Long ago and far away, when I was a young aspiring jazz musician in New York City, I lived in a tiny apartment on the upper west side. In fact, appropriately and magically, I lived on Duke Ellington Boulevard.
A few years into that adventure in city life, Jesus found me, and I began to intensely engage with the Scriptures. This changed everything, of course.
I recalled a detail about that change process recently as I read the book of Romans. Just inside the door to my apartment, I tacked up this verse, that was to become a signpost for my life going forward:
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.
This is Romans 12:2, from the King James Version (because I only used King James those days).
Jews hang a mezuzah with Hebrew Scripture on it at the door to their homes to remind them, as they are coming and going, of who they are and whose they are. They touch or kiss the mezuzah as an act of love and devotion to their God.
This Scripture at my door served a similar purpose. It reminded me each time I was about to step out into the big, wide world that I was not to be like the world. God had changed me, and I was compelled to think and act differently than I had before. Different from the world I’d grown up in somehow.
That was almost 40 years ago. I’m still working out what it means each day as I step outside the door of my home in Texas, and as I engage virtually with the world in many ways.
The book of Romans is worth reading every year. It contains an essential set of doctrinal truths for Christian living. It is Paul’s wise instruction to the church, delivered by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Romans has no expiration date. It is always relevant and necessary to an understanding of God’s plans for us. Romans matures us, if we will let it.
I have found the entire chapter of Romans 12 especially useful in direct application in my life. Romans 12:2 commands us what not to do, and what to do, in a single powerful sentence. We are NOT to conform to the world’s ways and instead, are to be transformed into people who always pursue God’s will.
Some definitions
The word translated conformed is the Greek word syschēmatizō. According to Strong’s dictionary, this word means “to fashion alike,” or “to fashion self in the same way.”[1]
Paul’s imperative statement not to conform implies that we have the power to choose to fashion ourselves after the world’s way of life or to choose to submit to the change process God has designed. The ramifications of our choice are endless.
It may seem like a strange exercise, but let’s personify the world. We can do this because Paul is clearly talking about people in the world who do not follow or honor Christ, and the things they do. He’s not talking about birds, bees, rocks, or oceans.
We are not to adopt the mindsets, values, and behaviors considered acceptable by the people of our culture without holding them up to the light of Scripture. Some may pass the test of Scriptural truth, but many or most will not.
Do we dress, eat, drink, talk, spend money, work, or enjoy ourselves just like the world does? If someone observed our daily lives, would we look just like those who are conformed to the world, or would we look significantly different? With what standard are our values and priorities aligned?
These are tough, questions, aren’t they? If you are feeling convicted as I am, I think that is a very good thing. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit, helping us to live in integrity, and in the fullness of what God desires for us. We each have to ask and judge for ourselves if we are conforming to worldly influences that don’t align with the higher calling in Christ.
So then, what is that higher calling? Paul calls it transformation.
The word translated transformed in Romans 12:2 is the Greek word metamorphoō, defined as changed, transfigured, transformed.[2]
Surely, if you’ve been in church any length of time, you’ve learned that this corresponds to the English word metamorphosis. This word is used to describe the transformation from a worm to a butterfly. This kind of transformation is complete and dramatic. The butterfly looks nothing like the worm it once was, and the worm has ceased to exist.
Christian believers are to change to the extent that people who knew us before we were Christians can hardly recognize the people we’ve become. In a sense, they have to get to know us again. In a sense, we need to get to know ourselves as these transformed people!
The more we turn away from the world’s idea of normal and allowable and pursue the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God, the more foreign this world will seem to our hearts and consciences.
There is another word translated transformed in the New Testament, and it provides a very interesting contrast to the occurrence in Romans 12. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul makes a strong accusation against the enemies of Christ who tried to creep into the Christ-honoring fellowship and deceive the believers:
“Such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (v. 13-15, NIV).
I appreciate the use of masquerade in the NIV. It captures well the idea that these people were imposters who dressed up like apostles and servants of God. This is what the enemy does. He presents a counterfeit truth, convincingly spoken by his agents who look much like the true servants of God.
The Greek word here is metaschēmatizō, translated disguised in the Greek interlinear. The people Paul warns them about are able to change their outer appearance and behaviors to resemble genuine faith and service to the Lord, but it’s really just a clever disguise. They are motivated by greed and lust for control of others.
That is the opposite of the transformation we experience when we live in obedience to Romans 12:2. Our minds are renewed through the ongoing revelation of the word and Spirit of God.
The way that our transformation takes place is through the renewing of the mind. That is a rather abstract concept, but I love Peterson’s down-to-earth paraphrase of the passage in The Message:
So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
It is easy to become comfortable with worldly values and slip away from the purity of our faith. Scripture provides the preventative for this: fix your attention on God and be “changed from the inside out.” Seek maturity. Get beyond milk and start consuming the meat of God’s truth.
The mechanism for our growth to maturity is the renewing of the mind. This is a progressive change. It happens little by little as our faith is tested and we learn to practice godly attitudes. We prove for ourselves that God’s way is good, acceptable and perfect. And he “brings out the best.”
Forty years after I found this verse for the first time and took it to heart, I am still on this journey of transformation. Every day, I must examine what the world offers, compare it to God asks of me, as much as I understand it. If they don’t agree, I must choose, one decision at a time, God’s will over conformity to the world.
This may sound terribly religious—I hope not. In my experience, there is in this way of life “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”[3] There is great reward in becoming a living sacrifice who is constantly undergoing miraculous transformation into someone who carries the beauty of Christ.
I choose him. I choose his will over my own. I choose a renewed mind.
I choose to be the butterfly.
[1] James Strong, The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words, Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1996.
[2] Ibid.
[3] From the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.
