PROVERBIOS 1:1-7

Honor: lit. fear. The fear of the Lord is the attitude of the Israelite
that theoretically and practically recognizes the demands of God; it is to the
with respect, reverence, love, and faithful service. Cf.PsarheiteLoBdre!slshestedm
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12.13Eclo 1:27-28

The wise Elnecioy frequently appear opposed in

the book of Proverbs. Fools are those who despise it
instruction, (v. 22) and correction (Proverbs 12:1), and unleash their
impulses (29.11) and provoke useless discussions (20.3).

1.1 While the book of Psalms is for a devotional life, the book of
Proverbs is for daily life. Proverbs provides practical suggestions.
for an effective life. This book is not just a collection of sayings
homely, contains deep spiritual advice drawn from the
Experience. A proverb is a short and wise phrase, easy to learn.
and calls a person to act. It does not argue about criteria.
basic spiritual or moral values, assumes that we already have them. The book of
Proverbs focuses on God (character, works, and blessings) and us
it speaks about how to live in intimate relationship with Him.

1.1 Solomon, the third king of Israel, son of the great king David, reigned
during the golden age of Israel. When God told him that
I would grant anything she desired, she asked for an understanding heart.
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but also great wealth, power, and an era of peace. Solomon
he built the glorious temple of Jerusalem1 Kings 6) and wrote the
most of the book of Proverbs. His profile is foundin 1 Kings
4.

"Deep sayings" are those that leave questions.

One of the most annoying types of individuals is the know-it-all.
someone who has a dogmatic opinion about everything, closed off to
Any news, he gets irritated with discipline and refuses to learn.
Solomon calls this type of individual foolish. Do not be a
know-it-all. Instead, be receptive to the advice of others, especially to
those who know him well and can give him valuable advice. I achieved
learn from others. Remember, only God knows everything.

In this information age, knowledge is abundant, but

there is a lack of wisdom. Wisdom means much more than
just knowing a lot. It is a basic attitude that influences every
aspect of life. The foundation of wisdom is to fear God:
honor and respect him, live amazed by his power and obey his
Word. Faith in God must be the foundation for your understanding of
world, its attitudes and its actions. Trust in God and He will do it
deeply wise.

CHAPTER 1

After putting the title, the writer defines the purpose and the
nature of the instructions of the book. With paternal love calls the
pay attention to these instructions, and warn your readers against
the seductions of the wicked. Then wisdom is presented in a
beautiful personification in a rather solemn manner and
impressive, and invites men to receive its teachings,
admonishing those who reject and encouraging those who accept the
offered teachings.

1-4. (See the first point of the Introduction.) to understand

wisdom and doctrine—such is the purpose of these writings. wisdom
that is, the use of the best means to achieve the best ends,
it is the term used in this book generally to express the
true piety. doctrine—instruction, or discipline, for the
formation of character. prudent reasons—lit., words of
understanding, words that facilitate the discernment of good and bad
bad.receive, etc.—receive that discipline which discretion imparts.
See the opposing traits of the fool (chap. 16:22). justice, etc.—three
attributes of one who is upright in all his relations with God and with
the man. simples—the easily led either to good or evil; it is the
young people - those without experience.
(caps. 3:21; 5:21).cordura—trick, cunning, good or bad qualities,
according to their use. Here it refers to the good ones, since
wrap cunning to avoid evil and find good.
5, 6. The tales written will be appreciated by the wise, those who pursue the
straight purposes by just means. knowledge—not the act of
to learn, but the material learned. advice - or the art and the principles
of government. declaration - lit., figure. words of the wise - (Cf. the v.
2). dark sayings—(Cf. theI will incline my ear to a proverb; I will express my riddle on the harp.; I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father., and the first point
from the Introduction).
7. the fear of the Lord—The beginning of true piety (cf. the
caps. 2:5; 14:26, 27;And to man he said, ‘The fear of; .the
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walking
principle—the first part, the foundation. fools—the
foolish and indifferent to the character and governance of God; for the
wicked.

Vs. 1-6. The lessons given here are simple and probably
benefit those who feel their own ignorance and the need to
that they teach them. If the young ones were to attend to their ways according to
the Proverbs of Solomon, would gain knowledge and discretion.
Solomon discusses the most important points of truth, and here they are
one greater than Solomon. Christ speaks through his word and through his Spirit.
Christ is the Word and the Wisdom of God, and He is made wisdom to us.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

THE TRUE CULT AND THE ESSENTIAL CHANGE

Romans 12:1, 2

Brothers, I beseech you by the mercies of God to present yourselves

your body as a living and holy sacrifice that is pleasing to Him;
because this is the only class of cult that is truly
spiritual. And do not shape your life to the whimsical fashions of
this world; but transform yourselves independently of it; that is,
through the renewal of your mindset, until
you will experience a true transformation in the very essence of
your being; so that, in your own life, you can verify that the
the will of God is good, and pleasing, and perfect.

Here we have Pablo following his usual routine of writing to

your friends: always ends his letters with practical advice. His
the mind dives into the infinite, but never gets lost in it; always
ends with feet firmly planted on the ground. Can
to grapple with the deepest problems of theology; but
it always ends with the ethical demands that govern the life of everything
the world.
"Present your body to God" -he says. There is no greater demand.
characteristically Christian. We have already seen that this is what never
a Greek would say. For him, what mattered was the spirit; the body did not.
it was more than a prison, something despicable and shameful. But the
Cristiano knows that his body belongs to God just as much as his soul, and
what can serve God both with their body and with their mind or their
spirit.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the instrument with which
does His work. After all, the great act of the Incarnation
It basically means that God did not disdain to take on a body.
human, to live in it and act through it. Take the case of a
church or cathedral: it is built to worship God; but it has to
designing the mind of an architect; it must be built by workers and
artisans, and only then does it become a temple in which people
gathers to worship God. It is a product of the mind and the body and
of the spirit of man.
Pablo says: 'Take all the tasks you have to do all the
days: the ordinary work of the store, the factory, the shipyards, the mine...
and offer it to God as an act of worship." The word of the verse
1 that we have translated as cult with the Reina-Valera version has a
interesting history. Eslatreía, the name corresponding to the verb
latréuein. In its origin, latréuein meant to work for pay or the
salary. It was the word used for a worker who gave his
time and effort to a contractor in exchange for a salary. It was not the
work of a slave, but a voluntary activity. From there it moved on to
to mean to serve in general; but also that which a person
dedicates his whole life. For example: it was said of an artist that he was
to devote oneself to the service of the
beauty. In that sense, she was already approaching dedicating herself or dedicating the
life. Finally, it became the characteristic word of the service of the
gods. In the Bible, it always refers to the service and worship of God.
Here we have a very significant fact: the true worship is
to offer God our body and everything we do with it all the
days. The true worship of God is not to offer Him a liturgy, no matter how
noble though it may be, or a ritual, not even the most solemn. The true
Worship is offering God our daily life; not something that has to be.
do in the church, but something that everyone sees, because we are the
temple of the living God. One might say: 'I go to church to worship.'
to God"; but I should also say: "I go to the factory, the store, the
office, the school, the garage, the mine, the shipyard, the field, the garden or
the kitchen, to worship God.” This does not mean precisely to be
singing hymns or thinking of God or 'giving testimony' while
it is worked on, which may perhaps take away our concentration on what we are
doing; but to do what is expected of us as best as possible,
as if it were - as if it is! - for the glory of God.
This, continues Pablo, requires a radical change. We must not
adopt the forms of the world; but to transform ourselves, that is, to acquire
a new way of living. To express this truth, Paul uses two
Greek words that are almost untranslatable, which require phrases to
transmit its meaning. The word that you use to shape us to the world
It is schematized, from the root schema - where the word comes from
Spanish and almost international scheme, which means form
the exterior that changes year by year and almost day by day.
a person is not the same at 17 years old as they are when they are
70; neither when he leaves work nor when he is at a party. He is
constantly changing. That's why Paul says: 'Do not try to be
always in tune with all the fashions of this world; do not be
"chameleons", always taking the color of the environment."
The word you use to transform us in a different way than the
of the world is metamorphosis, from the root morphe, which means
essential and unalterable nature of something. A person does not have the
same theme at 17 as at 70 years, but yes the same morphology; with
the monkey does not have the same ceremonial dress, but it has
the same shape; it changes its exterior appearance, but it remains the same
same person. Thus, Paul says, to worship and serve God we have
to experience a change, not in appearance, but in personality.
What does that change consist of? Pablo would say that, for ourselves,
we live like beasts, dominated by human nature at its level
lower; in Christ we live according to Christ or according to the Spirit, under control
of Christ or of the Spirit. The Christian is a person who has changed
in its essence: now live, not an egocentric life, but
Christocentric.
This must happen, says Pablo, due to the renewal of mentality.
The word used for renewal is 'anakainosis'. In Greek, there are two.
words for new: neós and kainós. Neós refers to time, and
new pencil character and nature. A newly manufactured pencil is new;
but a person who was once a sinner and is now becoming
Santa eskainós. When Christ enters a man's life, he is
a new man; he has a different mindset because he has the
mind of Christ.
When Christ becomes the center of our life is when
we can present to God the true worship, which consists of
to offer him every moment and every action.

12.1 When an animal was sacrificed according to the Law of God, the
the priest would kill the animal, cut it into pieces and put it
about the altar. The sacrifice was important, but even in the Old
Testament God clarifies that obedience of heart is much more
important (seeSamuel said, 'Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.'; I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.; I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened animals. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!God wants
that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, not animals.
Every day we must set aside our desires and follow him,
putting all our energies and resources at your disposal and
trusting in your guidance. We do this in gratitude because our
sins have been forgiven.

12.1, God has good, pleasing, and perfect plans for them
children. He wants to transform us into a people with a renewed mind,
alive to honor and obey Him. Because He only wants the best
for us and for having given His Son so that we may have life
new, we should offer ourselves with joy as a living sacrifice for his
service.

12.2 We Christians have this calling: "Do not conform to this

century". We should not conform to the behavior and customs of
this world, which are generally egocentric and often
corrupt. Many Christians wisely say that the behavior
mundane exceeds too much. Our rejection to be part of
world, however, must go beyond the level of behavior and
customs. It must be firmly rooted in our minds:
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
It is possible to avoid many worldly customs without stopping
be proud, greedy, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. Only
when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates and reorients our mind
we are truly transformed (see 8.5).

And do not conform to this ageIn which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.; who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,Greek; more
we reform—"transform us" (as inAnd he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.; y And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
for the renewal of your understanding—Not for a mere
external discontent with the wicked world, many of whose
actions may be virtuous in themselves and worthy of praise; rather for
a spiritual inner transformation that makes all of life new:
new in its motives and purposes, even when the actions do not relate at all
differ from those of the world; new, considered as a whole, and in such
sense, unattainable except by the constraining power of love of
Christ. so that you may experience—(See the note regarding the term
experience," chap. 5:4, comp.He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him., where the feeling is the
what is the good will of God, pleasant and
perfect—We prefer this translation [with Calvino, Revised Version,
etc.] to which many scholars [Tholuck, Meyer, De Wette, Fritzsche,
Philippi, Alford, Hodge adopt - 'that you may prove,' or 'discern the
will of God, (that is) what is good and pleasing and perfect.
But it is proven that the will of God is "good," because
demand only what is essential and unchangeably good (chap.
7:10); it is "pleasant," in contrast to everything that is arbitrary, for
how much it demands only what enjoys eternal enjoyment of
God (seeHe has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?, withBut let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.and it is "perfect," because it reflects the
the same perfection of God. Thus, this is the great general duty of the
redeemed: THE COMPLETE CONSECRATION, of all our
spirit, soul, and body, to the one who has called us to communion of
his Son Jesus Christ. Then the specific duties follow,
mainly the social ones, starting with humility, the first of
all the thanks.

Vs. 1, 2. Having finished the part of his letter in which the apostle...
argue and prove various doctrines that are applied
practically, it raises important responsibilities from the
principles of the gospel. He pleads with the Romans, as brothers in
Christ, that by the mercies of God they present their bodies in
living sacrifice to Him. This is a powerful calling. We receive
Daily from the Lord the fruits of His mercy. Let us present ourselves;
everything we are, everything we have, everything we do, because
after all, how much is it compared to the big ones
wealth that we receive? It is acceptable to God: a rational worship, by the
that we are capable and prepared to give reason, and that
we understand. Conversion and sanctification are the renewal of the
mind; change, not of substance, but of the qualities of the soul. The
progress in sanctification, dying more and more to sin, and living more and
more for justice, is to carry out this renovating work, until
is perfected in glory. The great enemy of this renewal is
conform to this world. Be careful not to make plans for the
happiness, as if I were in the things of this world, which soon
they pass. Do not fall into the habits of those who indulge in lusts
of the flesh, and they worry about earthly things. The work of
Holy Spirit begins, first, in understanding and is carried out in
the will, the affections, and the conversation, until there is a change of
all man in the likeness of God, in knowledge, justice
and the holiness of truth. Thus, being pious means to present ourselves to
God.

I. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS SERVICE (12:1-13:14)

THE TRUE SERVICE OF GOD (Rm/12/01-02)

1 Therefore, brothers, I urge you by the mercy of God to

that you offer your own bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy, pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not
you do not conform to the norms of the present world, but rather seek
transform yourselves by the renewal of the mind, so that you may achieve
discern what the will of God is: what is good, what is
Pleasant, what is perfect.

These two verses are like a kind of epigraph to the part that
continue (c. 12-15). They provide the guidance on how to understand and
evaluate the specific exhortations that follow. They express
the two fundamental elements for the realization of existence
christian

1st. Christian existence must be fulfilled in the offering of the

"bodies" as "living sacrifices" and as "spiritual worship" of God;

2nd. Christian existence must take into account the "present world"; it
What does it mean that the Christian must keep themselves from any
accommodation to the 'scheme' of this passing world.
On the other hand, this means that it must transform into a process.
continuation of the renewal of the spirit, with which it will be able to
to know the will of God. In summary, the double partial content.
from this initial introductory exhortation, it is related to the
world. The Apostle's exhortation is something very different from the
moral inflation and pressing in certain norms and
codes of conduct. As an Apostle, he exhorts "by the mercies of
God. Therefore, in his words, it is God himself who speaks with his.
mercy. Hence, the Apostle's admonition has a
character of the Gospel; it is comfort, edification, and encouragement for the
Christians, while being a mandatory requirement for them.

Pablo cries out for a body-cult. The body here is not just the part
the physics of man, as opposed to the soul, but the material field
in a broad sense within which man provides his service. The
Christian existence is thus realized in an existence for God and in a
existence for others, this last aspect that is essentially
insert in the first. The realization of oneself by the Christian
It paradoxically happens in the alienation in service, understood
this service in a deep and radical sense. Such is the perspective in
the one that can be spoken of as a 'sacrifice' of the Christians. Here there is no
it is actually about a new cult that takes the place of the old cult
outdated. Pablo uses expressions and images from the
cultic tradition of the Old Testament to expose something with them
really new like the theme of the Gospel.

This bodily worship of the Christian life is characterized by being, at the same
time a "spiritual cult". What this expression entails must
to understand from the criticism that, in their time, the Jews exercised
cultured Hellenists on the external liturgical practice and projected to
exterior, which were equally contemplated in Judaism and in gentility.
But, in this passage, Paul does not introduce, in the expression he uses,
the same type of interiorization and spiritualization that would correspond
a divine cult discovered before. For him, the true 'cult
spiritual" consists precisely in the offering of bodies, which
to assume in summary that the Christian, in an appropriate manner and
pleasant to God
hello.
If in verse 1 the object of the exhortation is the total surrender of
man to God, and the Christian relationships of man with the world,
relating to said delivery, in v. 2 the tone of the
exhortation. Christians should not conform 'to the norms of the
present". As for justified, the Christian has been uprooted.
to the "present world", that is, to the old world subjected to sovereignty
of sin. Nonetheless, one must guard against the world. This is
an idea that resonates already in chapters 6-8. But it would be dangerous.
to define the worldly behavior of the Christian only from the point of view
of this warning. Pablo himself hints at this in these
verses a different approach. Christian life is not realized with
abstain from "the present world", with a purely
negative, but with the positive transformation of oneself, with the
"renewal of the mind".

The renewal of the mind is not only fulfilled in knowledge.

Cristiano of himself, realized here and there, again and again, but in the
listen and tense and constant attention to the novelty that Christ has
launched as a new creation 44; in a listening that
It empowers me now to approve and judge what is the will of God.
in the concrete development of life, in which it always has to
to fulfill what is "good" and "perfect". But the good that must
it does not allow itself to be known and valued by an established norm, but rather
that my action and my behavior are shown to be good
when with the 'renewal' of my spirit I understand here and now the
will of God and I respond to it with obedience.

Here it is clearly evident that this obedience to life

in which we conform to the will of God and not to our desires
"of the present world" is not carried out on the margins of the world, but
just in this world and through the world. That, in turn, puts
it is noteworthy that the Christian has not yet fully attained the
God's world should postpone the conditions.
concrete aspects of life that one finds in this world, but must
accept this concrete world - what is part of its obedience of
life-, and that is in a constant transition, that in the midst of this
world and together with this world leads to the new creation, which
it has already been granted as grace in Christ. The Apostle does not cry out for
an exit from the world, but through an eschatological transit through
this world up to the world of God, where there is always room for
the creation called to salvation, which we must carry with us and
that we personally have to represent in the midst of such transition.