Conformed or transformed

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. – Romans 12.2

There are certain places where the word of God translates into English so beautifully. There are certain places where to King James translating committee chose just the right words so that they really stick in our minds. To be fair though, most modern translations have kept the same basic wording.

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Don’t be conformed – be transformed.

Isn’t that a powerful statement?

The natural thing for us to do is just to conform to the world. It is easy to slide right into its mould. There are certain things and actions and behaviours and attitudes and speech and ideas that are just so easily conformable to. Everybody else does it. It just makes sense and it is the pattern that folks just naturally tend to fall into. We’ve all been there. Ephesians 2 tells us that we all walked according to the course of this world.

But conformity is not for God’s children. Instead God’s wants us to be transformed. We need a new mind, and that mind is the mind of Christ. When we get saved the transformation begins. We are made new in Christ. We are a new creature. We are dead to the penalty of sin. We are dead to the power of sin.

But we are not free from the presence of sin. We still have to deal with that. It is the presence of sin that draws us to conformity with the world.

So as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices we are to let the mind of Christ transform and change us.

When I take a careful look at the world around me there is not a whole lot that I really want to be conformed to. Why then is it so hard to let the transforming take place?

But we know the answer, don’t we? It is our sinful flesh that makes us think that conformity is better and that it is the road to happiness.

The pleasures conformity brings are temporary – the joys that transformation brings are eternal.

Don’t be conformed – be transformed.