Verse 11 describes the way we should be toward God: “Not slothful in zeal; burning in spirit; serving the Lord as a slave.”
In the church life we need to be diligent. No slothful person can prevail in practicing the church life. For the sake of the Body our slothfulness must be dealt with.
For the Body life, we need a body that is presented, a mind that is renewed in the transformation of the soul, and a spirit that is burning. Our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—is included in the church life. For the sake of the church life, our body needs to be presented, our soul needs to be transformed, and our mind needs to be metabolically changed. Our mind must be renewed, not simply by being taught, but by being transformed, having the element of Christ spread into it to produce a metabolic change. The transformation of our soul primarily depends upon the renewing of our mind. If we are serious about practicing the church life, we need to present our body, to have our soul transformed, and to be burned and burning in our spirit. If we have a heart for the church life, but fail to present our body to the church, we are impractical. However, suppose we are bodily in the church life, yet our mind is filled with old concepts, thoughts, and traditions. Suppose our mind is occupied by our own natural cleverness, imaginations, and concepts. We may come to the church with our body, but we bring with us our very troublesome mind. Such an unrenewed mind will be a great problem to the church. Our body must be presented and our mind must be renewed. Suppose, by the Lord’s mercy, our body has been presented and our mind has been renewed, but our spirit remains cold. That will never work for the church life. After the presenting of the body and the renewing of the mind, we need the burning of the spirit. How we long to see that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery would have three characteristics: a body that has been absolutely presented for the church life; a mind that has been completely renewed by metabolic transformation in the soul, a mind that is free from worldly, natural, and religious thoughts, wholly saturated with the Lord’s mind, and purely for the Lord; and a spirit that is set on fire. If all the saints in the Lord’s recovery are like this, how wonderful the church life will be.
In the church life we must serve the Lord as a slave. A slave is one who has been sold to his master and who no longer has any freedom. We need to be this kind of person for the Body life, serving the Lord as slaves and having no freedom to do things according to ourselves. Therefore, toward God we must not be slothful. We must burn in our spirit and serve Him as a slave.
In Romans 12 we also see four aspects of a normal life toward ourselves.
We Christians should be a rejoicing people because we always have the enjoyment of the Lord. If we enjoy the Lord in His riches, we will not only be joyful inwardly, but we will be rejoicing outwardly. Even in times of trouble we should and can rejoice in hope. We are not people who are without God and without Christ, having no hope (Eph. 2:12). We have God and we have Christ. So, regardless of the situation, we have hope and we can rejoice in hope.
We Christians must also be able to endure tribulation. We must be an enduring people. By rejoicing in hope we can endure any kind of tribulation. Chapter 5:3 says that we can exult in tribulation. We not only endure, but also exult in tribulation.
In order to endure tribulation we need to be persevering in prayer. We need to pray persistently. This will not only enable us to endure tribulation, but also to remain in the enjoyment of the Lord, in His presence and in His will.
In addition to all this, as God’s holy people, we must abhor and conquer the evil things and cleave to the good things. We Christians, who are separated unto God, must maintain the highest standard of behavior, a standard above that of moral and ethical people.