Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (ESV)
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Or, in The Message version, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Author of The Message, Eugene Peterson translates conformation as, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” But how much of conformity is active vs. responsive?
When we are small children (like my amazing granddaughter Beth, who has only been in this world for six months) we conform without the knowledge that we are conforming. Her dad claps, she claps. Her mom laughs, she learns to laugh. She conforms to the world she knows, sees, and experiences.
But as we get older our minds start cataloging what is going on around us. Some things we simply accept as norms that we are comfortable conforming to, while at the same time we may have internal angst about situations, culture, choices, attitudes, and perspectives that we are sensing around us.
It takes time for us to understand why these things are not easy to conform to, or perhaps we just flat-out reject them because some internal meter in us is saying it isn’t right.
Conformity
Merriam-Webster says conformity is: “correspondence in form, manner, or character; an agreement” and “action in accordance with some specified standard, authority, or social custom.”
At some point we start defining what we agree to and what we disagree with.
An agreement. At some point we start defining what we agree to and what we disagree with. Even this can be affected by the structures around us as we are growing up.
We live around people who span the spectrum from accepting, to critical thinkers, to negative anarchists. Yet God has uniquely wired each one of us with our own internal meter that is sensing, thinking, analyzing, and developing an agreement or disagreement with thousands of factors, ideas, principles, and values practically every moment we are awake.
What am I conforming to?
A valid question that should be asked on a regular basis: what am I conforming to? What am I agreeing to? What have I become so well-adjusted to that I do it without even thinking?
Those types of questions actually make me a little nervous to ask. I think I know that all the time I am making choices and decisions that conform to what the world has told me I need, I want, I desire, and to have to reflect on this may mean I have to give something up. Something I am attached to. Something I perhaps desire more than godliness.
If I become a non-conformist, what does that mean? Well, it has a personal implication: I have to give up things that my flesh and mind have grown to like, love, and accept. That is not easy.
We are all worried about being whipped by the world.
It also means that I may have to be seen by others as giving up something or making a choice that is different from those around me. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “For nonconformity, the world whips you with its displeasure.” I think we are all worried about being whipped by the world, made fun of, feeling different, being judged, feeling small. No fun.
But another truth also exists. John Piper said, “We are perfectly useless as Christ-exalting Christians if all we do is conform to the world around us.” My conformity to this world makes decision-making easier but does not foster critical thinking, spiritual searching, or conviction-based living.
This is where, in my inner being, I don’t really love conformity, it just seems easy. What I believe I long for, what we all long for, is transformation.
Transformation
Merriam-Webster on transformation: “a change in composition or structure; to change in outward form or appearance; to change in character or condition.”
Let’s go back to Eugene Peterson's paraphrase: “Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Culture drags you down to its level of immaturity.
That’s right. Culture drags you down to its level of immaturity. Sometimes we get glimpses of this. It is like our eyes are opened to reality and we shake our heads and think, “What in the world is going on? What am I agreeing to? What am I supporting? Why am I reading this, listening to this, or watching this?
What am I doing to myself, my soul, my mind, my heart by conforming to these things?” It’s not right and I don’t know how to change. Or perhaps I do know how to change, but it feels so painful that I simply don’t want to.
Here is where the beauty of the gospel truth shows up and provides the needed elements for transformation to take place. By myself, I’m stuck. I’ll conform to the worst of all things if that seems comfortable and brings me the applause of men.
If I am going to change... it has to take something beyond me.
If I am going to change and if my composition or structure is going to change so that my outward appearance and my character change, it has to take something beyond me.
Paul says, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” What does it take for our minds to be renewed?
- N.T. Wright: “The renewal of the mind is not just about thinking different thoughts, but about developing a whole new way of seeing the world and seeing it from God’s perspective rather than the world’s.”
- Dallas Willard: “The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow our minds to dwell upon.”
- John Stott: “The mind is the key to transformation. As we allow God’s Word to change our thinking, our attitudes and actions will follow. The renewed mind is one that is progressively conformed to Christ’s mind.”
Renewal of a mind that has been affected by sin takes something more than a sinful person choosing or working to transform their own mind. It takes something external, powerful, and sovereign.
It takes personal humility and submission.
It takes personal humility and submission to the one who has the power to forgive, sanctify, justify, and redeem. It takes a willingness to release who we think we are and what we want, and to learn, understand, and conform to the image of Christ.
Transformation of the mind is a Christ-empowered act of humble submission so that conformity is shaped by him and not by the world. When that begins to take place, our appetites change, our internal meter starts changing.
We realize and take delight in new things. We become increasingly comfortable not conforming to bad standards, to immature worldly pursuits. Our eyes become lifted, the fog begins to clear, we start seeing life in new ways.
The transformation of a renewed mind brings freedom we never knew existed.
The transformation of a renewed mind brings freedom we never knew existed. It is extremely difficult to conceive that what we think is freedom is actually bondage. True freedom is revolutionary.
True freedom is joyful and energizing and life-giving in ways that are eternal and lasting, not temporal and fleeting. How do we embrace transformation and find this elusive freedom?
- Immerse in Scripture
- Spend time in prayer and listening
- Spend time reflecting and sauntering
- Identify and replace immature worldly practices with elevated godly character
- Ask tough questions of yourself and weed out the areas of conformity
- Guard your inputs
- Live in community
- Act on what you know (obedience deepens transformation, James 1:22-25)
- Be patient with yourself
- Place full dependence on the Holy Spirit
Sin and the world are your captors, freedom awaits. The bonds can be broken and transformation is possible.
My prayer for us — Father, strengthen us today to humbly submit ourselves to you. Renew our minds through the power of your Holy Spirit. Transform us so that we will conform to the image of Christ. Father, grant us eyes to see the captivity of our sin, and to realize we are no longer bound by it, for you have loosened the chains, opened the gates, and set us free. Empower us to accept, receive, and live in the freedom of new minds, new passions, and new life for your glory. Amen.
Originally published on Michael VanHuis' Substack. Republished with permission.
Michael VanHuis has served with Missio Nexus since September of 2015 and as Executive Director since September of 2023. His ministry and leadership experience includes field service in Ghana, West Africa with Pioneers; operational leadership at both Pioneers and OneWay Ministries; serving as the missions pastor at Northland Church in Longwood, Florida; and managing a private family foundation. At Missio Nexus, Michael advises mission agencies and churches, oversees research initiatives and leads organizational strategy and staff development. He holds a Master’s in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
