By the mercies of God present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as your spiritual worship. Don’t be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good acceptable and perfect. Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought, but soberly according to the measure of faith God has assigned. Members don’t all have the same function, though many, we are one body in Christ, and members of each other. Use your gifts – prophecy in proportion to our faith, service, teaching, exhorting, contributing in generosity, leading, and acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine. Abhor evil, hold fast to good. Out do one another in showing honor. Don’t be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil. Give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Never avenge, leave it to the wrath of God. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; thirsty, give a drink – by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We worship God in a corporate context. We ought to give our lives as living sacrifices to God, but the way we do that finds expression in the context of a local church. We are members of each other. And each member contributes gifts to the church in different ways. We don’t all have the same role in a local church. Pray that God would grow us more in these marks of what a Christian is. Weep with each other. Rejoice with each other. Fight the temptation to take vengeance for being wronged. Trust in the judgment of God. Everywhere we look in the world we see evil. O God, help us to overcome evil with good. God, be glorified in the midst of our generosity, and Father guard our hearts from evil anger and give us the ability to bless those who curse us. God, give us unity in our churches. Help us to love one another. Grow us in hospitality and dependence upon You in prayer. Be glorified in us.