The apostle, while referring to our logical or reasonable worship, is using the same technical words for a sacrifice in the Old Testament Temple. It was there that a live animal was brought to the priests to become holy and set apart for God and from the world: a sacrifice acceptable or well-pleasing to God. To be holy is to be offered and owned by God, and if we desire holiness, if we desire sanctification, then we must look to become more and more the possession of the God whose property is always to have mercy. The alternative is not some kind of radical freedom; it is merely to sacrifice ourselves to the dying gods of this world. St. Paul is keenly aware that all men have a god to whom they sacrifice, the only question becomes, “Who is that God?” And, perhaps more importantly, “Can that God save me?” The scope of the human problem only becomes truly visible when we recognize how many people, despite all the empirical evidence, still choose to worship sex or money or power as their god—even as it fails generation after generation.