12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 2 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 3 – which is your reasonable service.
3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
1 tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”
2 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
3 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.
4 tn Grk “by men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is generic here (“people”) since the contrast in context is between God and humanity.
5 tn On this word here and in 4:1, see the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.
6 tn The prepositional phrase κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka) does not necessarily qualify the masters as earthly or human (as opposed to the Master in heaven, the Lord), but could also refer to the sphere in which “the service-relation holds true.” See BDAG 577 s.v. κύριος 1.b.