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Sunday 03/23/25
Title: Don’t conform, Transform!
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Don’t conform, Transform!
Last week we summed up the parables we had been examining spotlighting Jesus’ actual audience and intentions with those parables, We discovered that they were spoken to and about the Lost Sheep of the house of Israel. This means that they were NOT about lost people who are not in covenant with God, but rather those who WERE in covenant with God, but were mistaken as to the person and work of Messiah when He came. They needed to repent – that is, change their minds about their expectations of Who the Christ would be and what He was initially coming to accomplish.
The FRUIT Jesus was looking for in the Jewish people of His day was FAITH!
You remember the answer to the question posed to Jesus once, “What must we do to accomplish the works of God?” To which Jesus replied, “This IS the work of God, to believe on Him Whom He sent.” [John 6:28-29]
From there we considered how God has always had this as His primary method of operation. He has always sought to draw those who were truly lost, through the fruit of those who were in covenant with Him.
When the New Covenant was established through the death of Jesus, this method did not change. This is why SO MUCH emphasis is placed upon bearing the fruit of the character of Christ in our lives throughout the New Testament.
So in short it both is and always has been about bearing fruit.
So it was that Peter encouraged his fellow Christians to bend every effort in adding to their “faith, patience and to patience, intuitive knowledge and to intuitive knowledge, self control into some control, godliness and the godliness, brotherly love and a brotherly love, unselfish love”.
He told us if these things are ours… truly, truly ours and if they are continually increasing their production in our lives then we will not be barren or unfruitful in our intimate knowledge and Union with Jesus Christ and so a abundant entrance will be opened up to us into the Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord.
We closed by introducing our new focus for a while which is the mind. It is the one part of us that is engaged in all of the things Peter mentioned.
So that is where we are turning our attention today.
Let’s begin by turning to Romans 12:1-2 which is our starting point this morning.
As you are turning I will refresh your memory with a re-reading of the first two passages we read regarding the mind last week.
Holding our minds in obedience to Christ
2 Corinthians 10,
“(1) Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. (2) But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. (4) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (5) casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
If you are truly risen with Christ, then Set your minds on things above not on things of the earth.
Setting our minds
Colossians 3
“(1) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Have you arrived at Romans 12:1-2 yet?
“(1) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,”
Both the word “beseech” and the words “by the mercies of God” are all due to what Paul had just addressed in chapter 11.
Paul had just laid before these Romans believers the turn about in the directional flow of God the Father’s will for the living and proclamation of the Gospel. As we said last week when looking at some of the parables of Jesus, God had been grooming Israel not only to recognize and accept their Messiah when He came, but also to be THE evangelistic force of the Gospel to the world. When the Jewish nation as a whole failed to recognize and place their faith in Jesus, Paul, under the direction of the Father and by the Spirit turned to the Gentiles. Chapter 11:25 says,
“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
This, Paul says a few verses later, was an expression of the wisdom and the mercy of God.
So Romans 12:1 starts off with “I beg you therefore” or “In light of this, I urge you Gentiles” BY the aforementioned mercy God has shown you.
The depth of Paul’s pleading was multifaceted. He loved the Gentiles to whom God had called him. So that would have been reason enough.
Secondly, Paul was frustrated with the stiffnecked nature of his Jewish brethren in their unwillingness to be convinced that Jesus was the Christ and that Messiah’s mission had ALWAYS been to FIRST redeem His people from their sins – NOT their natural enemies! So Paul did not want the Gentiles to repeat the same egregious sin he had endured from his Jewish brethren.
Thirdly, Paul loved God and darn it… God deserved to have a people who would respond to Him in faith. Honor His Son and live a life of conformity to Him having forsaken their former lives in the world.
THAT is the basis for his words here!
So it is that Paul pleads with them to
“present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Some translations have “which is your spiritual worship”. Both are appropriate and accurate.
The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic.
“(2) 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.”
Conformed – means to fashion after. To conform to the outward appearance of something. The idea is not dissimilar to being in a clay in a mold – so some amount of external pressure is silently suggested.
The grammar of the Greek here leans equally in two different directions but does not alter the overall meaning. The most natural understanding is that this conforming is predominately a passive action which it nearly has to be in most, sincere Christians. It denotes a conformity through exposure – a slow erosion if you will. It does not dismiss the possibility of this being “passively permissive”, and therefore both should be understood.
Transformed – as many of you know by now is the Greek word metamorphoo from which we naturally get the word metamorphosis. So rather than an outward molding into the likeness of something else by pressure, it is a natural transformation that begins from within. It is an externally witnessed maturation into something you already are internally.
These cannot be any more distinct and conflicting. One compels you by pressure from without to conform to the world around you. The other is both a pushing and a drawing simultaneously for us to yield to a natural process of transformation where we move from infancy – through adolescence into maturity. It IS the transforming work of glorification spoken of in Romans 8:30.
The J.B.Phillips translation draws this out…
Romans 12:1-2, (J.B. Phillips)
“(1) With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. (2) Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”
Now as to the words renewing the mind.
The word “Renew” could be translated as renovate. It is a renewing or renovation which makes a person qualitatively different than they were in the past.
Renewing the mind is here said to be the pathway to proving God’s will. By proving it literally means testing so as to learn and finally agree with God’s perfect will.
In short it simply means to reprogram your mind to discern God’s will and approve of it – make it your own by living it out.
This is also taught in James 1, so turn to James 1:13 and as you are turning I will read this passage in the Weymouth translation because I think it bears down on key points which this translation does not.
Romans 12:1-2, (Weymouth) “(1) I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him. This with you will be an act of reasonable worship. (2) And do not follow the customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what God’s will is–that will which is good and beautiful and perfect.”
From the beginning of James’ letter he has encouraged these believers regarding the purpose of temptation and the reward for not succumbing. The purpose was to steal the word of God sown in the heart by drawing you away to other desires. It is literally a step-by-step teaching of the progression of the thorny heart in Jesus’ parable of the heart soils. The reward is LIFE. When due to our love for Christ as He has been revealed to us, we overcome temptations, we are rewarded or honored by coming to know Him more thoroughly and intimately. Even as the passage said, “receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to all who love Him.”
As to the power to overcome temptation, that is where the mind comes in as we will see in verses 13-27.
James 1:13-27,
“(13) Let no one say when he is tempted,
“I am tempted by God”;
for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
(14) But each one is tempted WHEN HE IS DRAWN AWAY by his own desires and enticed.
(15) Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
(16) DO NOT BE DECEIVED, my beloved brethren.
(17) EVERY GOOD GIFT and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
(18) Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, THAT WE MIGHT BE A KIND OF FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS CREATURES.
[KEY VERSE] (19) So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
(20) for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
(21) Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
The word “meekness” here is an interesting Greek word for which Aristotal of all people has some words of clarification.
He said that this “meekness” is the middle standing between two extremes, getting angry without reason (orgilótēs[n.f.]), and not getting angry at all (aorgēsía[n.f.]).
Therefore, this word translated as “meekness” is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, and for the right reason.
This word is not readily expressed in English since the term “meekness” suggests weakness. But this is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness, but in power.
In short it is a balance born in strength of character.
As such when used in the Gospel as James does now, it means an attitude of spirit by which believers accept God’s dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist.
It is to be inwardly resolved to accept with teachableness, the instructions of God with a gentle heart which is willing to yield and strong to act!
Thus the next words James uses…
“(22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
(23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
(25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Peter would say, if fruit is really and truly in their lives and continues to be produced…etc.
“(26) If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.
(27) Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and
to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
Now with that under our belts let’s circle back to Romans 12 where we began and we will read that passage once more from the Wuest translation which really draws together all we have looked at this morning.
Romans 12:1-2, (Wuest) “(1) I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the instrumentality of the aforementioned mercies of God, by a once-for-all presentation to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service. (2) And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind, resulting in your putting to the test what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing and complete will, and having found that it meets specifications, place your approval upon it.”
Blessings!
Tri
