The apostle gives this
command by the Spirit of God in Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Believers in
Christ have been “delivered from this present evil world, the world is crucified
unto them and them unto the world, and are to love not the world.” Christ said,
“the world hates you because it hated me.” Though we are “in the world” we are
not “of the world.” For this reason we are not to be conformed to the worlds
religion, the worlds standard of morality, the worlds goals or the worlds favor.
No, he says, but “be ye transformed..” The Greek word here is the word we get
our word “metamorphosis” from. It is the word used to describe the
transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The transformation he speaks
of here is through “the renewing of your mind.” He is not talking about
regeneration or conversion which these believers had already experienced but the
renewing “of the spirit of your mind.” (Eph. 4:23) As Paul said to the
Corinthians, “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day
by day.” Someone has said, “we are what we eat.” Surely this is true in the
spiritual sense. This spiritual renewal of the mind is accomplished by the
continual hearing of the gospel, study and mediation on the word of God, prayer
to God and constant fellowship with God’s redeemed people. That which fills our
minds determines how we look at things, the attitude we have, how we respond to
God’s providence in our lives and how we see our standing before God. If Christ
“gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil
world, according to the will of God and our Father:,” then this is our
motivation to seek to know and do His revealed will. What we are to believe, how
we are to conduct ourselves before this world and how we are deal with God’s
people and providence are all in his word. Our minds are like a well, whatever
they’re filled with is what comes up in the bucket! Old unbelief creeps in, old
self-righteousness and old care and anxiety, all come slipping back and our
minds have to be renewed. O God, fill our minds with Christ, with the promises
of scripture which speak of His shed blood and imputed righteousness. Gospel
things renew our minds, transform us and move us to “prove” (demonstrate) that
“good, acceptable and perfect will of God.” “Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus… who humbled Himself and became obedient…”