Romans 12:2 (NASB)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Lauri and I have moved from Dallas area to Midland, Tx to Denver, Co, to Evanston, Wy to Antioch, Ca to Houston, Tx and finally to Aberdeen, Scotland. From time to time, we've had discussions with others who have moved. Some are happy and some are sad. What usually separates the happy from the sad is the attitude to the move. The "Happys" look at their new location as an adventurous learning opportunity ... looking forward ... looking to the future. The "Sads" are mentally stuck in their home location wishing for the way things were and not the way things are. This passage says a lot about how to view our journey as Christians ......
"And do not be conformed ...." Conformed in the descriptive Greek means to form according to a pattern or mold one’s outward/public behavior in accordance with a particular pattern or set of standards. Believers are new creations and are to be changed internally so that they are externally reflect the "image" of Christ. Why do you want to pattern yourself after the depraved, sinful world rather than that which is good, acceptable and perfect to God. Which would I rather have, Bluebell ice cream or ice milk? Somehow we too often settle for the ice milk.
John Piper advices believers to not be conformed but instead to... "cultivate the mindset of exiles. What this does mainly is sober us up and wake us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we consult the Wisdom of our own country, heaven, and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God in his word. When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything: food, cars, videos, bathing suits, birth control, driving speeds, bed times, financial savings, education for the children, unreached peoples, famine, refugee camps, sports, death, and everything else. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world. (Read Dr. Piper's full sermon The War Against the Soul and the Glory of God)
A scuba diver lives in the water but breathes the air. He is able to function because he takes his environment with him. If he "conforms" to environment around him, he will eventually die! (Modified from source unknown)
"but be transformed ....." - Be transformed paints a picture of metamorphosis - the process of a fundamental, basic, structural, purposeful change into something new. Think of the change a caterpillar goes through to be a butterfly. Metamorhposis is not a sudden change, but gradual. So is the change for the Christian. After all, we have years of "programming" to reprogram. It is not easy and often we don't even recognize what needs to be changed. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). This ongoing transformation is another way of stating progressive sanctification - dealing with sin and growing more Christ-like.
"renewing of your mind ..." - This renewal is a "make over" of our minds, an essential change in character of your thinking. You will see life the way God sees it. We adopt His perspective. After all, His view IS reality, not the perception of it. We need to think like a believer, not an unbeliever. Does the butterfly think like a worm ... no of course not. The butterfly thinks like a butterfly! The mind is the control center of your attitudes, thoughts, feelings which then flow to your behaviors and actions. Change it and everything else changes. Easier said than done. Check out Paul when he says, in Romans 7:14-25 (NIV) ... "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." Renewal is marathon (and ALL the training that goes with it), not a sprint. Fail to train and the race will be unpleasant. Sunday fillups alone won't cut it.
Tranformation and renewal is aimed at "good and acceptable and perfect." Why would I want something that is bad, unacceptable, and flawed?
Caterpillar to a butterfly ... I am a work in progress ...
Colossians 3:1 (NASB) Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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