What does it mean to not conform to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2)?

Verse 2 gives us a definite application of this principle. For it is the natural deceit of our hearts to suppose ourselves obedient to God's claims, while not exercised concerning those things that are in reality contrary to Him. “This world” has its own standards, methods, and objectives. While unsaved, we doubtless partook of its character in these things. But the knowledge of Christ calls for a complete transformation. Shall we now think of conforming ourselves to a world guilty of the rejection of Christ? — a world lax in its standards, unholy in its methods, and selfish in its objectives? God is not in all its thought: the comfort and ease and indulgence of the flesh is its exclusive occupation. To be conformed to it is but weakly submitting to its fleeting vanities and folly. “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.”

Verse 1 has spoken of “your bodies”; verse 2, “your minds.” Let the mind be renewed by engaging itself with God's standards, ways, and objects: this is transformation. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Thoughts are clearly the spring of all conduct. While we were “of the world” our thoughts could only centre in the world: but now that we “are of God,” shall we turn our thoughts back to the world again?

But this transformation is real, and accomplishes results. When thus the mind is renewed, there is the vital, experimental proving “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” It is not merely “knowing” His will, but “proving” it. Shall we not then challenge ourselves when sometimes anxious to know God's will in a certain matter?Let us go deeper, and inquire. Do we want to prove God's will in experience? Indeed, we may often be denied the absolute knowledge of His will in many cases; but at the same time be blessed in the experiencing of it. But this is only possible by means of a mind firmly set upon Him, accustomed to His presence and confident of His supreme wisdom and love. This is a complete contrast to occupation with the world.

(V. 1). The Apostle appeals to believers on the ground of the mercies of God by which they have been so greatly blessed — the mercies that have been unfolded to us in the first eleven chapters. Seeing that we have been so richly blessed it becomes us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. This is our only intelligent service. In pressing the deep need of governing our spirits, and having our affections held in check, we may be in danger of thinking this is all, and that we can be careless as to the way we use our bodies. Here, then, it is our bodies that are to be yielded to God. Our feet to walk in the path of obedience, our hands employed in His service, our tongues to speak as a witness for God. This will involve sacrifice, for the natural inclination is to use the body to carry out the will of the flesh. To restrain the flesh involves the sacrifice of much that nature desires. The body presented to God is not only a sacrifice, but it is a living sacrifice. We may present our money, and our goods, but such gifts, however right in their place, are not "living". With such gifts there may be, at the same time, much self-indulgence of the body. Moreover it is to be presented as a "holy" sacrifice. For God's service there is required not only a living body, but a "holy" body. Only as the body is held in holiness will the sacrifice be acceptable.

(V. 2) Having presented the body to God we are warned against the ever present danger of the world. The world is at enmity with God and lies in the wicked one. We are to beware of adopting its godless ways and speech. But, further, we are to be transformed. We are not only to beware of being formed like it, but we are to be altogether different to it. This transformation can only be by the renewing of the mind. It is not a mere outward transformation by the adoption of some peculiar religious dress, such as that of a monk or nun, which, however plain, only calls attention to self. The difference between the world and the believer is to be displayed, not simply in dress, but in manner, and speech, and ways, as the result of having a different mind. The outward change is the result of an inward change of thought. We may raise endless questions as to what is right in dress, and manner of life, but the inward change — the renewing of the mind — would settle a thousand questions as to what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

"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." We have briefly glanced at the negative side of the second verse — non-conformity to the world, separateness from its maxims and its ways. We now come to the positive side — the renewing of the mind. This is all important. It is the renewal of the whole inner man; the deep springs of the heart which only the eye of God can see. He looks for the renewal of the understanding, affections, and will. Our old ideas which ruled the mind before we knew God and His Christ must all be given up, and new thoughts, new motives, new objects, new feelings, new intentions, as springing from our one new object — Christ in the glory — must have full sway over all the faculties of the mind, as well as over all the members of the body. There must be a complete transformation within and without, by the renewing of the mind. The Christian is a new man in Christ, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Colossians 1:10.

The World. — A word on the world just mentioned may not be out of place. There are two words in the Greek translated by world. The one, cosmos, speaks of the scheme or system of things, and hence can be used morally of a system of things opposed to God of which He is not the author. Of this John writes (1 John 2:16). and against it warns us. The other word, aion, speaks of duration or age. So we read of the present age, aion, in contrast to that which is to come. Here (Rom. 12:2) the word is aion, age, not cosmos. By Paul both terms are used (see Eph. 2:2; 1 Cor. 2:6). And in the first of these passages they both appear, "according to the course (or, age) of this world, cosmos." By John aion is never used in the sense of our passage, i.e., of this age, unless in 9:32 of his Gospel we have a solitary exception. In John the devil is called by the Lord the prince or ruler of this world, cosmos, an order of things which is not of the Father. In 2 Cor. 4:4 Paul writes of him as the god of this age, aion. Hence to this age, of which the devil is the god, we are not to be conformed, but transformed, so as to know the perfect will of God. Into this subject — the will of God, the apostle will now enter somewhat in detail.

Before coming to the positive side of things we are shown in one brief sentence what it means on the negative side. "Be not conformed to this world." The word used here for "conformed" is elsewhere translated "fashioned," and that for "world" is more literally "age." "Be not fashioned according to this age" is what the apostle has to say to us. This age is a Christ-rejecting age, and we are called to represent Christ in the midst of it. Can there be accord between us and it? And if there is no inward accord, should there be outward conformity? Never!

But this means non-conformity to the life of the world which is astray from God, and at enmity with Him. It is ours to pass through it with minds laid hold of by what is found only where the risen Christ is. Living in the practical realization of association with Him where He is, is to prove the blessedness of the will of God (verse 2).

Here it is not the man personally devoted to God but a negative guard from external influence, and the direct contrary positively carried on by the renewing of the mind, the end being the thorough discernment of God's will. Thus, in order to prove practically that good and acceptable and perfect will, there is need on the one hand of being continually on the watch against the course of this age, the spirits and habits of men where opinion rules, and on the other hand of being transformed; yet this not after a mere outward sort but by the renewing of the mind. It is by practical exercise that one grows in learning His will, and proves that it and it only is good and well pleasing and perfect. Here again we see contrast with the Gentiles on the one hand who knew not God and therefore not His will, on the other with the Jewish people subjected to known definite requirements independent of spirituality. The whole course of men outside Christianity, even if it profess to recognize God in outward acts, is wholly ignorant of relationship with Him, and, having no faith, regards it as the presumptuous assumption of believers. Now the Spirit, in calling us to a path of separation from the ways of men, lays down no lines of outward difference but what follows the mind renewed, and this in steps of enlarging obedience. So Jesus learnt obedience (for as the eternal Son He had only known to command) — learnt it in a path of suffering unequalled. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;" and God's will He did and suffered at all cost, as we know now to everlasting joy.

In the age to come there will be no such discordance enjoined nor right nor even possible; for the world will be under the direct and displayed government of God in Christ the Son of David and the Son of man, the power of evil being publicly put down and expelled. But now it is otherwise in this present evil age, when divine life has to swim against the stream. Proportionate is the blessing of fidelity to the name of the Lord when His throne is unknown save to faith and disregarded by men as such. It is therefore a way of obedience hard to nature but pleasant to the new man directed of the Spirit that glorifies Christ, who is the way, and the only way, through the wilderness of the earth to the Father. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Self-will is detected and detested; the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is more and more discerned. This cannot be where the spirit of this age governs.

We are the subjects of divine mercy. We deserved nothing, but we are enriched with practically everything. If the sense of divine mercy takes possession of our hearts, then we shall see that our bodies, which were the vehicles in which sin wrought and dominated us — that were used by us to express all our sinful wilfulness — we must now present as a living sacrifice, something wholly and livingly devoted to God — to be absolutely at His disposal, set apart for Him and His service and acceptable to God, seeing it is our reasonable and intelligent service. In the sixth chapter, where we get very similar truth, I believe we get the verb yield used in a twofold way — first, the Kingdom as an accomplished fact, absolutely yielded, then secondly in a more present sense, going on yielding. Has a moment ever been reached in our histories when we have been brought to the point of presenting our bodies a living sacrifice — something now devoted to God — set apart for His use, never to be recalled? It is our only reasonable service. That is the body — the next verse speaks about our mind. Be not conformed to this world — be not fashioned according to this age. You say, He is going to talk now about our dress. Well, Suppose I do! I know we are very largely the victims of the fashions, yet we should be careful to dress as becomes godliness. But after all it is not primarily a matter of dress, it is a matter of the mind. "Be not fashioned according to this age: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." We get down beneath that question to a more fundamental matter. Be not fashioned in your mind according to this age. There are terrible fashions in the mind regions — the scientific world is full of fashions. Scientists seem to be the greatest devotees of the goddess fashion that you can find anywhere. No Parisian fashions exert their sway over minds in the way that the scientific fashions do. We are not to be fashioned according to this age, but rather transformed; we are to be non-conformists in this sense, not reformists — but transformed by the renewing of our minds. God begins at the citadel, in the very centre of our beings. Some may say, Be practical and tell us how to get our minds renewed. Soak them in the Word of God prayerfully, in dependence upon the Spirit of God. As we progress and prayerfully study the Holy Book it is wonderful how our minds get shaped according to God. We unlearn our own thoughts, we begin to imbibe divine thoughts. Thus our minds are renewed and we prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Well, we say, it is such a perplexing thing to decide, what is this will of God? The point here is not that you may discover, but that you may prove the will of God. How do you prove a thing? You put it to the test. A person tells you that if you put certain chemicals together they act in a certain way — you prove and test it and it works. It is not mere theory, it is proven in every day life — it is a practical proposition. In the same way you and I are to prove what is the will of God, and as we prove what it is we shall discover it is good, acceptable and perfect. We shall of course learn incidentally that our own wills are bad, and imperfect and very disastrous. Naturally we love our own wills — you and I are to have our wills removed that we may prove and carry out in practice what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How much is our Christianity purely a theoretical thing? How much have we proved, experimentally proved, the blessedness of the will of God? We shall experience it if we present our bodies a living sacrifice to Him, and if our minds are not dominated by what the world thinks.

In Romans 12 we are taught that in presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, we prove the true character of the will of God. Every member of our bodies is to be at the disposal of God for His will. The bodies of the victims on Jewish altars would nevermore serve the will of any but God alone: thus, our bodies, not dead, but living, are nevermore to serve sin; but are ever to be at God's disposal. This is a holy service, acceptable to God; intelligent service, not dictated by the will of the flesh, but in obedience as led by the Spirit. Consonant with Galatians, verse 2 exhorts us not to be conformed to this world; and it is by avoiding conformity to the world that we are delivered from it. But something more is required to achieve this; we are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so as to prove that the will of God is good, perfect, and acceptable. The mind plays a very important part in our lives. If the mind is occupied with the things of the world, we shall be conformed to the world; but if the mind is engaged with the things of God, the mind will be renewed, and we shall acquire new habits of thought; we shall think in different channels of thought, and the life in result will be altogether different. This is of immense import, and we do well to ponder it. Anything of the world that enters the mind; whether its literature through the eye, or its music through the ear, yields its quota to conforming us to the world. Does not the blood on the ear of the leper tell that we have been separated from this world, and the blood on the ear of the priest tell that God has claimed us for Himself by the death of His Son? God's will is not acceptable to the worldly Christian; it condemns the things he is seeking to enjoy. Such may believe and speak of the good and perfect character of God's will; but only those who have been transformed by the renewing of the mind, have proved experimentally that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect.

'World' is used in various different ways in the New Testament. It is not a reference here to the persons who comprise the world -'for God so loved the world.' It is rather an organised system of things with an origin, motivating principle, and destiny in complete opposition to the love of the Father. In principle it began with the fall of man and was epitomised by Cain. He went out from the presence of God, took a wife, had a family, built a city, became the progenitor of urban life, of entertainment, commerce and industry. It is not these things in themselves that constitute the world, but it is the systematised way in which they support and sustain life, and absorb energy and attention, in absolute separation from and without reference to God.