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Today's Pathway: Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Yesterday we said that Paul begins the practical section of his epistle with a general overview of what the believer's life should be. In verse 1 he spoke of giving your body as a living sacrifice. In verse 2 he mentions two more items that are closely related. First, he says that the Christian is not to be conformed to the world. By "world" he means the world system. The word translated "world" in this verse carries with it the idea of "the age". In other words, don't let what is going on in the popular culture around you be what determines how you live. I John 2:16 defines the "world" as

"the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life".

"does not refer to the material creation but rather to the mass of un-redeemed humanity as an egocentric world system that is hostile to God. It is a mighty flood of thoughts, feelings, principles of action, conventional prejudices, dislikes, and attachments, which have been gathering around human life for ages, impregnating it, impelling it, molding it, degrading it. Its central aim is self-enjoyment and self-aggrandizement in disregard of or in open hostility toward God."

Paul says that we are not to be "conformed to this world", but to be "transformed". It is important to understand what these two terms mean. "Conform" means "to be fashioned like", or to be pressed into a mold. "Transformed" means "to be changed into another form". Here is the difference. To conform is to appear like something that you really are not. Allow me to use the illustration of a birthday cake. A young boy wants a fire engine for his birthday cake, so his mother goes to the store and buys a cake mold that looks like a fire engine. She bakes it, and decorates it, and when she is finished it really looks like a fire engine. But we all know that it really isn't; it's a cake that has the outward appearance of being a fire engine. As believers we are children of God who have become new creatures in Christ. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. However, when we conform to the world we stop looking and acting like what we are (children of God) and start looking and acting like what we are not (children of the devil). Paul says not to do that. Instead we are to be transformed. Our English word "metamorphosis" comes from this word. In a metamorphosis the butterfly changes on the outside to reflect what it really is on the inside. A great example of this principle is found in Mark 9:2-3 where Jesus is "transfigured". This is a translation of the same word for "transformed". At the transfiguration of Jesus, what happened? What Jesus had always been on the inside (God) was revealed externally. It is interesting to note that both of the words "be" in this verse are passive verbs, but also commands. In other words, don't let the world press you into its mold that makes you not look like the Christian that you are, and instead allow God to transform you so that you do look like the Christian that you are. We are commanded to stop letting the world change our lives from the outside and start letting God do it from the inside.

This is accomplished by the renewing of our mind. We will discuss that further tomorrow. In closing, here is a question for today: Who are you allowing to influence how you live? Is it the ungodly world around you, or the Holy Spirit within you?