“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.” Romans 12:2
February 10, 2023
It is of vital importance to understand that the Christian faces many difficulties in seeking to live for Christ. Challenges to the Christian faith come in various forms. Paul wants believers to know how to die while living. Living sacrifices are what we are to be. We are to be at God’s complete disposal. At the same time we are not to be poured into the world’s mold. By world is meant all the unbelief operating at the present time through institutions, literature, the media, entertainment, and so on. It is all that is untouched by the Word of God. The world has its own set of values, what is considered to be the meaning of life, priorities, what we might say is a way of looking at things. There is unrelenting pressure on the Christian to think in a way which is contrary to how God wants us to think. The Message (a paraphrase) puts it this way: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” Worldliness is acceptance of theories of human origins and the origin of the universe which leaves God out. It can also be a kind of “middleism” which tries to find an acceptable compromise with popular anti-biblical thought. Worldliness is the substitution of emotional persuasion in the place of the Word of God. Worldliness is the attempt to deny human sinfulness by blaming our problems on social conditions. It is the belief that everyone has their own truth. It is the persuasion that a marriage that doesn’t work out well sometimes has to be ended by divorce. Thank God, conformity to the world can be overcome.
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“Lord Jesus, I desperately need the discernment to know what the world is commanding me to think and how you want me to think. Give me the grace to be strong-minded with truth, no matter what the cost.”