Romans 12:1-2
|
Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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. |
In this verse, Paul instructs his readers not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The verbs are in the same passive voice--"do not (allow yourself to be transformed [conformed to this world]). We allow it and participate in it, but God actively does it in us with our cooperation. It's His work. Most of the battle is in our thought life--that's where Satan can manipulate people toward his ends discreetly and invisibly. If he can distort our thoughts, our emotions, and our knowledge, then our behaviors and relationships will fall the way he wants them to. And even if he desn't manage to turn us to overt evil, a little bit of distorted thinking can neutralize us and render us practically ineffective. Human thinking is ground zero in this war., and if we haven't been diligent to fill our minds with God's truth and operate out of what he teaches us, we lose. The helmet of salvation guards the most influential organ in the invisible wart. --Chip Ingram; The Invisible War; page 133
|
Joshua 1:8
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Philippians 2:5
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper.
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Philippians 2:5
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper.
Mark Noll famously stated, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” Sadly, rooted thinking, even within the church, has fallen on hard times. We’re more concerned with how we feel than how we think. The Bible, however, makes it clear that renewing our mind is indispensable to growing in grace (Ro. 12:1-2; Eph. 4:22-24). God’s Word provides us a worldview that enables us to see life from a Godward perspective. We may not be able to do a lot in a book like Judges, but there are weighty truths about God, man, and our need for a Righteous King that have profound implications for how we think and live as the people of God. --Micah Colbert;Rooted Thinking
|
"Because we have been so willing to accommodate the message of the Bible to the limitations of contemporary culture, the modern world does not regard the church as a threat; I suspect that it regards us as merely boring. We are giving the modern world less and less in which to disbelieve because it senses no difference between what the church is saying and what is being said by a variety of secular voices. Thus, the modern world is not called up actively to decide for or against the church, because it sees so little against which to take a stand. The world which once imprisoned our Christian ancestors now responds to an utterly enculturated church with mere indifference." (Shaped by the Bible. Christian Today).
|
“Reasonable” is the Greek logikos, from which we derive our word “logical,” and “service” is the Greek latreian, referring to service as a priest. We have been made “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5), and it is perfectly logical that we render such lifelong service.
Some translations use the words "true worship" in place of "reasonable service." They essentially both mean the same: Your logical service is also the definition of true worship: to submit to Him as a sacrifice.
Instead of the world and culture around us, fix your attention on God. Your spirit will be renewed from the inside and will readily be clear on the outside. You will then be able to understand what He wants from you and respond. The world will continually drag
you down but God will bring out the best in you. We need not be a product of the system. We live in the system, but are not a product of it. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
An ideological virus is infecting minds with the belief that if someone disagrees with you, they are oppressing and threatening you. The popular belief that a differing perspective needs to be combated with a hateful response is resulting in division and false feelings of validation.The Bible tells us to battle the virus by not becoming “conformed to the patterns of this world. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19).
Our mind is renewed through training in wisdom and meditation upon the Word of God,
Thomas Scheck’s translation, in Origen: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 6-10 [Volume 2, Book 9, chapter 1, section 12, p. 196]; commenting on Romans 12:2; published by The Catholic University of America Press, 2002: Our mind is renewed through training in wisdom and meditation upon the Word of God, and the spiritual interpretation of his law. And to the extent it makes daily progress by reading the Scriptures, to the extent that its understanding goes deeper, to that extent it becomes continuously new and daily new. I do not know if anyone can be renewed who is lazy in respect to the Holy Scriptures and training in spiritual understanding, by which it becomes possible not only to understand what has been written, but also to explain more clearly and to reveal more carefully.
CONFORMED="summorphos: in the greek and mean similar, conformed by sharing the same inner essence-identity (form) showing similar behavior from having the same essential nature. Jointly formed. To change into another form
TRANSFORMED="metamorphoó" in the greek and mean change, I transform, transfigured.
RENEWING-"anakainoó" in the greek and mean I renew or make new again....to be changed into a new kind of life, opposed to the former.
Some translations use the words "true worship" in place of "reasonable service." They essentially both mean the same: Your logical service is also the definition of true worship: to submit to Him as a sacrifice.
Instead of the world and culture around us, fix your attention on God. Your spirit will be renewed from the inside and will readily be clear on the outside. You will then be able to understand what He wants from you and respond. The world will continually drag
you down but God will bring out the best in you. We need not be a product of the system. We live in the system, but are not a product of it. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
An ideological virus is infecting minds with the belief that if someone disagrees with you, they are oppressing and threatening you. The popular belief that a differing perspective needs to be combated with a hateful response is resulting in division and false feelings of validation.The Bible tells us to battle the virus by not becoming “conformed to the patterns of this world. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19).
Our mind is renewed through training in wisdom and meditation upon the Word of God,
Thomas Scheck’s translation, in Origen: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 6-10 [Volume 2, Book 9, chapter 1, section 12, p. 196]; commenting on Romans 12:2; published by The Catholic University of America Press, 2002: Our mind is renewed through training in wisdom and meditation upon the Word of God, and the spiritual interpretation of his law. And to the extent it makes daily progress by reading the Scriptures, to the extent that its understanding goes deeper, to that extent it becomes continuously new and daily new. I do not know if anyone can be renewed who is lazy in respect to the Holy Scriptures and training in spiritual understanding, by which it becomes possible not only to understand what has been written, but also to explain more clearly and to reveal more carefully.
CONFORMED="summorphos: in the greek and mean similar, conformed by sharing the same inner essence-identity (form) showing similar behavior from having the same essential nature. Jointly formed. To change into another form
TRANSFORMED="metamorphoó" in the greek and mean change, I transform, transfigured.
RENEWING-"anakainoó" in the greek and mean I renew or make new again....to be changed into a new kind of life, opposed to the former.
|
When you are shaped into the pattern of the world, you will eventually look like the world and the ways of the world rub off on you.
The pattern of this world is ungodly. The devil who is the ‘god’ of this world has created an ungodly atmosphere that leads people to sin. His aim in creating such an ungodly atmosphere is to make people follow such unholy patterns leading to sin. You can never get God’s best when you conform to this world because you will always settle for less compared to what God has prepared for you (I Corinthians 2:9-10). As Christians, we must be sensitive to the atmosphere around us recognizing who we are in Christ, have love for God, and reject the ungodly lifestyle the devil might want to force on us daily. If you conform to the standard of the world, you will not experience God’s will and desires for your life. For the things of this world are temporary. [SOURCE: Christian Walls} |
The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make.
What is necessary is that we have a renewed mind, that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This is very different from constantly trying to hear God’s voice saying do this and do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync with Romans 12:2. There is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that discerns how to apply God’s Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does not require transformation. God’s aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and judging, not just new information. His aim is that we be transformed, sanctified, freed by the truth of his revealed Word (John 8:32; 17:17). So the second stage of God’s will of command is the discerning application of the Scriptures to new situations in life by means of a renewed mind. [SOURCE: John Piper} |
To discover God's plan, all you have to do is ask. The Bible says that "if any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you" (James 1:5). When we ask God for wisdom, His desires will become the focus of our prayers. "Let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to Him" (Romans 12:2).
Unless what I believe inwardly in my mind actually influences the way I behave outwardly in the world, my life will lack integrity. We need not be a product of the system. We live in the system, but are not a product of it. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
The influence of world culture on Christian beliefs is insidious. It is much like that old Southern adage about boiling a frog—you start out in lukewarm water and turn it up gradually. The frog will boil to death without realizing it is happening. Even in Paul’s time this was an issue, and he is addressing it in this verse. This is difficult to discern at times when much of what God says in His Word is anti-world culture, thereby anti-human nature. Therefore Christians have to stay close to God’s Word, renewing their minds, so that they can distinguish the difference between the two. Otherwise we run the risk of being lost in a sea of lukewarm water, languishing placidly amongst truths. When the tide shifts, these truths will be shuffled around in life’s waves. If we haven’t secured our minds onto the only steady and perfect truth of God’s Word, we will find ourselves in the deep waters of conformity, drowning in the sea of half-truths and deception. As the psalmist sang in Psalm 119:104, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”--Love Everlasting |
The Rev. Chip Ingram, a best-selling author and radio personality, wrote a book called, “Culture Shock.” In his book, he states, “Traditional values have been increasingly abandoned as our culture has moved toward moral relativism, individual self-centeredness, personal happiness, instant gratification, tolerance, personal comfort, and the right to make choices that serve one’s self-interest above the interest of others.” In reflecting upon the daily news reports I see, I have come to the conclusion we are in great need of a spiritual revival in our nation. Our culture is in transition and it isn’t for the good. Is it time for those of us who say we are Christians, or Christ-followers, to examine our lives and see if we have embraced the morals and values of our culture, rather than those in the Word of God? The Bible has admonished us in Romans 12:2, “not to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold.” This Scripture always reminds me of the story of the frog. You put a frog in a pot of hot water and it will hop right out. If you put a frog in cool water and gradually turn the heat up, you can cook the frog to death. The frog was desensitized. It seems we too are being desensitized, and maybe embracing the values of the culture around us, rather than allowing God to mold us according to His Word. -Dr. Claudia Brantley
|