ministry is, on the one hand, a way for the Christian to exist as part of the body of Christ and, on the other hand, a form in which this body is revealed in the Christian's life. That is why the "renewal of the mind" remains the main task in every ministry.

In his letters Paul often calls the mind what other biblical books call the heart: the spiritual "I" of a person, the core and foundation of his personality. It is there that who and what a person will be before God and people is determined, for there is the source of the human will, and therefore of all his intentions, which determine the content of his spiritual life. The inner Torah is rooted precisely there, in the mind as Paul understands it. And only from there can a person's transformation into a living sacrifice begin, so that his service may become reasonable from a Christian point of view.

Indeed, in Yahwism, sacrifice was the main form of communion with God. The sacrifice was sanctified on the altar by God's presence dwelling there, and the sacrifice in turn sanctified everyone who ate of it, taking part in the sacrificial meal. So Christians are called to sanctification in order to carry the Kingdom into the world, sanctifying it by their presence. To remain sanctified, not to lose this state, is the Christian's main task, and it can be preserved only through awareness of one's own life, which is impossible without the renewal of the mind of which the apostle speaks. The Christian's main task is to learn to exist in the Kingdom, in God's presence that sanctifies the world, and to become an instrument of this sanctification. Everything else, all church ministries, are only forms and ways of such existence, if, of course, they are reasonable.