People say to surrender my life to God and I nod along, but I honestly do not know what that means on a Tuesday.

“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Saul had been told to do something specific, did most of it, and kept the best of the spoils back for a sacrifice. When confronted he defended the religious use he intended to make of them. Samuel's response separates worship from compliance and puts the two in order. Saul's failure was not a lack of devotion. It was devotion that reserved the right to edit instructions.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

After eleven chapters of dense argument, Paul turns to what to do about it, and his image is a sacrifice that stays alive. His readers knew animal sacrifice as a one-off transaction that ended at the altar. A living sacrifice has to keep consenting, daily and physically. Surrender in this framing is not one dramatic moment at the front of a church.