Tuesday: A Living Sacrifice
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 27th of January 2026
Read Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6; Romans 12:1-2; and 1 Corinthians 11:1. What is Paul saying in these passages?
Paul has already expressed a surprisingly ambivalent view toward whether he lives or dies in service to Christ (Philippians 1:20-23). Now he suggests the very real possibility of “being poured out as a drink offering” (Philippians 2:17, NKJV). This imagery is based on the ancient practice of libations, which involved pouring out a liquid (such as oil, wine, or water) as an offering to God (see, for example, Genesis 35:14, Exodus 29:40, 2 Samuel 23:15-17). The apparent “waste” of a valuable liquid in an act of devotion may remind us of Mary’s act of anointing Jesus’ head and feet with the “very costly oil of spikenard” (Mark 14:3-9, NKJV; John 12:3, NKJV). While not a drink offering per se, it clearly represented an enormous sacrifice that fittingly illustrated the infinite sacrifice of Christ for our salvation.
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Should Paul be executed for his work of spreading the gospel, he would rejoice because his life was being “poured out” as an offering to God. Because libations in the Hebrew Bible generally do not stand alone but accompany a sacrifice (see Numbers 15:1-10, Numbers 28:1-15), Paul would consider the giving of his life as the fitting complement to the “sacrifice and service” of believers in Philippi, who, through faith, have chosen to devote their lives to God as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1).
The early Christians, including those in Philippi (Philippians 1:27-29), were active in sharing their faith. They went spreading the gospel from house to house (Acts 5:42). They opened their homes for the study of the Scriptures (Acts 12:12; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:1-2), and were able to give reasons from the Scriptures for what they believed (Acts 17:11, Acts 18:26, 1 Peter 3:15). Our Adventist pioneers did the same. Rather than relying on pastors to spread the message to their neighbors, they shared their faith, gave Bible studies, and prepared people so they would be ready for baptism when the minister returned.
In short, at great personal sacrifice to themselves, that is, as a “living sacrifice,” they worked to spread the gospel. Should we do any less?
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Reflect on what it would mean for your life to be a “living sacrifice.” How much do you sacrifice for the kingdom of God, and what does your answer tell you about yourself? |
We have a little mouse-like marsupial called Antechinus here in Australia. They are lightning fast and can run up a tree faster than they can fall. They are notable because of their unusual breeding habits. The males are semelparous. At about 9-10 months old their hormones switch on; they stop eating and they chase female Antechinus until they die. It is not uncommon to find dead, rather ragged-looking male Antechinus on the walking tracks around here in September and October. (For the record, the females live for about 4 years and have 6 to 8 young each year.) Such behaviour may be self-destructive for the males, but it ensures the survival of the species.
I don’t think Paul is talking about self-destruction iin the passages of scripture. I don’t find any justification for actions like the cultic mass suicides of Jonestown, nor the survivalist apocalyptic self-destruction of the Branch Davidians. Rather, I find a dedication to purpose to the extent that any suffering and even death can be used to glorify God. Such dedication does not seek suffering or death but indicates a life lived in the purpose of the Gospel.
I am aware that some see persecution and suffering as a sign that we are right. It is important that we understand that most persecution is quite indiscriminate about who gets persecuted. Living in Christ is more about the living than the suffering. And for most of us the big test of our faith is not about suffering but surviving complacency. Is our faith the sort of faith that builds our relationship with Jesus when we are not being threatened with suffering?
I like how Paul presents this:
There is a lot of joyous living in Jesus.
Paul’s writings are rich in dramatic and radical teachings. Telling believers in Rome to offer their bodies as “a living sacrifice” must have been astounding and shocking. Sacrifices were ordinarily dead animals or non-living things like grains. Here comes Paul, pleading with them to offer themselves as a sacrifice instead.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” (Romans 12:1, NLT).
In essence, what was Paul telling these believers and us, too? Paul was redefining worship and faith. Singing hymns and affirming doctrines are not enough if our daily lives contradict the gospel. We cannot treat faith as something to believe and not something to embody. We can confess Christ, participate in worship and believe the right doctrines, but fail to continually offer our whole life (body, will, habits, loyalty) to God, we have missed the point. We can attend sabbath services and participate in all its activities, but if we live the remaining six days as we desire, then our worship is a dead sacrifice. Our worship and faith must be embodied in our daily lives. Our worship should not be centred on the altar with dead animals, but on our daily living experiences with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul is appealing to us to move away from dead sacrifices, where we conform to the world, but be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which we confess.
In Philippians 2:17, Paul reveals that genuine Christian joy is not found in comfort or self-preservation, but in surrendering one’s life for the purposes of God. He speaks of himself as being “poured out like a drink offering” upon the sacrifice and service of the believers’ faith. In other words, Paul saw his life as something to be spent—willingly and completely—for the progress of God’s kingdom and the strengthening of others.
This reflects the spirit of Christ’s call in Luke 9:23, where Jesus teaches that anyone who chooses to follow Him must deny self, take up the cross daily, and walk in obedience. Discipleship is not reserved for a spiritual elite; it is the expectation for every believer. To follow Jesus is to release our grip on personal rights, selfish ambitions, and worldly comforts, and to embrace a life of daily sacrifice.
Paul understood that every person’s life is being poured out continuously—day by day, time by time, strength by strength. The question is not whether our lives will be spent, but what they will be spent on. We can either pour ourselves out for God’s glory, or we will end up pouring our lives into things that have no eternal value.
Like Paul, we are called to labor, serve, and give ourselves so that others may stand firm, remain pure, and be found blameless in the day of Christ. This kind of life is not motivated by human praise or personal recognition, but by love for Jesus and commitment to His mission. Paul’s focus was not on himself or on public opinion—his heart was fixed on Christ alone, and that unwavering devotion is what produced his joy even in sacrifice.
Society increasingly demands conformity of our minds to political correctness, which often involves non-Christian thinking and values. Unfortunately, many Christians have conformed to this pressure. In this context, Paul appeals to believers to present and offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. Paul made this appeal knowing that the Roman Christians had slowly allowed themselves to look and think like the world around them, a compromise that had spiritually weakened them. They were desensitized, and his call to offer themselves as a living sacrifice was timely. Paul was not asking for mere intellectual assent, nor was he simply calling them to attend church; rather, he was urging them to deliberately live lives of sacrifice that honor God. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1–2, KJV).
When young men and women are recruited into the military, they are stripped of their civilian identity and given a new military identity that is inseparable from the government they serve. They receive new attire, a new residence, a new haircut, and are required to eat new food. After military training, they are given orders on where to go and what to do. Do they argue or reason with those orders? No. The order is bigger than the individual who gives it. Their lives become lives of service. Whether sent into harm’s way or not, they go without refusal, because they have already given their lives in service to their country.Paul’s appeal is that rather than allowing the world to“squeeze us into its own mold,” believers are to be “transformed by the renewing of their minds.” The mind is the center of control, where a believer’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and decisions take place.
The psalmist asks in Psalm 116:12, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (KJV). We owe the Lord everything. We cannot bribe God with money, as some may think—believing that paying tithes or consistently giving offerings fulfills our obligation to Him. No way! God desires living sacrifices, not merely our resources. He is not after our money; He does not need it. Scripture declares, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1, KJV). God wants us. He already knows how we value money, for the Bible reminds us that where a person’s treasure is, there their heart will be also. Our call is a call to service for Christ not to society, family, or even self but Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit has to be guiding us all the time! No matter what we do, we need the love of God in our hearts. If we allow the work of the Holy Spirit in us, the daily renewal of the mind can become an endless state of change!
In the lesson today the importance of sacrificial service for Christ has been emphasized , and I do appreciate this fact. However I can only truly sacrifice for a person or cause that I love. My personal response to a call to sacrifice invokes a prayer for grace to love, love that is rich and strong enough to make the act of sacrifice similar to that of Paul’s – a thing of joy.
In the abundance of self-interest and arrogance, a simple act of putting self aside and showing kindness to a person can be worthy of a sacrifice.
1Cor.11:1 – ”Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Whiles engaged in being this ‘living sacrifice’, we are experiencing the Grace of God onto Light and Life – our Salvation. Only by living God’s Truth can The Spirit of Truth do its work within us.
The ‘living’ of God’s Truth does not require special settings. It take splace in all circumstances – bond or free, rich or pour, in sickness or in health, in good times or in challenging times. His Light, His Truth, revealed within, guides the living soul toward the ultimate goal – Salvation. Phil.1:21.
Is “being poured out” really an “enormous sacrifice”, or is it our chosen Way of living God’s Light unto Life? We willingly laid down our old life, taking up our cross and follow Jesus Christ’s life according to His Gospel – now living the selfless life in Christ.
The question becomes: do we do this willingly, joyfully, and wholeheartedly, or do we continue to struggle with the process of ‘dying to self’ in order to come to life in Christ? – Gal.2:20; Gal.5:24; Rom.6:11; Luke 9:23.
The mention of the word sacrifice in the bible ordinarily connotes death/loss of life. The old testament sacrificial system had accustomed our minds so. The narrative is extended and fits into martyrdom in the Hebrew 11 hall of fame and many after whose names did not make it to the bible record.
In his epistles, Paul redefines sacrifice: sacrifice can be dead or live. The “living sacrifice” is Paul’s concern for for his readers and hearers. Ordinarily, or in all occasions a sacrifice involves pain, deprivation of a privilege, loss of a comfort etc. Paul reminds Christendom that choosing the way of Christ will involve refusal, deprivation of relations, associations, possession that appear important and beneficial to us now but not in line with Christ. That daily denial of such is what constitutes a daily living sacrifice on the part of a Christian.
Paul gives a formular of achieving of living a daily sacrifice: transformation effected by the renewal of the mind. This renewal resets the mind of the dos and don’ts and living so the the empowering of the Holy spirit. In that sense, we can, as mentioned in Monday’s lesson, be apart and shone brighter in a dark world.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1–2, KJV).
We dedicate our bodies as a living sacrifice by total living for the word of God,in that we experience the renewing of our mind through prayer.
In today’s lesson, we encounter a Paul who is surprisingly detached from his own survival. He speaks of his potential execution not as a tragedy, but as a libation—the “pouring out” of a drink offering (Phil. 2:17).
How does a person reach a point where the prospect of death is met with a shrug of joy? For many of us, sacrifice feels like a heavy chore. For Paul, it was a act of worship. Here are three pillars that supported Paul’s radical mindset:
1. The Math of “To Die is Gain”
Paul performed a spiritual calculation in Philippians 1:21 that redefined his reality. He realized that if his life belonged to Christ, then death was not a loss of life, but a promotion into the immediate presence of the One he loved. When your “worst-case scenario” (death) results in your “best-case scenario” (being with Christ), you become spiritually bulletproof.
2. From Rubbish to Relinquishment
Before Damascus, Saul of Tarsus found his identity in his “pedigree” and “performance.” After meeting the glorified Jesus, he categorized all his previous gains as refuse or rubbish.
• The Insight: You can only view your life as a “drink offering” if you’ve already stopped trying to hoard your own glory. Because Paul had already “died” to his old self (Gal. 2:20), the physical act of dying was just the final chapter of a book already written.
3. The Sanctuary Connection
Paul’s use of the “drink offering” imagery is profound. In the Hebrew sanctuary service, the libation of wine accompanied the burnt offering. It was the “final touch” that sent a sweet aroma to God.
Paul didn’t see his life as the main sacrifice—that role belonged to Christ. Instead, he saw his life (and the faith of the Philippians) as the complement to Christ’s work. He wasn’t trying to save himself; he was simply adding his “Amen” to what Jesus had already done on Calvary.
There is the story of a lady who was walking home by a river and saw a child drowning in the river. Being an avid swimmer, she jumped in the river and rescued the Child. In the tremulous waters both could have lost their lives yet someone was living up to the conscious and instinctively acted. I can think of two text that are appropriate. Greater love has no (woman), in this case, then she lay down her life for another. (John 15:13). Yes, she did not have to make the ultimate sacrifice, yet she was willing to.
What if her conscious had been severed by someone’s influence. As Paul recommended not to do in 1 Corinthians 8:11-12. I like the verse explained best by The Clear Word.
11. If you use your freedom and knowledge to teach your brother to ignore his conscience, and he does so, you’re weakening his faith. You may destroy his walk with Christ who died to save him. 12. By doing this to your brother’s conscience, you have sinned against him and against Christ.
It is important to live a life as a good example to others. Otherwise, we may lose them. Yes, a different living sacrifice, than the young lady who rescued the child, and more of what Paul was talking about in Philippians 2:17, just the same a living sacrifice as much as willingness to lay down your life to rescue from the tremulous waters.