Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

Paul in the previous chapter let us know he was speaking to the Gentiles. He compared the church to a consecrated batch of bread offered as firstfruits. “If the portion offered is holy, the entire batch is holy.” He continued with a picture of an olive tree. If the root is holy, the branches are holy. But the batch still rises, and the branch must bear fruit. Do not neglect the purpose to which you were called just because you have already been made holy, a saint for God’s purposes. It was for your fruitfulness you were Created and your fruitfulness is what we are able to offer up, as the best of the batch, the choicest crops.

We lay these fruits on the altar, but we keep on producing more.

Ethan Kirl