Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good… Advice as to conduct, in order to be complete, should be both negative and positive in exhortation; it should say what ought to be done as well as what ought to be avoided. Christianity repels from evil and attracts to goodness. He runs best who not only flees from peril, but knows the refuge for which to shape his course. I. NOT THE FASHION OF THE AGE, BUT THE WILL OF GOD, IS THE TRUE STANDARD OF DUTY. The Scriptures contrast this world with the kingdom of God. The one is fleeting, the other eternal. The one is carnal, the other spiritual; the one appears to the bodily senses, the other is a vision of faith. The kingdom which Christ has established realizes the desire and purpose of God's heart. Those who enter it are not thereby removed from the sphere of worldly need and influence and activity, but there is a difference in the spirit with which these temporal objects are pursued. A touchstone of value is introduced, and occupations and possessions are appraised according to its decisions. The will of God is the Ariadne clew which guides the traveller safely through the maze of shifting opinions and bewildering dictates. The disciple of Christ asks not - What will my companions say? what is the prevailing etiquette? what is the code of honour prescribed by the circle to which I belong? or what is the amount of kindness, purity, and justice which will save me from public censure? but - What would God have me do? what will he approve? what is his Divine intent in my upbringing and redemption? From how many petty anxieties is such a man freed, and what noble cares supplant his former subservience to custom! Commerce, politics, the Church, every arena needs such men. The face of God is not reflected in his servants like coins stamped with the sovereign's identical image, but varies like the reflection of the sky, according to the lake, river, or sea that mirrors its glory. II. A RENEWED MIND IS THE CHANNEL OF TRANSFORMATION. God has created man intelligent, and men act generally according to their perception of the fitness of things. Alter their views, modify their tastes, direct their inclinations, and their career is changed. If they do the same things, they do them with reference to a higher Being and a wider landscape. Some things loved before appear loathsome now; the eyes are opened, and the old order is deserted for the beauties and satisfactions of the new state. The will of God may be traced in his works and ways, in creation and providence; but Jesus Christ in the Scriptures is to us the fullest revelation granted of the mind of God, and by studying him is the conscience quickened, the reason enlightened, the affection sanctified. Christianity thus works from within outward. It does not try to transfigure appearances by gilding the apples of the tree, or appending fruit to its boughs, but it transforms the sap, and lets the new life produce its appropriate harvest. The renewing of the judgment implies a restoration of man to a primitive condition from which he has fallen. The lineaments of God in human nature which had grown dull, almost obliterated by the wear and tear of a godless existence, are made vivid again. Like the whitewash removed from the walls of an ancient edifice, and no longer allowed to conceal the glorious frescoes or carving beneath, so the chamber of the heart is renovated by the reception of the Spirit of Christ, and the defilements and deceptions give place to the pristine conception of man in the likeness of God, retouched, remodelled by him who maketh all things new. The blood-stained cross is the measure of devotion to the will of God and of self-sacrifice for the common good. The risen Christ is the ideal of the future to which Christian hopes turn and to which conformity is lovingly sought. III. THE COMPLETER THE TRANSFORMATION, THE MORE SURELY IS THE WILL OF GOD DISCERNED, AND THE MORE INTENSELY IS IT PRIZED. It is the universal law condensed into a proverb that "experience teaches." Not all at once can the car distinguish sounds, or the eye form and colours. Not immediately does the reason discriminate between logical and illogical arguments and procedures, nor the taste discover and apply its canons of judgment. Practice and discipline are required. And it were absurd to expect that in the regenerated man the old habits of liking and behaviour could be thrown off by one effort like a worn-out garment. The man rescued from drowning slowly comes to himself, and gradually does the eye of the saved believer learn to recognize in every place the presence of his Lord, and his ear to at all times catch the faintest whisper of his voice. The early converts made sad blunders in their celebration of Christian ordinances, in their governance of the gifts with which they were endowed, and in their application of Divine morality to the questions of the day. But they were in the school of Christ, and made steady progress. And every advance in knowledge and life has confirmed our appreciation of the will of God as being good, and worthy of the utmost maturity of ethical manhood. The Saviour's prayer is the verdict of the saintliest lives, the last word of Christian judgment: "Thy will, not mine, be done." As an encouragement it may be noted that our standard of duty ever rises as we understand better the mind of God and approximate to its requirements. And we must not be disappointed if to ourselves we seem as far off as ever from the ideal development. This is only as, in climbing to some mountain summit, the top appears more distant because progress reveals more accurately the total height. - S.R.A. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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