Hi, thanks for the article, I appreciate the overall idea!
Also, I am glad that you have translated Romans 12:1 as "your reasonable service", because many translations have the word "worship" there instead of the actual word there that means "service", and translating it as worship takes away from the meaning of the passage. I very much appreciate that, and I hope the readers will too! (Based on the O.T. usage of "latria" you could almost interpret is as "priestly service", but service is fine!)
I'm not disagreeing with your message, but just offering my thoughts. If I were to just take out the word and idea of 'worship' (because to me that means Sunday morning, 10 AM, church building), and understand the message as what does it mean to be a living sacrifice, (whether in serving or being a disciple, as you said) it opens up my mind to my daily life.
I know this is weird to say (as someone who was raised to believe that we go to church to worship God), but honestly we can define 'worship' as whatever we want to (pretty much), because there's no Greek or Hebrew word for it, and the words that really mean 'bow down', and 'serve' are most often translated as worship. I can't count the number of times someone has said that they know what the true definition of 'worship' is. It's crazy to me!
But sacrifice is sacrifice. Praise is praise. Prayer is prayer. Serving is serving.
There's no need to translate some of these words or 'classify' them as 'worship'... perhaps we could let them be what they are? That way, my effort and how I measure myself as God's servant isn't focused on:
Sunday morning: 1 hour: Church building
the focus is on my LIFE, not a location.
"there is coming an hour when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you bow down to the Father...those who truly bow down, will bow down to the Father in spirit and in truth." John 4:21,23
Hi, thanks for the article, I appreciate the overall idea!
Also, I am glad that you have translated Romans 12:1 as "your reasonable service", because many translations have the word "worship" there instead of the actual word there that means "service", and translating it as worship takes away from the meaning of the passage. I very much appreciate that, and I hope the readers will too! (Based on the O.T. usage of "latria" you could almost interpret is as "priestly service", but service is fine!)
I'm not disagreeing with your message, but just offering my thoughts. If I were to just take out the word and idea of 'worship' (because to me that means Sunday morning, 10 AM, church building), and understand the message as what does it mean to be a living sacrifice, (whether in serving or being a disciple, as you said) it opens up my mind to my daily life.
I know this is weird to say (as someone who was raised to believe that we go to church to worship God), but honestly we can define 'worship' as whatever we want to (pretty much), because there's no Greek or Hebrew word for it, and the words that really mean 'bow down', and 'serve' are most often translated as worship. I can't count the number of times someone has said that they know what the true definition of 'worship' is. It's crazy to me!
But sacrifice is sacrifice. Praise is praise. Prayer is prayer. Serving is serving.
There's no need to translate some of these words or 'classify' them as 'worship'... perhaps we could let them be what they are? That way, my effort and how I measure myself as God's servant isn't focused on:
Sunday morning: 1 hour: Church building
the focus is on my LIFE, not a location.
"there is coming an hour when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you bow down to the Father...those who truly bow down, will bow down to the Father in spirit and in truth." John 4:21,23