Romans 12:2 Do Not Conform: Living Counter-Cultural Faith
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, NIV) Paul wrote these words to a church he had never visited, in a city that expected everyone - immigrant, senator, slave - to know exactly how to fit in. Two verses, sitting right at the hinge of his longest letter, still get quoted more than almost anything else he wrote. Read them slowly, though, and you'll notice they're not really about being edgy or different for its own sake. They're about what has to happen inside a person before anything on the outside changes. Quick answer Romans 12:2 tells believers to stop letting the present age press them into its shape, and instead let God renew how they think - a renewal Paul ties directly to the mercy he's spent eleven chapters describing, not to willpower. The verse doesn't promise that non-conformity will...