According to St. Paul’s teaching, we are to present ourselves as 'a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God'.

According to St. Paul’s teaching, we are to present ourselves as 'a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God'. In his commentary on this passage, St. John Chrysostom asks: How is the body to become a sacrifice?

"Let the eye look on no evil thing, and it has become a sacrifice. Let your tongue speak nothing filthy, and it has become an offering. Let your hand do no lawless deed, and it has become a whole burnt offering. But this is not enough. We must have good works, also. Let the hand give alms, the mouth bless those who oppose one, the hearing find solace in Divine teachings. For sacrifice allows no unclean things: sacrifice is a first-fruit of other actions. Let us then from our hands, our feet, our mouths, and all our other members, yield a first-fruit to God.”

In so doing, our “old man,” our “man of sin” dies, and our “new man” lives. We die to ourselves, so that we can be reborn to Christ.

+ Fr. Damascene (Christensen)