(Romans 12:2)

     We appreciated verse 1 last time, before the summer retreat. Today, I’m going to be appreciating verse 2. It can be said that the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans introduces the doctrines or theories of the essence of the gospel in many ways. And the latter part of the book, starting this chapter, suggests practical aspects related to the theoretical contents introduced in the earlier part of the book. Today’s verse is the significant and stern command that opens the latter part of the book, the important practical aspects for Christians. Today, through this verse, I hope we realize the one of the principles of Christian life.

In verse 2, “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.” Here, the word ‘world’ is ‘aion’ in Greek. While the other Greek word meaning ‘world’, ‘kosmos,’ indicates the visible and tangible world, the word ‘aion’ means the unseen and intangible world. Therefore, the phrase “Do not be conformed to this world” in the verse doesn’t mean to not be conformed to the systems and organizations of this world. In fact, on the contrary, the Bible urges Christians to willingly engage themselves in this world as the light and salt in this world. Now here, the phrase means to not be conformed to the principles and values of this world. This is because there are big differences in world view and purpose of life between Christians and non-Christians. And the reason why the Bible commands Christians to not be conformed to this world is that this matter is not concerning preferences or convictions, but concerning the truth or absolutes. Today’s text continues to give us the way to do so. In the verse, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The Greek ‘nous’ equivalent for ‘mind’ in English is used in expressing ‘the way of thinking’ and ‘understanding’. The tense of the phrase ‘be transformed’ is a present. So the phrase “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” is the command which means that our way of thinking and grasp should constantly be transformed by. By what? Needless to say, by the Holy Spirit as today’s text says. We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is very crucial to Christian life. As Jesus promised in John 14, ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever……I will not leave you as orphans…… These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”, Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we are able to do nothing. So the continual transforming of our way of thinking and understanding by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important factors in Christian life. So then how can we be transformed by the Holy Spirit? We can perform this through two primary things. First, we should have our values and the purpose of lives according to the teaching of the Bible. We need to think like this, “Where and why is history going?”, “What and why am I doing here now?”, “Is there any absolute and standard answer? If there is, what is that?”, and “How can I get the blessing here, on the way to heaven” and so on. And we always have to call the Bible’s revelation and teaching about these ultimate questions to our minds and follow them. Second, for being continually transforming, we need to make our request for the work of the Holy Spirit. This transforming cannot be happened by education, discipline, auto-suggestion, or mind control etc., but only by the work of the Holy Spirit. This is because the human being is the spiritual being as God created, not just an organism composed of several materials and elements as materialists and some of the postmodernists argue. Therefore, for the constant transforming of our minds, or our way of thinking and understanding, we should beg the Holy Spirit for help. Let’s not forget the Philippians 4:6~7, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

By doing so, we are finally able to do the following, in the latter part of today’s verse, “you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When it comes to the chief end of man, it definitely is to glorify God, and to glorify God means to reflect the already existed God’s glory in fullness. For us, what is first and most needed for glorifying God is to discern what the will of God is and grasp what good and acceptable and perfect is. Concerning the will of God, we can find more than enough of it in the revelation, or the Bible. Moreover, the revelation has been being translated into various languages since the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press and the Reformation by the providence of God. The Bible reveals the origin of the universe, human being, time, space, and all things including that which are tangible and intangible, such as principles, laws, materials, and elements of the world. Not only that, the Bible reveals what the history is and the beginning and the end of it, the attribute and tendency of God, what God loves or hates, what good or evil is from the point of view of God, and the perfect plan and scheme of God. As you know, the God of Christianity is not the god who is just looking on men’s management of this world with folded arms far away from the world after his creation as many deists who like to call the creation ‘the great design’ insist. God controls the entire universe as the gospel says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your God. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matt 10:9~10). So for Christians, what the first and basic things we need to do in our lives is “to discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.

Lastly, in connection with this, we need to deal with one important principle of the Bible. This is about our comfort, peace, prosperity, and boldness from God, our Lord. There are two main misconceptions of them found in history and the Bible. One of them is just to seek and cling to them mentioned above without knowing the will of the giver of them, God, His requirement and command to us, or the very today’s text, “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. They even don’t try to discern them. Everyone, you must clearly understand this. The Christians’ comfort, peace, prosperity, and boldness do not come from the frequent auto-suggestion and repeating of the verses like “the Lord is always with me”, “he is my comforter”, “everything will be getting better and better if with Him”, “Jesus loves me and he wants to bless me”, and “I don’t need to be afraid of anything because of Him” and so on, but they come from the discerning and trying to do “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. This is because those comforting and blissful promises are not for the people who just memorize and repeat them in their minds every day only for their own lives, but for the true Christians who try to “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. Remember the Jesus’ saying about one of the definition of His people, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’……but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). Even in the former case, ‘the just repeating verses case’, it works to some extent because the words and expressions in those kinds of comforting and blissful verses give some warm and comforting nuances and atmospheres as a good movie or book strikes on our minds and makes us shed tears. But the case never reaches the tremendous and solid comforting and convictions given by the essence of the gospel of Christianity. The second problem is to atomize and abstract only the single verse from the context regardless of the entire context, story, intention of the writer, and subject of the book. Unlike Buddhist scripture or other religions’ scriptures composed of the gathering of meaningful and good epigrams, the Bible has the story, context, and subject according to the each book, all focus on Jesus Christ. So when dealing with the verses in the Bible, we need to consider all the factors, especially the intention of the writer, the recipients of the letter and their circumstances, and the contexts including the single verse. Due to the need of prudence and accuracy in dealing with the Bible verses. Therefore, although the Bible is open and given to everybody, we need the humble and careful attitude and mind when treating the Bible verses. So the other reason why we should “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” as today’s text requires is to get real and true comforting and blessings given by God.

Everyone, according to the Bible, God is the one who really wants to bless us, really wants to comfort us, and He knows our unhappiness, sorrow, pain, and weakness very well and always are ready to help, lead, and guide us. According to the Bible, God is the personal being who reacts to our situations, not abstract being, formula, or theory. God is in fullness of fatherliness who is impatient to help us and answer our prayer. Run to God and completely be on the side of Him. Pay attention to and discern “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. So then the very God who said this, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac”, and the God of Jacob will be your God now and your life will be full of His blessings and guidance.