Don’t conform to this world. [Ro 12.2]

Romans 12.2 KJV

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.

Paul of Tarsus spent the first part of Romans explaining salvation and how it works. Once done, he encouraged the Romans to live a proper Christian lifestyle. This verse is part of his advice.

Christians love to quote it. Not always for good reason.

A number of Christians presume we already are transformed. Our minds were renewed when we came to Jesus, and we have the mind of Christ now. Don’t need to persue the good, acceptable, perfect will of God anymore; we already have it. We think like he does! Or, he thinks like we do—it’s all the same. They quote this verse to remind one another: “We’re different!”

Other Christians, namely in the United States, love to imagine ourselves as countercultural. Even though our country is predominantly, overtly Christian. But they love to imagine themselves as an oppressed minority, because it makes ’em feel like the martyrs of Roman times; it makes ’em feel righteous. For them, they’re definitely not conformed to this world—it’s out to get them, and their children, and make them “woke” or something. So they quote this verse to remind one another: “Be different.”

Then there’s the Christians who recognize they’re not an oppressed minority; who recognize we’re not countercultural at all—we are the culture. And annoyingly, the worst parts of Christianity prevail; the hypocritical parts, where everybody’s pretending to be devout and righteous and good, but our crime rates and internet browser histories prove we’re statistically no different than pagans. So they try to stand apart from the crowd of Christianists, and be Christ-followers: The world may be going to hell, but they follow Jesus. As best they can, anyway. And also quote this verse to remind one another, “Be different.”

So which sort are you? Because all three of these groups are wrong in a number of ways, and still need to renew their minds.

Conform to Christ Jesus.

Jesus expects his followers to interact with the world. To not completely withdraw from it—otherwise we won’t be able to effectively share the gospel with other people. We gotta be in the world. We just gotta avoid being of the world: Don’t let popular culture, whether pagan-predominant or even Christian-predominant, determine our actions. Follow Jesus instead.

The way to do this, is follow this verse. Don’t automatically, unthinkingly, copy people’s behaviors and customs. The people of this world, Christians included, don’t always know what they’re doing, nor why. They presume, “I already do think the right way,” find a crowd of like-minded people in their hometowns or on the internet, join that crowd, and follow the crowd. Any crowd is a path of least resistance.

They do this, not because they’re following Jesus, although that’s what we all tell ourselves. They do this because it confirms what they already think. It’s not a challenge! In fact if anyone in their newly adopted group does challenge them, rightly or wrongly, they’ll shun that challenger; they’ll even leave, and go find another group which won’t challenge them. Why do you think so many Christians can’t find a church to call their own? Because they’re still looking for one which caters to them in every way.

All these Christians will look pious on the outside, but of course they’re still following themselves instead of Jesus. They’re not pursuing his good and perfect will; they’re pursuing their own. They’re doing whatever looks holy, feels holy, passes for “righteous” to ourselves and others, gains the approval of the Christians in our crowd, and ideally also grants us financial and material comfort. They’ve not always asked, “What does God think about all this?” because they presume they know already, and he’s cool with it. Isn’t our material comfort an obvious sign of his blessing?

But in the initial stages of conforming to God, we should naturally be uncomfortable. We’re challenging our own selfishness, and our selfish human nature is gonna fight this! It’s gonna try to get us to compromise God’s perfect will—“Look, you can follow him this way, and you’re still technically following him, and you’re still comfortable.” I’ve been following Jesus for five decades and my own conscience still tries to trip me up this way. Sometimes succeeds. We gotta stay vigilant.

Let God challenge you. Start asking him what he thinks; keep asking him what he thinks. Read what he’s already said in the scriptures. Look at what Jesus teaches in the gospels. Look at the world through his lens: Look at the sinners whom he loves, and wants to rescue and forgive. Look at the sin damage he wants to repair. Look at what’s wrong in ourselves, and consider how he might fix those things.

Be skeptical of all the knee-jerk reactions we so frequently have. That’s not the Spirit of God giving you a check—“Hold up there, little Christian; you’re going astray.” That’s your flesh, rebelling against something that inconveniences you: “I don’t wanna give an extra $50 to this ministry; I need that because the new edition of my favorite game is about to drop.” We gotta be unflinchingly honest about our own selfishness. What’s really offended us, or made us embrace the views we hold dear? Is any of it based on God? Or are we just whitewashing our depravity, disguising it as wisdom, and fooling ourselves into thinking we have the mind of Christ?

Yeah, this isn’t an easy process. It’s taken me decades, and I still have a lot of work ahead of me as I seek God’s will. But it has to be done. If I’m gonna be like Jesus, I gotta let him change the way I think, till it’s more Christ and less myself. You know that’s true for you too.

So that’s why this is such a useful verse to put in your brain: It’s the lifestyle of repentance which God calls every Christian to practice.