WWUTT: Do Not Conform To This World? (Romans 12:2)

Romans 12:2 says,

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Many Bible websites and apps have said this is one of the most looked up Bible verses on the web. The way it usually gets interpreted is like this: Don’t be like anyone else or who the world wants you to be. Be who God made you to be!

That’s all well and good; but when this verse is taken by itself, “who God made you to be” is typically “who you want to be.” And “God’s will for your life” is really “your will for your life.” After all, God’s will is for you to be happy, right?

God’s will for you is that you would be sanctified, abstain from sexual immorality, control your own body, grow in holiness, and give thanks to God in all circumstances.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Which, by the way, that happens to be Romans 12:1,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

Paul previously spent the first 11 chapters of Romans explaining the mercies of God into giving up His Son. Jesus died for us so we are to live for Him – holy and acceptable to God and this is worship.

So you must consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)

Present yourselves then to God as those who have been brought from death to life… (Romans 6:13)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

do not conform to this world? To be holy means to be set apart. Don’t think like the world thinks. Have the mind of Christ. Then we’re able to know God’s will as revealed in His Word, the Bible.

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:33)

“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to teach him?

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. (Philippians 2:5)