Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
Have you ever wondered how it is that centipedes never
suffer from nervous breakdowns (not that we know of, anyway)? After all, they
have 100 legs, so how on earth do they make up their minds which ones to move
next? They must live with constant strain.
Probably you haven’t. But the reason for their ease of mind
is straightforward: getting their legs to move in the right rhythm is something
they’re “programmed” to do from birth. They just do “what comes naturally”, so
they don’t have to think or worry about it.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we humans were like that? – no
worries, just confident that we will only ever do what’s right.
Well, no actually.
For while human beings are animals in one sense, the fact
is that we are also a whole lot more, and many of the most important things we now
do without thinking are things we had to learn to do.
Certainly, we didn’t have to learn to laugh when we were
amused or to cry when we were distressed. But think… driving a car, or changing
a nappy, or playing a musical instrument, or reading a book, or cooking a meal,
or a million and one other things. For such activities or duties we needed to
be “programmed”, to use that same word again, and that can be anything but
easy. The programming is what we call teaching and training.
To live lives that please God is the same. Even if we would
genuinely like to do it, it is way, way beyond us; the best we can achieve is
paltry, and far short of anything approaching the perfection of God.
The apostle Paul focusses on this dilemma in Romans 12:2.
Speaking to people who are genuine Christians - people who have put their trust
in Christ and so found peace with God - he tells them that they are “not to CONform
to the pattern of this world…”, but to “be TRANSformed by the renewing
of your mind”. They are saved by God’s grace, no doubt about that: but that
doesn’t mean they don’t have hard work to do! Verse 2 is worth taking apart…
First, Do not conform to the pattern of this world.
In other words, don’t just go with the flow. By “the
pattern of this world” Paul means the prevailing customs and fleeting fashions
of the age we happen to be born into. The Message puts this well: Don’t become so well-adjusted to your
culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
How easily we do just that! Not
that absolutely everything about our culture is bad – of course not – but,
well, a lot is, and if we follow Jesus we should have nothing to do with it.
Not prudes – but prudent; not self-righteous – but Christlike; not
holier-than-thou – but simply holy.
Such denial is hard, for cultural practices suck us into
their grip like spiders into a web, without us even realising it’s happening.
Remember the two roads of which Jesus spoke: the broad way that leads to
destruction, and the narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14). The broad
road is for human centipedes...
Second, … but be transformed…
The people Jesus calls to follow him are called to become,
not nice people, or religious people, or well-behaved and law-abiding people –
but transformed people: nothing less! People fit for heaven; people who
not only have the Holy Spirit living in them, but who allow the Holy Spirit to
shape their opinions, habits and behaviour; people who are becoming daily more
like Jesus.
Third, … by the renewing of your mind…
How can such a transformation take place? By some kind of
intense religious experience? No. By gaining a verse-by-verse mastery of the
Bible? No. By extravagant acts of mercy and generosity, or breath-taking risks
of faith? No. It requires the submission of the mind to God. We learn to
think again, rather than trot out what we happened to read in the paper
or picked up on television or on line.
Over the years our minds, unguarded, become dumping grounds
for all manner of worthless nonsense, and a major clear-out is needed.
Go back to the centipedes. They have that wonderful walking
skill because they are programmed in advance to do it. And God calls us to re-programme
our minds, and that is a steady, day-to-day activity for which we are
personally responsible, and for which the Holy Spirit is our helper and the Bible
our guide.
The challenge, therefore, is: What is the state of my
mind? Discerning? questioning? challenging? expanding in wisdom? always
willing to change?
Some years ago an American pilot performed what many
experts considered a miracle: he landed a falling plane on a narrow stretch of
river, thus saving many lives. People were in awe at his skill. But when they
asked him how he did it, he replied that he had simply drawn on many years of
training and experience to do something he had never before been required to
do, but which had been steadily and thoroughly absorbed through all those
years.
To change the image, you could say that he had put regular
deposits into the bank of faith in his mind, so that when an urgent one-off
need arose there was plenty for him to draw on.
Never mind those clever centipedes: how much wisdom and
faith are we steadily storing up in those mysterious things we call our minds?
Lord Jesus, help me to look to you every minute
of every day and so to avoid the corruption of this fallen world and become
more fitted for the world to come. Amen.
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