I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
—Romans 12:1
The Greek word for “sacrifice” in Romans 12:1, “thusia,” bears the same root as the Greek word for “one accord,” which is “homothumadon.” One accord comes from our sacrifice, our death. We experience joy, but this joy is generated from our death, our sacrifice.
Let me give an example. Five of us brothers serve closely in a certain locality. All five of us are very different. We five fellowship together, pray together, and consider how to go on. For us to be in one accord, there is only one secret. All five of us have to be a sacrifice; we all have to die.
Adapted from Oneness and the One Accord, page 37.
Tomorrow: “Dying to Ourselves for the Sake of Christ”