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Romans 12-says, “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,” it means like-shaped, formed, fashioned, molded, compliant, and to act in accord with prevailing standards.
Why be not conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind? Because it is then and only then that, “you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
We are putting the cart before the horse. We are automatically equating obedience with God’s will. Well, we will have absolutely no idea what God’s will even is, unless we spend some time allow Him to renew our minds and transform us. Without that key piece of the puzzle, all we are going to be doing is obeying all the worldly things that already shape our views and manipulate our behavior.
We are often packed with lies and deceptions. We need to get rid of the lies in order to see more clearly so that we know what we are supposed to be obeying. He came to set the captives free and whom the Son sets free is free indeed! We are often captive to lies that we obey. Preaching obey more does not solve that problem.
My lament today is how a myriad of churches and pastors, all across the political spectrum, seem to promptly want to preach about the need for compliance and obedience. “Compliance” runs the full gamut, from one end of the spectrum to the other. They might be preaching about the need to be compliant regarding gay marriage and the transagenda, or as one pastor recently proclaimed, hospitality towards these ideas is mandatory. Or you can go in the other direction and just listen to JMac’s sermon #2943 on, wives submit.
Both hospitality and submission are good things! That is not my point at all, my point is that we are so busy these days teaching obedience, conformity, compliance, and mandates, I’m fairly convinced we are now living in a world where a good chunk of Christians have no idea how to even stand on their own two feet and think for themselves.
And of course, we people are partly responsible for this problem too, because if you do not ever have to think for yourself, you do not ever have to be held accountable, either. Everyone is always, “just following orders.” It’s not my fault, I just passively sat back for 20 years and let other people rule over me.
Be not conformed! And gosh yes, that’s going to wind up looking a whole lot like disobedience. Since when did faith become all about looking good??
See, there's this thing called biology... 
“Be not conformed!” Indeed. Jesus wasn’t a conformist in the midst of corruption. John 2:13-16
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Right?! He may have been obedient to the Father if we wish to use that kind of analogy, but he wasn’t obedient to people around Him and civil authorities.
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He was obedient (though uncompromising in his message) towards the Roman authorities to a greater extent than to the temple theocrats… .
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Well said❤️
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Thank you, Kathy. 🙂
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Or, as Bob Dylan put it, “You’re gonna serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord …” But as Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters.” I believe the key word is “discernment.” When you decide to obey God, it means you’re going to disobey the world.
(P.S. Those two quotes were not in order of importance!)
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Yep, discernment is key. I think part of the problem in the Western church, is that we’ve been popular as Christians and culturally favored for most of our history. There was at least some superficial overlap between obeying God and obeying the culture around us. That comfort has created a lot of complacency, a lot of compliance with all the wrong things.
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Exactly! The lack of persecution has not necessarily been an all-positive thing.
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Did’nt that advice result in a crucifixtion a while ago? signed off by the religious authorities, too. The folk running churches are just the politicians in another government, aren’t they? Something too many wish overlooked, rendering reminders a service!
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Exactly! Well said.
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It is Jesus who Himself proclaimed ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”
What was Paul’s mission? “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,”
And Peter weighed in: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
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Reblogged this on clydeherrin.
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Thank you, Clyde. Much appreciated.
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One thing needs to be made clear. What does it mean to spend some time to allow Him to renew our minds and transform us? God speaks to us through His Bible. We need to study the Bible. We also need to pray and contemplate what we need to do — how we need to live — to be in the Will of God. That includes praying for wisdom.
What does doubting look like? Well, if we are not making a serious effort to study the Bible, we are doubting the Word of God. So, we are not going to get much out of the Bible.
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We do need to study the Bible, Tom! The thing about the Bible is that it offers us many layers of wisdom. It is not like an IRS manual where you can read what goes on line 14 and be done with it. It is easy to obey an IRS manual or a list of rules somewhere. It is not so easy to become familiar with the nature of God, so you have some idea of what His will is.
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That is an interesting question. Is the Bible or an IRS manual more confusing? My guess is that IRS manuals are generally much more confusing.
The Bible is oddly layered, as you put it. And some parts don’t make much sense without considerable study. Nevertheless, almost anyone can understand and express the basic message after they have read it one time.
Almost nobody can even read the entire IRS code. If our tax situation allows to get by by just reading one simple manual, that is something of a blessing. In fact, some people worry about making too much money because our government sometimes removes benefits and penalizes us for making more money. That is absurdity counter-intuitive. Why would the people we elect want to punish us for making more money?
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NPR Christians and Trust-the-Science Christians and Offend-No-one-Ever Christians and Love-the Zionist-Agenda-Unconditionally Christians are all questionable . . . and possibly not Christian at all. Or at least they increasingly appear as Churchianity Lite.
Not to mention the Name It/Claim It crowd. Then again, perhaps I am wrong on the last one and God IS from Tulsa, OK. ☺
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Obedience to worldly authorities is one of those Christian duties that should be done halfheartedly at best, with a healthy dose of skepticism. I believe this is true, even when I’m the authority. Some authority figures don’t understand this concept, hence the utter fixation some pastors and husbands have with “wives submit.” They just can’t understand why independent humans with minds capable of reasoning shouldn’t be 100% compliant.
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Very true, Jill. Submission is a wonderful thing! Do we not “submit one to another” so as to treat one another kindly and to communicate better? I think we do to some extent, to varying degrees of course, but that’s the general idea.
Submission is more about being hospitable, charitable, and not making yourself as small as possible so other people might feel better about themselves.
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Amen! J.
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Jesus says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15–17
We are called to obedience to keep Jesus commands. We can do so because we have a Helper, the Holy Spirit.
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