Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
This verse begins chapter 12 and most Christians would say they do this quite well. Read the whole chapter though and you will see that you need Jesus. It is a checklist of 38 attributes of the holy and acceptable Christian that resembles the 613 statutes of the Law in their scope. Paul wrote these most likely because he didn’t like what he saw in the various churches that he visited, worldliness, pride, fake love, laziness, misery, miserliness, discord, vengefulness, and strife. There was plenty of that all over the Roman Empire so these don’t show the church as a viable alternative.
Nearly 2,000 years later, every church in America has a chance to reach hurting people simply by living in worship, living a godly life in sacrifice to God for saving us. All those attributes are still rife in our society and we can shine a bright light in this darkness. Unfortunately, we need a Paul to write an open letter to the churches of America and remind us of what Christians look like. Because, to put it bluntly, we look like them. We are proud, vengeful, and we fight. We might as well be congress instead of the church.
Have we forgotten that Jesus lived in the world and exhibited perfect love? He was right and was wronged, yet took no vengeance but took the humiliation for our sake. He was innocent but was executed and showed no anger. He forgave them from the cross! He forgave us too. In response, let’s be retrained in the job of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ.