A series of essays challenging us to renew our minds.
“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.” (Rom. 12:1-2)
Introduction
We certainly live in chaotic times. The influx of post-modernism, political correctness, social media, and covert surveillance and data tracking have resulted in a breakdown in our peace of mind, our ethics, and our belief in the future. The thinking and morality of most of us have been torn from the foundations we once thought were unchangeable, and have been cast on a turbulent sea of public opinion where they are judged and punished instantly if they do not conform to the ever changing culturally accepted norms.
What is a thoughtful Christian to do in the face of such attacks, overt and covert? Scripture doesn’t leave us confused or wanting in this important matter.
The command given in these verses is more timely and important than ever before. It is a call for us to align our thinking and our lives with the unchangeable and eternal values of our Creator. Our adherence to this command will require great courage in the face of all the obstacles we face.
In this series of essays we will explore this command, our responsibility in the face of it. We will explore what it means to renew our thinking in an age of propaganda, social media, and a general apathy in the church today for the things of the mind. So let’s begin.
Context
These verses come at the end of the first eleven chapters of Romans. These initial 11 chapters are Paul’s formal teaching on doctrine. As he often does in his writing, once Paul is finished with his formal doctrinal teaching he begins to make practical application of those doctrines to the life of the Christian.
He begins by reminding the reader that because of the mercies God has shown him, he should now offer his whole being as a living sacrifice to God, being conformed to God’s will and not to the manners, customs, and thinking of the world.
What are these mercies God has shown us? If we look back in the book of Romans we will see that God has given us justification, salvation, and sanctification. Why has He given us these great gifts? Is it because we are so deserving? Is it because we made some kind of a decision? No, He gave us these mercies out of His grace and His love for His elect. We see then that Paul is bringing the discussion around to our motivation for our devotion to God.
When we realize what God has done for us, giving us pardon before the seat of judgment, giving us purity in our lives, and the prospect of eternal life with Him, our only response can be humble devotion and gratitude for these mercies. We love and serve God because He has done so much for us.
So with this understanding and attitude Paul begins to explain what this means for our daily lives. He calls us to present ourselves completely to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, because this is our reasonable service to the God Who has done so much for us.
Does this sacrifice thing remind you of anything? Some have linked this call to sacrifice to the Old Testament sacrifices made by the Jews in the Temple. In so doing they would limit this call on our lives to our worship only. Is this all Paul has in mind here?
While our worship is certainly in Paul’s mind here, verse 2 immediately broadens the application of what Paul is saying with regards to our expected service to the God Who has saved us.
Paul writes, “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.”
Not only is God to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth, as required in verse 1, but there must also be a corresponding holiness in all of our lives. (see also Col. 3:17;23; 1Cor. 10:31)
What is Paul calling for in this verse? What is he commanding us to do? It is clear from this verse that there are two ways of living our lives, or two ways of orienting our thinking. The first is to live a life or have a mind that is conformed to this world.
What does it mean to be conformed to something? Webster’s defines conform as: “To be in accord or harmony; to comply; to be obedient; to submit.” In other words, there are men with lives and minds that are in harmony with, obedient to, or in submission to this world.
Then there are men whose lives and minds have been renewed. The word translated here in verse 2 as renew means to renovate. How many of you have renovated a house? What did you do to renovate that building? Renovation usually means that we completely make over the house, bringing it up to date, installing new wires, plumbing, and fixtures, and so forth.
This is what we are going to talk about in this series of essays- our call to renew or renovate our minds, to change them from minds that are conformed to this world, to minds that are conformed to God and His word. This is not an easy task, and it is not an easy thing to talk about.
There are lots of implications to what it means to renew our minds. There are lots of things that fight against us doing what we are called to do here in Romans. This is a big challenge for us, one that will occupy us until the day we face our Lord.
In the face of such a challenge many Christians just pack in the towel and never begin to deal with what is called for here in these verses. It all seems too daunting, too difficult, or too complicated.
“Why can’t I just get along in life, do my best, and let God sort it all out in the end? Why do I have to worry about this stuff? Why do I have to concern myself with it? Why do I have to think?”
As I said, this is the point at which most Christians freeze and give up. I would like to challenge you over the coming weeks to get beyond this point. To see and understand why these matters are so important, and why we must engage in this process of renewing our minds.
To help begin to stimulate your thinking along these lines here are some questions for you to ponder: Why do so many of our fellow Christians react in this way? Why do so many Christians in our day fail to understand the necessity of sanctifying the mind? Is God really concerned with our minds and how we think? Why is anti-intellectualism so valued in modern Evangelicalism? Is this attitude really something taught in Scripture? Are we being elitist when we call for Christians to improve or just use their minds? What does it mean to think Christianly, to have a Christian Mind? What does it mean to love God with our minds? What does Scripture mean when it tells us to have the mind of Christ?
Next time we will look at an example from Scripture of mind renewal and then discuss the nature of the problem in the church today.
