Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 12:2
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.
2. be not conformed ] Same word as 1Pe 1:14; (E. V. “not fashioning yourselves ”) The Gr. noun ( schema) on which the verb rendered “ conform ” is based indicates a form external rather than internal, transient or unreal rather than solid and lasting: a “figure.” It occurs 1Co 7:31, (E. V. “the fashion of this world,”) and Php 2:8, (E. V. “in fashion as a man.”) In the last passage the reference is to the Lord’s Manhood not as unreal but as, in a certain sense, external, i.e. as distinguished from the real but invisible Deity which lay, as it were, within the veil or robe of the real and visible Humanity. Here the verb indicates that a true Christian’s “conformity to this world” could only be (1) conformity to a transient thing, a thing doomed to destruction, and (2) illusory in itself, because alien from the man’s true principles and position. A similar reference is plainly traceable in 1Pe 1:14.
this world ] Lit. this age. Same word as Mat 12:32; Luk 16:8 ; 1Co 1:20; 1Co 2:6; 1Co 2:8; 1Co 3:18; 2Co 4:4; Gal 1:4; Eph 1:21; 1Ti 6:17; 2Ti 4:10; Tit 2:12. The antithesis is “the world to come,” “the coming age,” “that age:” e.g. Mat 12:32; Luk 20:35; Eph 1:21. The passages quoted (and many might be added) shew that the meaning is rightly conveyed in E. V. “ This age ” is the present order of things, the period of sin and death, and (by a natural transference) the contents of that period, the principles and practices of evil. The antithesis is the Eternal Future, the resurrection-life, (Luk 20:35-36,) in which sin and death shall have no place for ever. Thus the exhortation here is, to live as those whose lives are governed by the principles and hopes of a holy eternity in prospect.
be transformed ] Same word as Mat 17:2, (“was transfigured; ”) 2Co 3:18, (“are changed ”) The root-noun ( morph) is different from the root-noun of “conformed” just above, and forms an antithesis to it. In such antithetical connexions it indicates an essential, permanent, and real form. It is used e.g. Php 2:6; Php 2:8; in which verses the essential reality of the Lord’s Deity and Servitude respectively are emphasized. Here the point of the word is manifest: the Christian, by the Divine “renewal,” is to realize an essential and permanent change; to prove himself, as it were, one of a new species; a “new man,” not the “old man” in a new dress.
For masterly discussions of the differences between Schema and Morph see Abp Trench’s New Testament Synonyms, under the word , and Bp Lightfoot’s Philippians, detached Note to ch. 2. Abp Trench vividly illustrates the difference thus: “If I were to change a Dutch garden into an Italian, this would be [a change of schema; ] but if I were to transform a garden into something wholly different, say a garden into a city, this would be [a change of morph.] [44] ”
[44] We translate the Greek nouns, used by the Abp in this sentence. He paraphrases the present passage: “Do not fall in with the fleeting fashions of this world, out undergo a deep abiding change, by the renewing of your mind, such as the Spirit of God alone can work in you (2Co 3:18).”
Observe that the Gr. word translated “conformed” in Rom 8:29 is based not on schema but on morph. This passage is illustrated by that. The predestinating will of God is carried out, as we here see, through the real efforts of the renewed wills of the saints, to which the appeal is here made. See Php 2:12-13; (where render “ for His good pleasure’s sake.”)
by the renewing of your mind ] As the quasi- instrument of the transformation. The regenerating power of the Holy Spirit had rectified their intelligence, which they were now to use in “purifying themselves as the Lord was pure.” As the Divine change had enabled them to use their intelligence aright, the change is spoken of as if itself the instrument to be used. The word rendered “ renewing ” occurs Tit 3:5; and the cognate verb 2Co 4:16; Col 3:10. It may denote, according to context, either the initial “renewing,” when man definitely becomes “the child of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” and “the Spirit of Christ” takes up His dwelling in the soul; or the progressive “renewing” consequent on this, as thought, will, and affections “grow in grace,” and the man is (according to the appeal here) progressively “transformed.” Such is probably the reference in 2Co 4:16; Col 3:10. Here the other reference is more probable, as we have indicated above: the “renewing” here is already a fact, and is used in the process of “transformation.”
your mind ] Here probably, in a strict sense, your intelligence, renewed or rectified by Divine grace, so as (in the following words) “to prove what is the will of God.” Observe that the “mind,” as well as other parts of the being, is assumed to have needed “renewing.” Cp. Eph 4:18.
that ye may prove ] may assay, or test. Same word as Rom 1:28, (E. V., “like,”) Rom 2:18, Rom 14:22 (“allow;”), 1Co 3:13 (“try;”), 2Co 13:5; Eph 5:10 (a close parallel;), Php 1:10 (where render, “test things which differ;), &c.” Where the context allows, the word often includes (and sometimes wholly adopts) the idea of preference, of approval; e.g. 1Co 16:3. Here the meaning is that the Christian’s intelligence has been so “renewed” by grace that he now, by a holy instinct, can discern, in conflicting cases, the will of God from the will of self or of the world. And on this perception he is to act.
acceptable ] Same word as in Rom 12:1. His will is “acceptable” to the saints, because the will of their Father. It is also “acceptable “to Himself, both in itself, and because as done by His children it results in acts pleasing to Him.
perfect ] In wisdom and love, whatever perplexities becloud it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And be not conformed … – The word rendered conformed properly means to put on the form, fashion, or appearance of another. It may refer to anything pertaining to the habit, manner, dress, style of living, etc., of others.
Of this world – to aioni touto. The word which is commonly rendered world, when applied to the material universe, is kosmos, cosmos. The word used here properly denotes an age, or generation of people. It may denote a particular generation, or it may be applied to the race. It is sometimes used in each of these senses. Thus, here it may mean that Christians should not conform to the maxims, habits, feelings, etc., of a wicked, luxurious, and idolatrous age, but should be conformed solely to the precepts and laws of the gospel; or the same principle may be extended to every age, and the direction may be, that Christians should not conform to the prevailing habits, style, and manners of the world, the people who know not God. They are to be governed by the laws of the Bible; to fashion their lives after the example of Christ; and to form themselves by principles different from those which prevail in the world. In the application of this rule there is much difficulty. Many may think that they are not conformed to the world, while they can easily perceive that their neighbor is. They indulge in many things which others may think to be conformity to the world, and are opposed to many things which others think innocent. The design of this passage is doubtless to produce a spirit that should not find pleasure in the pomp and vanity of the World; and which will regard all vain amusements and gaieties with disgust, and lead the mind to find pleasure in better things.
Be ye transformed – The word from which the expression here is derived means form, habit morphe. The direction is, put on another form, change the form of the world for that of Christianity. This word would properly refer to the external appearance, but the expression which the apostle immediately uses, renewing of the mind,. shows that he did not intend to use it with reference to that only, but to the charge of the whole man. The meaning is, do not cherish a spirit. devoted to the world, following its vain fashions and pleasures, but cultivate a spirit attached to God, and his kingdom and cause.
By the renewing – By the making new; the changing into new views and feelings. The Christian is often represented as a new creature; 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 4:24; 1Pe 2:2.
Your mind – The word translated mind properly denotes intellect, as distinguished from the will and affections. But here it seems to be used as applicable to the whole spirit as distinguished from the body, including the understanding, will, and affections. As if he had said, Let not this change appertain to the body only, but to the soul. Let it not be a mere external conformity, but let it have its seat in the spirit. All external changes, if the mind was not changed, would be useless, or would be hypocrisy. Christianity seeks to reign in the soul; and having its seat there, the external conduct and habits will be regulated accordingly.
That ye may prove – The word used here dokimazo is commonly applied to metals, to the operation of testing, or trying them by the severity of fire, etc. Hence, it also means to explore, investigate, ascertain. This is its meaning here. The sense is, that such a renewed mind is essential to a successful inquiry after the will of God. Having a disposition to obey him, the mind will be prepared to understand his precepts. There will be a correspondence between the feelings of the heart and his will; a nice tact or taste, which will admit his laws, and see the propriety and beauty of his commands. A renewed heart is the best preparation for studying Christianity; as a man who is temperate is the best suited to understand the arguments for temperance; the man who is chaste, has most clearly and forcibly the arguments for chastity, etc. A heart in love with the fashions and follies of the world is ill-suited to appreciate the arguments for humility, prayer, etc. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, Joh 7:17. The reason why the heart is renewed is that we may do the will of God: the heart that is renewed is best suited to appreciate and understand his will.
That good … – This part of the verse might be rendered, that ye may investigate the will of God, or ascertain the Will of God, what is good, and perfect, and acceptable. The will of God relates to his commands in regard to our conduct, his doctrines in regard to our belief, his providential dealings in relation to our external circumstances. It means what God demands of us, in whatever way it may be made known. They do not err from his ways who seek his guidance, and who, not confiding in their own wisdom, but in God, commit their way to him. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way, Psa 25:9. The word good here is not an adjective agreeing with will, but a noun. That ye may find the will of God, what is good and acceptable. It implies that that thing which is good is his will; or that we may find his will by finding what is good and perfect. That is good which promotes the honor of God and the interests of his universe.
Perfect – Free from defect, stain, or injury. That which has all its parts complete, or which is not disproportionate. Applied to religion, it means what is consistent, which is carried out; which is evinced in all the circumstances and reactions of life.
Acceptable – That which will be pleasing to God. or which he will approve. There is scarcely a more difficult text in the Bible than this, or one that is more full of meaning. It involves the main duty of religion to be separated from the world; and expresses the way in which that duty may be performed, and in which we may live so as to ascertain and do the will of God. If all Christians would obey this, religion would be everywhere honored. If all would separate from the vices and follies, the amusements and gaieties of the world, Christ would be glorified. If all were truly renewed in their minds, they would lose their relish for such things, and seeking only to do the will of God, they would not be slow to find it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 12:2
And be not conformed to this world.
Conformation and transformation
1. World has various meanings.
(1) Time.
(2) An age–the Messianic, e.g., as contrasted with the Jewish, or the past as opposed to the present or coming age.
(3) A state, as the present in distinction from the future in antagonism with the good.
(4) Worldliness, a spirit or principle of evil pervading the world. It is this to which we must not be conformed.
2. It is well to define the term in order to avoid two extremes.
(1) That which regards the world as a mere abstraction, something incidental to those early Christian ages, but of which nobody is in danger now.
(2) That exaggeration which confounds it with almost every transaction of our lives.
3. We must be vigilant against this spirit precisely where it is the most subtle and concealed, e.g.
(1) We may say that delight in the visible world is legitimate. Surely this is not the world against which the apostle warns us. No; but suppose that nature becomes to us all in all, and cheats us into the belief that there is nothing higher than that which serves our senses.
(2) We say indisputably that we ought to love our fellow-men; but what if with this there blends an influence that moves us to defer to their customs, and live merely upon the level of their ideals!
(3) Even our religion may be worldly in its spirit. The objects of our faith in another state of existence may be sensuous, and the grounds of our obedience to God mercenary.
4. The world, then, is a spirit, that is everywhere around us and within, and the injunction is most needed precisely where this spirit is most likely to be confounded with something that is good and true. Proceeding upon this assumption, let us examine the forms and achievements of our modern civilisation.
I. Much of our modern civilisation is a process of conformation. Man is not the master of nature. He learns to control its forces by submitting to its laws. His triumphs of art and mechanism are simply a conformity to nature, not a mastery over it. He mitigates pain and conquers disease by conforming to the laws of health. He has no wand of miracle to supersede law. Civilisation is simply the adjustment of man to the conditions in which he is placed. Now, precisely here we may detect an evil tendency. There is danger lest this habit of conformity fasten us down to a mere worldly level, and saturate all our desires with worldly estimates. On the other hand, the great peculiarity of the Christian method is transformation–not simply obedience to external conditions, but a renewing of the mind. It is a great achievement for man to control new forces without; it is a greater achievement when in the inmost recesses of his being there unfolds a law which forbids all sin, even under the mask of the most splendid gain; when there is awakened a vitality of conscience which inspires him to make only a beneficent application of mighty instruments; when there settles in his soul a sublime patience by which if he cannot conquer pain he can bear it; and when in the midst of all physical terrors he enjoys a spiritual vision which pierces through calamity and looks beyond death.
II. Consider some points where the contrasts between the Christian method and the methods of this world are more especially displayed.
1. Observe how largely men are influenced by excitement. There is a vast difference between the noble steamship that holds its way, trembling the waves and challenging the gale, because it has an inward force, and the poor vessel whose iron heart stands still, and that wallows the sport and victim of the relentless sea. But there may be a difference as great between the man who determines his action by reason and conscience and the man who is perpetually driven by the excitements of time and place. How many people depend upon excitements as the aliment of their very being! They are always whirling in the commotion of something new. And thus people lose true independence of thought and life. Opinions and habits go with the tide. These men and women live as others live, think as others think, do as others do. Nay, even religion may become too closely identified with mere excitement. The method of Christianity is not excitement, but incitement. That man is best qualified for the perils, yet not disqualified for the blessings of the world around him who is moved, not by pressure from without, but by principle from within, who in the midst of these changing tendencies holds a purpose, and whose personality does not dissolve in the social atmosphere around him, but who preserves a rocky identity of faith and conviction, a moral loyalty to his own ideal.
2. The power of our modern civilisation is the power of that which is visible and tangible. Present good, immediate success, are its conspicuous results. What vast sovereignty, what subtle temptation, in this possession of the present, in that visible dollar which I make by my compliance compared with the inward blessing which follows my sacrifice; in the concrete fact which I can grasp in my hand compared with the abstraction that only flits in transient vision before my inward eye! Cancel space, outstrip time, bridge oceans with steam, twitch nations together with electric arteries. Now no instructed Christian undervalues concrete facts and interests. The man who starts from great principles is not one who is most apt to overlook the real interests of the world. But he also regards a higher good. He believes that for the real purposes of this life we need something besides steam and telegraph, and currency and ballot-boxes. We need that which delivers man from sensual illusion and the lust of immediate attainment by fixing his eyes upon the glory of spiritual rectitude, the victory of postponement, and the gain of sacrifice.
3. Civilisation produces its most marked effect without. The best thing accomplished by it is adjustment to the world. Its tests and fruits are better outward conditions, a better social state, better houses, lands, and means of communication. Nevertheless, mans real life is not in outward things. It cannot be changed merely by external agents. In its wants and capacities it is the same as it was six thousand years ago. Strip the man of the nineteenth century of these externals, and how much is he like the man of ages since! With the telescope we see farther, but do we really see more than Abraham at the door of his tent, or Job gazing upon the Pleiades? If we do, whatever of larger vision or substantial good has come to us has come within–in more comprehensive truth, in more consecrated love, in more perfect assurance of final good. And wherever these results are wrought within us we can dispense with much that is merely outward and palpable. The time comes when the world to us will be as nothing. But while it crumbles we shall not fail. We shall perish with no perishing thing, being not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind. (E. H. Chapin, D.D.)
Conformed and transformed
I. The man who is in conformity with this world is not the man who understands it best, or who admires its beauties most; nor can he adapt himself best to all its circumstances. He is too much a slave of the things he sees to look into the meaning of them; too much shut up in the habits of the society into which he is thrown, to have any power of entering into what lies beyond. The word conformed implies that he takes his form from the things about him, that they are the mould into which his mind is cast. Now this St. Paul will not for an instant admit to be the form which any man is created to bear. Man is created in the image of God; and the form of his mind is to be derived from Him and not from the things which are put in subjection under Him. The heathen was resisting the conscience which told him that he was Gods offspring, and the very things he saw which testified to the invisible power of God in worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. But we who have been redeemed out of this worship are striving far more directly and consciously against; this spirit; we are choosing a false way when we admit the world to govern and fashion our minds according to its pleasure, when we submit to receive its image and superscription. That image and superscription will vary in each new age, in each new locality; it is the very nature of the world to be continually changing. That is the reason why it is so ignominious a thing for a man to be conformed to it; he must become merely a creature of to-day; he must be fluctuating, capricious, insincere–a leaf carried about by every gale, floating down every current. How is it possible that such a one can know anything of the will of God, which is fixed and eternal? What signifies it that you give to such a one the Bible and persuade him it is a Divine book? You may persuade him of that as easily as of anything else; if it is the current opinion of course he receives it until the fashion alters, and then he will scoff at it. But while he embraces it what does he gather from it? Just what his worldly spirit wishes to gather and no more.
II. The deliverance from all this is transformation, and such transformation, instead of unfitting a man for the world, is that which alone can enable him to live in it, to appreciate the worth of it, to exercise an influence over it. It was this which enabled the prophet to see the trees and the floods breaking forth into singing; which enabled St. Paul to become all things to all men; which enabled St. John to see the kingdom of God and of His Christ emerging out of the kingdoms of this world. For they beheld all things in Gods light, not in the false lights of this world. They saw the world as He had made it, not as men had made it by rebelling against Him. They had received the true form of men, they could therefore use the forms of the world, accommodating themselves readily to Jewish, Greek, Roman customs–never being brought into bondage by any. They were in communion with the eternal, so they could contemplate the great drama of history, not as a succession of shifting scenes, but as a series of events tending to the fulfilment of that will which is seeking good and good only.
III. The process of this transformation is the renewing of the mind. Such a phrase at once suggests the change which takes place when the foliage of spring covers the bare boughs of winter. The substance is not altered, but it is quickened. The alteration is the most wonderful that can be conceived of, but it all passes within. The power once given works secretly, probably amidst many obstructions from sharp winds and keen frosts. Still that beginning contains in it the sure prophecy of final accomplishment. The man will be renewed according to the image of his Creator and Father, because the Spirit of his Creator and Father is working in him. (F. D. Maurice, M.A.)
Conformed and transformed
If we pour into a mould a quantity of heated metal, that metal as it becomes cool takes the shape of that mould. If we soften a lump of wax, and then press a signet upon it, on its surface is left the impression of the seal. Just so our nature, susceptible at present of being moulded to one character or another, is now undergoing this process. According to the tastes we cultivate, the acts we do, the society we keep, the subjects that engross our interest, we are becoming conformed to the world or to Christ; we are being made into vessels unto dishonour, or into vessels meet for the Masters use. The process may be very gradual; but it is not on that account the less fatal and the less sure. Like that insidious disease consumption, the first beginnings of it are hardly perceptible; but though it only destroys life as it were by inches, the raging fever is not in the end more deadly. How many are there who, because they are not raging in the fever-fits of open sin, never dream that they are dying of worldly conformity, and who consider, though the Bible and their consciences sometimes speak to the contrary, that there can be no great harm in living to the world a little, provided that they keep within bounds! But the Word of God says plainly, Be not conformed to this world. And if we would, fall in with this requirement we must strive to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We all know what a complete change is signified by the word metamorphosis, which is the one here used. In describing this process we must go back one step further in the metaphors than in the case to which we before alluded. We must suppose the metal to have been cast into some faulty shape first, and then to have been melted down and re-cast. Just so our hearts, our wills, our tastes, in short our whole mind must be first of all softened by Gods Spirit; then we must be transformed into a vessel made to honour, and finally sealed unto the day of redemption. In vain shall we seek to transform ourselves; we may give up this or that worldly pleasure or worldly pursuit; but unless we really, earnestly, perseveringly seek by prayer the power of Gods Spirit we never shall be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (W. H. Etchers, M.A.)
Conformity to the world
I. What is the world? The mass of unrenewed men as distinguished from the people of God. It is Satans kingdom. It has laws and maxims. Its manners and customs are determined by its reigning spirit. It has its consummation, which is perdition.
II. What is it to re conformed to the world?
1. To be inwardly like men of the world in the governing principle of our lives, i.e., to have a worldly spirit, a spirit occupied with worldly things, mercenary, earthly.
2. To be so ruled by the worlds maxims that the question is not what is right or wrong, but what is the custom of society. What is the public sentiment?
3. To be indistinguishable from men of the world in our–
(1) Objects.
(2) Amusements.
(3) General conduct.
III. The consequences of this conformity.
1. The destruction of all spirituality. It is impossible to live near to God and yet to be conformed to the world. The Spirit is grieved and quenched.
2. The obliteration of the distinction between the Church and the world, and the consequent enervation of the former. What becomes of Christian profession when Christians are as sordid, gay, and unscrupulous as other men?
3. Identity of doom. They who choose the world will perish with it.
IV. By what rule are we to determine what is and what is not sinful conformity. This is more a theoretical than a practical difficulty, and will not trouble a man who is filled with the Spirit of Christ and devoted to His service.
1. We must avoid sinful things.
2. With regard to things indifferent.
(1) One man should not judge another, but determine for himself what is and is not injurious to his spiritual interests.
(2) We should avoid things which are injurious to others though harmless to ourselves.
(3) We should shun things innocent in themselves, but which are connected in fact, or in the minds of men with evil, as cards, dancing, the theatre, etc.
(4) The same rule as to dress and modes of living does not apply to all persons and places. It depends on usage, rank, etc. There is great danger of becoming pharisaical, and making religion consist in externals. (C. Hodge, D.D.)
Conformity to the world
I. Be not conformed–
1. To its selfishness.
2. To its presumption.
3. To its superstition.
4. To its carnal policy.
5. To its earthly-mindedness.
II. This Divine requirement is presented here–
1. Negatively Be not conformed, etc., in–
(1) Affection.
(2) Principles or maxims.
(3) Conduct.
2. Positively–But be ye transformed, etc. True religion does not consist in simply abstaining, avoiding, disliking, etc.; but also in being, doing, delighting, etc. We cannot be unconformed to the world, unless we are in spirit conformed to God. Therefore the only way to be unworldly is to become converted and spiritual (Gal 5:16, etc.). The Christian is not simply to be unlike the world; he is to be like Christ. (Homilist.)
Conformity to the world
I. Its nature.
1. By this world is meant everything in it which is antagonistic to the truth or to the life of God in the soul of man. You can form a correct estimate of a mans character by his ruling principles. So you can the spirit of this world. Here are some of its maxims–
(1) Every man for himself; there is the selfishness that draws in everything to itself, and keeps firm grip of all it has, though the needy be perishing around!
(2) Quietness is best ; there is the cowardice, the selfish prudence of the world which will not stand forth and speak a word for God or man, lest trouble should come upon it!
(3) Honesty is the best policy. The man who is honest just because it is the best policy would for the same reason have been dishonest!
2. Conformity to this world means the adoption of principles such as these, and practices founded upon them, although there are great differences among men in respect of it.
II. Its causes. Apart from its first and great cause, there are secondary causes, e.g.,–
1. The proclivity to do as other people do. A child may act thus, but may a man? If so, where is his independence? In the dust.
2. The fear of giving offence. There are people who are so dependent upon the good opinion of others, that to gain it they will forfeit their own respect by doing things which otherwise they would have left undone. They have interests of their own, but they are laughed or frowned out of them; they have opinions of their own, but they modify and explain them away! Many a man may date his destruction from the day he began to be afraid of losing the good opinion of bad men!
3. The inability to stand alone. When any public question is debated, the question is, What side are the respectable people on? When a side must be taken, Which is likely to win? The expediency men are many; the principle men are few.
II. Its cure.
1. The realising of our own personality and responsibility, refusing to live in the crowd, resolving that by Gods grace we shall live the life He calls upon us to live.
2. The withdrawing of ourselves from under the power of that tendency within us which prevails with us to disobey this command. Sometimes it is of very little use to fight, the only thing is to get away. A young man is beginning to acquire a taste for low pursuits and company: how will you help him to get above them? Not surely by leaving him to fight it out with them, but by creating within him a taste for higher pleasures, and the society of the good. If we would not be conformed to the world, we must rise above it.
3. Transformation by the renewing of the mind. Thus transformed, you will not be conformed: another model will be realised by you in your lives: the world will lose its hold and Christ will be all in all. (P. Rutherford.)
Conformity to the world
I. In what it consists. In cultivating–
1. Its spirit and temper.
2. Its maxims and principles.
3. Its company and conduct.
II. How it must be avoided.
1. By the renewing of our minds.
2. By the adoption of other–
(1) Principles.
(2) Rules.
(3) Ends.
III. Why it should be avoided. Because this is–
1. Good in itself.
2. Acceptable to God.
3. Beneficial to man. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Conformity to the world: its folly
A member of his congregation was in the habit of going to the theatre. Mr. Hill went to him and said, This will never do–a member of my Church in the habit of going to the theatre! Mr. So-and-so replied that it surely must be a mistake, as he was not in the habit of going there, although it was true he did go now and then for a treat. Oh! said Rowland Hill, then you are a worse hypocrite than ever, sir. Suppose any one spread the report that I ate carrion, and I answered, Well, there is no wrong in that; I dont eat carrion every day in the week, but I have a dish now and then for a treat! Why, you would say, What a nasty, foul, and filthy appetite Rowland Hill has, to have to go to carrion for a treat! Religion is the Christians truest treat, Christ is his enjoyment.
Nonconformity to the world
1. There is no command in Scripture about which there is more debate than this. Are we required to separate ourselves from all who are not Christians, and avoid all employments except those of devotion? This is manifestly impossible. Are we then to abstain from those practices which are common among irreligious persons? Then the question arises, What practices? Where shall we draw the line? Many draw for themselves a line within which they keep; but unfortunately each person draws it differently. To some, this world means profligacy and sin; to others, great luxury; to others, certain fashionable amusements, or dress; to others, the use of secular music, or the reading of light literature. Each believes himself in the right, and blames his neighbours for going beyond or not coming up to the line he has drawn for himself. Each is alternately accuser and accused; while the ungodly consequently declare that it is quite impossible to say what is and what is not worldly.
2. Now all this arises from overlooking the fact that the precepts of the gospel are addressed to our new and inner nature; that they supply principles and motives on which we are to act always, not laws applying to any particular act or set of acts. Be not conformed to the world is defined by Be ye transformed, etc. It is clear, then, that that conformity is forbidden which interferes with our being transformed. Now that into which we are transformed is the image of God (2Co 3:18).
3. Now, the rule of the renewed man is simple, always applicable–The one thing I am to seek is conformity to Gods image, and in order to that, constant communion with God; whatever, then, I find to interfere with this, however good it may seem, is the world to me. Now the application of this rule is matter of personal experience, and it is impossible to draw a line; for what is the world to one person is not the world to another; and the question is not so much where you are as what you are. To lay down a rule for all lives is as difficult as to prescribe a diet for all constitutions. If you ask us whether certain food will agree with you, we answer–That depends upon your constitution; we can only give you the broad rule–eat nothing that you find to disagree with you. So we lay down the broad rule–whatever disagrees with your souls health you must avoid.
4. This is a rule which we would plead with worldly people. Christians are often perplexed when asked–Why do you not join in this or that amusement?
(1) If they answer–Because they are sinful, they say what they cannot prove. Sin is the transgression of a law, and they can cite no law which expressly forbids such things. And then if we call them sins, we may induce others to consider sins as not much worse than amusements.
(2) If they say, we object to these things because they are worldly, then they will be asked, What is the essential difference between the amusement in question, and some other which they hold lawful?
(3) Now if in all such cases the Christian would be content to say–I refrain because I find I cannot enjoy it and afterwards have communion with God, he would give an answer which, if not understood, could certainly not be gainsaid. To ask for a law when this reason is given would be as unmeaning as to ask for a law of the land forbidding all imprudence in our diet, or exposure to the weather, or to the risk of infection. We cannot prove these acts to be crimes, but they are dangerous, and all come under the general principle which makes it wrong for a man to injure himself.
5. In this way we should deal with all cavillers on this subject. Worldly men set down the objections of ministers to prejudice or envy. Of course, clergymen abuse theatres, etc., but where is the harm? Where are they forbidden in Scripture? We answer this question by another: What is the state of your soul? Are you the possessor of a spiritual life? If not, then you cannot possibly understand our objection; for we object to these things as injurious to that which you tell us you have not got, namely–life in the soul. To understand a spiritual precept you must be spiritual yourself.
6. But there are those in whom this spiritual life is as the tender blade, or as the just kindling fire, who ask, anxiously, What is the danger? To show this, we will take–
(1) The theatre. If we are asked, Is there any sin in a theatrical representation? We answer–There is no more sin in a person presenting to your eyes a certain character than there is in writing a description or painting a picture of it. But what we have to consider is, not the abstract idea of a theatre, but what it practically is. Now not to enlarge upon the evils connected with the stage, to which you give your countenance and aid by attendance and payment for admission: we will admit that these are not essential to the stage, though somehow they are always found connected with it. We are willing to allow all that can be said for it, and will not ask whether, in the course of the play, vice is not often made attractive, and whether the recollection of the pleasure of sin does not outlast the impressions made by the moral at the end, when the vicious characters meet with that punishment which we so rarely see them visited with in real life. We will suppose every play to have its moral, and the audience to be duly impressed with it. Yet we must ask, What character would you be conformed to if you followed out the lessons there taught? Would it be to the image of God? Is the good man of the stage the good man of Scripture? Who would venture to produce upon the stage one in whom was the mind of Christ? Would such a character crowd houses? Men would throng to the playhouse to hear sentiments which they do not care to study in their Bibles, or to witness a display of qualities which, in real life, they hold in contempt. Our objection to the stage, then, is this: it sets up a false and worldly standard of morality; and he who desires to be transformed to the image of God will find here another image set before him.
(2) The card table. Is there any sin in moving about pieces of painted pasteboard? Certainly not. And yet it becomes a cause of sin; because, however small the stake, it excites, in however slight a degree, that desire of gain which is of this world. In proof of this note the greater zest with which men enjoy the game when some small stake is played for, just to give an interest to the game. And by indulging in this we hinder that renewing of our mind which we should cultivate so carefully.
(3) The ball-room. Is there any harm in the act of dancing? No more than in any marching to the sound of music. But is there not temptation there for the indulgence of vanity, frivolity, envy, and evil speaking? We ask whether one renewed in the image of God would find himself a welcome guest there?–whether his spiritual life would be strengthened, and his conformity to Christ increased, by constant attendance?–and whether the guest as he returns is in that frame of mind which best fits him for communion with God? In short, in all these matters we ask you simply to use your own judgment. Try honestly the effect of these amusements upon your own spiritual life; and if you be really renewed in the spirit of your mind, you will find that their atmosphere is injurious to the new life, which you desire to cherish.
7. But we must not forget that the principle may be applied in an opposite direction. There are others who need to be told that what is forbidden is worldliness of heart; viz., those who are sure they do not conform to the world, because they never enter a theatre, etc. Their idea of unworldliness is the abstaining from these things, and a few others, e.g., display in entertainments and equipage. Add to this, becoming members of religious associations, frequenting religious society, and attending a gospel ministry, and their definition of unworldliness is complete. Now it is possible to do all this, and more, and yet still be conformed to the world. Worldliness can no more be excluded by a fence of conventional rules and habits than a fog or a miasma by a high wall: it is in the atmosphere. They avoid the theatre, and eschew fiction: to what purpose, if they are daily acting out the characters they will not see represented, or read depicted? They will not gamble. Are they the better for this, if they indulge the covetous spirit elsewhere? They will not frequent the ball-room. Are they any gainers, if they indulge the same spirit of display, etc., in a quiet party, or in a religious meeting? They will not wear fashionable dresses; to what purpose, if they are secretly as proud of their plain dress? Conclusion: To attack at once the worldliness of the religious and the irreligion of the world, is to risk the displeasure of both. But the world and the fashions of it are passing fast away; a few short years, and we shall all be where the applause or censure of men shall be alike indifferent to us–upon our dying beds. Then the question to be decided shall be, not how far may I go in my enjoyment of the world, or where must I fix a limit to my pleasures, for the world can be enjoyed no longer, and death is fixing the last limits to its pleasures, and there remains but one act more of conformity to the world–that last act in which all flesh conforms itself to the law of dissolution; but this shall be the great question:–Am I fitted for that world which I am about to enter? Am I, or am I not transformed in the renewing of my mind? Ask yourselves this question now, as you must ask it then. (Abp. Magee.)
Nonconformity to the world
may be seen–
I. In the transformation of the worldly virtues. There are graces which are sometimes seen more in the world than in the Church, and here we cannot go wrong in conforming to the world. Yet it is possible for an unworldly spirit to transfigure them. And unless occasionally so transfigured they would be corrupted and lost. One high heroic instance of truth, justice, or courage is worth a hundred lesser cases–the world is startled by it. But remember in proportion to the dignity given by an unworldly spirit to a worldly virtue is the mischief wrought by the absence of worldly virtues in those who call themselves unworldly. They are salt which has lost its savour. There is no greater stumbling-block than want of candour, justice, and generosity in those who profess to be not of the world. But the soldier who is more brave because of a higher than earthly courage; the judge who is more scrupulously just because he has before him a higher than earthly tribunal, the men of business who ply their daily task with busier feet, because their souls a holy strain repeat, are instances of what the apostle means by being transfigured through the renewal of our minds.
II. In the exhibition of qualities which are unworldly in themselves.
1. Humility. In pagan times there was no name for this grace. The very word is a new creation of the gospel. Nor does the thing now exist in worldly minds. You may prove this by telling an average man of his faults and watching the result.
2. Independence of the worlds opinion. With me it is a small thing to be judged of mans judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord–is a true unworldly maxim. It is safe, prudent, to conform to the fashion of the world, to swim with the stream, to desert the sinking vessel, to avoid the stricken deer or howl with the wolves. That is the worlds way; but there is a way which is not the way of the world. The old Christian virtue of chivalry still lingers amongst us–the leaning to the weaker side because it is weaker, the desire to protect the weak and repress the strong, etc., may run to excess, but even Quixotism is refreshing. How invigorating to see men dependent on God, though independent of man, stand up against professional clamour and popular prejudice, to see men resist the tyranny of public opinion which will not hear the other side, and refuse the popular and give the unpopular praise!
3. Purity.
4. Resignation. (Dean Stanley.)
Nonconformity to the world
I. What abe we to understand by the world (1Jn 2:16).
1. The lust of the flesh (Tit 2:12).
2. The lust of the eye (Ecc 5:11).
3. The pride of life (Rom 1:30).
II. What is it not to re conformed to it?
1. Not to approve of it (1Jn 2:15).
2. Not to imitate it (1Pe 4:4).
3. To use it as if we used it not (1Co 7:30-31).
III. Why should we not be conformed?
1. We are separated from the world to God (1Pe 2:9-12).
2. We have put on Christ.
3. All that is in the world is not of the Father (1Jn 2:16), and is contrary to the love of Him (1Jn 2:15).
4. The fashion of this world passeth away (1Co 7:31).
Conclusion: Conform not to this world.
1. You have higher things to mind (Col 3:1-3; Php 3:20).
2. This world cannot satisfy you (Ecc 1:8).
3. You must give an account of what you do here. (Bp. Beveridge.)
Nonconformity to the world
I. Its nature.
1. Not ceremonial.
2. Not civil.
3. But moral. Be not conformed–
(1) To the spirit of the world.
(2) In your rules of life.
(3) In your company.
(4) In your practices.
II. Some reasons for its prohibition.
1. Duty.
2. Profession.
3. Self-love.
4. Love of your neighbour.
5. The commands of Scripture.
III. How it may be prevented. By–
1. The renovation of your natures.
2. The exercise of daily prayer.
3. Guarding against temptation.
4. A constant dependence upon God. (Biblical Museum.)
Nonconformity to the world
There will arise in the Christians course, from time to time, occasions on which he will be in doubt as to some points of his duty in relation to social intercourse and amusements. Well, in such cases be turns to his chart–on that chart (his Bible) though he find not every rock and shoal and quicksand, marked down by name–he finds it laid down plainly and decisively that the whole coast is dangerous, i.e, he finds a general principle, Be not conformed to this world–The friendship of the world is enmity with God. By whom is the amusement patronised? Are they these who are the votaries of other and less dubious pleasures? Are they those who wear the worlds badge and have its mark stamped on their foreheads? Then let the Christian pause–let him fear to find himself surrounded by crowds of worldlings, drinking with them of the same cup. It must be at best but a suspicious cup that meets tastes which should be opposite–it must be at best a suspicious path in which, even for a moment, the Christian walks hand in hand with the man of this world. Be quite sure the world would not be drinking of that cup, if it were not in some way spiced to their taste. Alas! it is far, far more likely that the Christian should have stepped out of his narrow path, than that the worldling should have forsaken his, to walk, even for a moment, with the Christian. And remember that in such cases there is great need that you watch against self-deception. The remark of Jeremy Taylor is but too true: Most men choose the sin, if it be once disputed whether it be a sin or no. Although grace teaches and inclines you to distaste the world, yet corruption remains, and to that corruption sin and the world are but too palatable. See to it, then, that while you are professing to inquire into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of such an action, your mind is not biased beforehand, and you have not a secret desire to find the Word of God on your side–a secret determination to make it out, if possible to be so. Beware, too, of that religion which is anxious to take up its lodging next door to the world. If you are determined to go as far as you can you are not safe–you will very soon be on the other side of the line. And if, after all, a given case seemed doubtful, remember, religion, not the world, is to have the benefit of the doubt. It is better to abstain from mistaken scrupulosity from a hundred lawful things than to run the risk of one unlawful act of conformity to the world, or of throwing one stumbling-block in the way of another. (Canon Miller.)
Nonconformity to the world
There are two words for world, and . The former regards time, the latter space. Once they are combined (Eph 2:2), in accordance with the time-state of this matter-world. The direction, therefore, is, Be not like the men of this world, whose all is the present. Wear not the garb of time: live for eternity. (Dean Vaughan.)
Nonconformity to the world–inward
As the mother of pearl fish lives in the sea without receiving a drop of salt water, and as towards the Chelidonian Islands springs of fresh water may be found in the midst of the sea, and as the fire-fly passes through the flames without burning its wings, so a vigorous and resolute soul may live in the world without being infected with any of its burnouts, may discover sweet springs of piety amidst its salt waters, and fly among the flames of earthly concupiscence without burning the wings of the holy desires of a devout life. (Francis de Sales.)
Nonconformity to the world–outward
The bird of paradise, which has such a dower of exquisitely beautiful feathers, cannot fly with the wind; if it attempts to do so, the current being much swifter than its flight, so ruffles its plumage as to impede its progress, and finally to terminate it: it is, therefore, compelled to fly against the wind, which keeps its feathers in their place, and thus it gains the place where it would be. So the Christian must not attempt to go with the current of a sinful world: if he does, it will not only hinder, but end his religious progress; but he must go against it, and then every effort of his soul will be upward, heavenward, Godward. (M. Davies, D.D.)
The world
is fallen human nature acting itself out in the human family; moulding and fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies. It is fallen human nature making the ongoings of human thought, feeling, and action its own. It is the reign or kingdom of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Wherever that mind prevails, there is the world. (R. S. Candlish, D.D.)
The world an atmosphere
It is like the dense atmosphere which on a November day hangs over your vast metropolis, the product of its countless homes and the proof of its vast industrial efforts; and yet the veil which shuts out from it the light of heaven, destroys the colour on its works of art–the dark unwholesome vapour which clogs vitality and undermines health, and from which a Londoner escapes at intervals with a light heart, that he may see the sun, and the trees, and the face of nature as God made them, and feel for a few months what it is to live. Even thus the world hangs like a deadly atmosphere over every single human soul, brooding over it, flapping its wings like the monstrous evil bird in the fable, or penetrating and entering into it like a subtle poison, to sap the springs and sources of its vigour and its life. (Canon Liddon.)
The world, danger of
As you love your souls, beware of the world: it has slain its thousands and ten thousands. What ruined Lots wife?–the world. What ruined Achan?–the world. What ruined Haman?–the world. What ruined Judas?–the world. What ruined Simon Magus?–the world. What ruined Demas?–the world: And what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
The world: difficult to define
The world cannot be clearly marked out as if it were a kingdom on a map, and every year makes it more difficult to draw any line of demarcation or to lay down any hard and fast lines upon the subject, because society is being leavened by Christian principles, the moral conscience of the nation quickened, and a public opinion, on the whole of a healthy character, making itself powerfully felt. And, further, what is the world to one person is not the world to another. The fact that the world cannot be defined as to locality is an advantage, not a disadvantage: for it calls forth from us a constant spirit of inquiry and watchfulness before we enter upon our pursuits, form our connections, or enter into society. The believer should at all times test every relationship into which he is brought, to see whether beneath its possibly plausible and pleasant surface there may not lurk the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The Christian, too, should examine not only what is without, to see whether the place he is entering is the world, but also what is within himself, and whether he is not converting even what is the kingdom of God into the world by the worldly spirit which he brings with him. We may infect as well as be infected. (C. Neil, M.A.)
The world: spirit of
The spirit of the world is for ever altering, impalpable; for ever eluding, in fresh forms, your attempts to seize it. In the days of Noah the spirit of the world was violence. In Elijahs day it was idolatry. In the day of Christ it was power, concentrated and condensed in the government of Rome. In ours, perhaps, it is the love of money. It enters in different proportions into different bosoms; it is found in a different form in contiguous towns, in the fashionable watering-places, and in the commercial city; it is this thing at Athens, and another in Corinth. This is the spirit of the world, a thing in my heart and yours to be struggled against, not so much in the case of others as in the silent battle done within our own souls. (F. W. Robertson, M.A.)
Worldliness: its spirit permanent, its forms changeful
The world in our days is not a heathen world, as it was in the days of the apostle; but it is not a whit less the world that lieth in wickedness. The outward developments are different, but the inward character, principles, and spirit are the very same: changing a few of the mere external circumstances, the apostles description of the world of his own day is equally applicable to the world of ours. There are now, indeed, no idolatrous banquets, no savage gladiatorial conflicts in the blood-stained arena of the amphitheatre, no midnight orgies to some disgraceful deity. The world, perhaps, now, at least the world of the upper classes of society, is not quite so rough, but more polished in its sinfulness; but its scenes of amusement, its theatres, its luxurious tastes and habits, its nightly revels, and too lavish entertainments, partake as essentially of the elements of worldliness as the less advanced indulgences of a ruder age. In its thirst after wealth, in its restless strivings after fame and glory, in its grasping selfishness, in its love of splendour and show, we question whether the world, as it presents itself to the Christian of the nineteenth century wears any materially different aspect from that of the world of the apostles days. But, when we speak of worldliness, either as it is developed in business or pleasure, let it not be for a moment supposed that worldliness exists only in these developments: these are only indices or marks of an inward and rooted principle, innate in every man born into this world, and dominant in every man, without exception, who has not been born again of water and of the Spirit. (W. H. Etchers, M.A.)
But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.—
Transformation
This word is used to denote the Lords transfiguration, when His body was seen invested with the glory in which He is to appear at His second coming. You will then see Him thus transfigured, and the result will be your own transfiguration (Php 3:21). For He is to change your vile bodies, etc. But there is a transfiguration in the life that now is (2Co 3:18) also into the image of the Lord; and therefore it is a transformation into glory, but not into the glory that was seen on the Mount, but what was seen in the manger, in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, and on the Cross. Note:–
I. The manner of it. Christ was transformed by becoming man; you are to be transformed by becoming new men in Him. The renewing of your mind is your being brought to have the same mind which Christ had. I come to do Thy will, O God, is the language of the Son in the very act of taking the new nature; the renewing of your mind is your making that language your own. Note the closeness of the analogy.
1. The agency is the same–the Holy Ghost. It is He alone who can make the Son partaker of your human nature, without making Him to be as fallen man; it is He alone who can make you partakers of the Sons Divine nature, without making you to be as God.
2. These two operations fit into one another: the one effecting that supernatural birth by which the Son becomes a servant, the other that supernatural birth by which the servants become sons. The one transformation is the cause of the other: not only as being that without which the other could not have been, but also as being the means of the other. It is through your believing and appropriating His transformation, that you are yourselves transformed. For the transformation in either case is a union. His being transformed is His being united by a new creation with you; your being transformed is your being united by a new creation to Him.
3. To the Son Himself His being born of the Spirit brought a new mind. It was a new thing for Him to have the mind of a servant, and to say, I come to do Thy will, O God. And it is a new mind in you when, as sons, you say the same. Naturally, self-will is the ruling principle of your mind. Insubordination to God is that fashion of the world to which you are not to be conformed.
4. The transformation effected in the case of Christ, when He humbled Himself to do the will of God, was voluntary on His part; otherwise His humiliation and obedience unto death could have had no efficacy. Equally voluntary must be the change on your part: Be ye. You must say, with renewed minds, entering into His mind, I come to do Thy will, O my God. It is true, that in order to your thus acting, you must be acted upon by the Holy Spirit. But you are not acted upon as inert matter may be acted upon.
5. Note two practical applications.
(1) If the transformation in you is thus like the transformation in Him–see to it that it be very complete. It was so in the case of Christ; it must be in yours. He emptied Himself. Do you also empty yourselves. He laid aside His natural position of equality with God. Do you also lay aside your usurped position of seeking to be equal with God.
(2) That you may be thus transformed into the image of your Lord–appropriate as available for you your Lords transformation into your image. Behold Him transformed for you; and be you, after a corresponding manner, transformed in Him. He becomes a servant, continuing still to be the Son; you become sons in Him, feeling yourselves now, for the first time really, to be servants. He, being the Son, comes to do the will of God as a servant; you, being servants, come to do the will of God as sons.
II. The end of this transformation. That you may prove, etc. The will of God needs to be proved. It can be known only by trial. Essentially, the will of God is and must be the expression of His nature. But the nature of God far transcends the comprehension of finite minds; and therefore His will may well be expected to be incomprehensible too. But in that formal aspect of it as the assertion of the authority of God, let His will be put to the test of actual trial, and then will its real character as the expression of His nature come out; for while neither God Himself nor His will can be grasped in the speculative understanding, both He and it can be grasped in the obedient and loving heart. But apart from any inquiry into the reason of it, the fact is pregnant with important consequences. For one thing, it partly explains the economy of probation, and tends to show how trial must be both summary and decisive summary, that it may be ascertained once for all whether the authority of God is to be acknowledged or disowned; and decisive, for if His will is acknowledged, the way is opened for proving it as the expression of His nature to be good and acceptable, etc.; whereas, if disowned, all opportunity of knowing its real character is hopelessly lost.
1. The probation of man turns upon the willingness of man to put the will of God to the proof. The will of God, as it was announced in paradise, was not such as to command either approbation or consent on the part of our first parents. The command not to eat of the fruit did not obviously commend itself as good, etc. Doubtless, if they had kept it, they would have found by experience–
(1) That it was in itself good as the seal of Gods covenant of life, and as the preparation for the unfolding of His higher providence.
(2) Acceptable. Suited to their case and circumstances, deserving of their acceptance, sure to become more and more well-pleasing as they entered more and more into its spirit.
(3) Perfect. That thus only could Gods perfection be vindicated–the perfection of His sovereign right to rule; that thus only could the perfection of the creature be wrought out in an onward and upward path of loyalty and love. All this our first parents would have learned concerning the will of God, if only they had consented to prove it; but this they would not do; they passed judgment upon it unproved; they refused to give it a fair trial; they chose rather to make the opposite experiment, and they have left this experiment as their sad legacy to their descendants, so many of whom are now occupied in proving, trying, how they may be best conformed to the world so as to make the most of it; proving, in short, what is the will of this world and this worlds prince.
2. The probation of Christ proceeds upon the very same principle. He is tried as the first Adam was tried, and upon she same issue, namely, His willingness to prove the will of God; and in His case also the will of God may be so presented to His human soul as to appear neither reasonable nor desirable. In such a light, accordingly, Satan tries to put it before Him. The pain, shame, weariness, and blood awaiting Him, the tempter ingeniously contrasts with the shorter road to glory which he would have Him to take. The Second Adam will not, like the first, accept Satans representation; He will prove it for Himself; and so He learns obedience by the things which He suffers. But He proved it, and in the proving of it He found it to be good and acceptable and perfect. He tasted the delight of obedience, as He learned it.
3. It is into this image of Jesus, thus proving that will of God, that you are now to be transformed, etc. You are to prove Gods will–
(1) In what must be the first act of your obedience–namely, your believing on Him whom He has sent. What this will of God is as an expression of His nature you cannot know until you prove it. You must taste and see how good the Lord is, etc. You would fain have all made quite clear to you before you surrender yourselves to the gospel call. Nay, you stand aloof, and start objections and difficulties. You do not see how this aspect of the gospel call can be incompatible with that. Nay, try this dipping in the Jordan. It may seem to you an unlikely mode of cure; but at any rate try it. In the embrace of Christ, not while you are standing out in the attitude of rebellion, all difficulties vanish.
(2) Then ever after, following on the path of your new obedience, you are to be proving what is that good, etc. At every step it will be a trial to you. It may be very hard sometimes to believe that the will of God concerning you is good, and acceptable, etc. But give it a full and fair trial; and you will soon find that in the very keeping of Gods commandments there is great reward. Conclusion: Mark–
1. How opposite are the two habits, namely, being conformed to this world, and being transformed, etc. There are here two types, of one or other of which you must take the fashion. To be conformed to the world is to take things as they are and make the best of them. The opposite habit is to try things as they should be.
2. How complete the transformation must be if, instead of being conformed to this world, you are to prove, etc. You must make full proof of Gods will. But that you cannot do if you yield a forced submission. A son yielding obedience to his fathers will reluctantly, never can be acquainted with its true character and blessedness; but let him throw himself heart and soul into the doing of it, then will he prove it of what sort it is. To have the mind to do so implies a great change, a new creation, a new heart.
3. Now, so long as the fashion of this world lasts, so long as that second transformation which awaits you is postponed, this proving of the will of God must throughout be more or less an effort. But take courage, O child of God! The fashion of this world passeth away. You look for new heavens and a new earth. The fashion of that new world and the will of God will not be opposed to one another. The proving of the will of God, then, with your whole nature changed into the image of the heavenly, what a joyous exercise of liberty and love will it be!
4. In the meantime, a signal encouragement as motive. The more you prove the fashion of this world, the less you feel it to be good, etc. It looks fair at the first, but who that has ever lived long but re-echoes the wise mans complaint–All is vanity? The will of God looks worse at the beginning; but on, on, child of God, and you will find a growing light, encouragement, and joy. The path of the just is as the shining light, etc.; and in the trial of them you find that wisdoms ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. (R. S. Candlish, D.D.)
Transformation
I. What is it to be transformed? To be new creatures (2Co 5:17).
1. In our judgment concerning–
(1) God (Mat 19:17).
(2) Christ (Php 1:21; Php 3:8).
(3) The world (Ecc 1:1-2).
2. Our thoughts (Psa 1:2).
3. Consciences (Act 24:16).
4. Wills (Lam 3:24).
5. Affections (Col 3:2).
(1) Love and hatred (Mat 22:37).
(2) Desire and abhorrence.
(3) Joy and grief (Psa 42:1-2).
(4) Hope and fear (Psa 27:1).
(5) Anger and meekness (Mat 11:29).
6. Words (Mat 12:36).
7. Actions (1Pe 1:15-16). Towards God and men (Act 24:16).
II. Why are we to be transformed. Till transformed–
1. We are altogether sinful (Pro 15:8).
2. We can enjoy no happiness here nor be capable of happiness hereafter (Heb 12:14; 1Co 2:14).
III. Examine whether you be transformed or no. Look to your heads (2Co 13:5); your hearts (Pro 4:23); your lives (Mat 12:33). Note the reasons for this examination.
1. Many are mistaken about it, and think they are renewed, because turned–
(1) From one sin to another.
(2) From one sect to another.
(3) From debauchery to mere morality.
2. This is the most dangerous of all mistakes.
3. If you never examine yourselves, you have the more cause to fear your condition.
IV. Signs of our being transformed. All our actions proceed–
1. From new principles.
(1) Obedience to God (1Sa 15:22).
(2) A desire to please Him (1Th 4:1; Heb 11:5).
2. After a new manner.
(1) Not hypocritically but sincerely (2Co 1:12).
(2) Not proudly, but humbly (Luk 17:10).
(3) Not interruptedly, but constantly (Luk 1:75).
3. To a new end (1Co 10:31; Mat 5:16).
V. Means.
1. Read the word written (Jam 1:21).
2. Hear it preached.
3. Meditate upon it.
4. Pray (Psa 51:10).
5. Receive the sacrament.
Conclusion:
1. By renovation you become again as you were created (Gen 1:26).
2. God Himself will change to you.
(1) His anger to love (Isa 66:2).
(2) All His actions to your good (Rom 8:28).
3. If now transformed from the world to God, hereafter you shall be transformed from misery to happiness. (Bp. Beveridge.)
The Christian life a transfiguration
In the preceding verse the apostle gathers the whole sum of Christian duty into one word. And so in this. As all is to be sacrifice, so all is to be transformation. Mark:–
I. Where Paul begins–with an inward renewal
1. He goes deep down, because he had learned in His school who said: Make the tree good and the fruit good. To tinker at the outside with a host of red-tape restrictions, and prescriptions, is all waste time and effort. You may wrap a man up in the swaddling bands of specific precepts until you can scarcely see him, and he cannot move, and you have not done a bit of good. The inner man must be dealt with first, and then the outward will come right in due time. Many of the plans for the social and moral renovation of the world are as superficial as a doctors treatment would be, who would direct all his attention to curing pimples when the patient is dying of consumption.
2. There has to be a radical change in the middle. Mind seems to be equivalent to the thinking faculty, but, possibly, includes the whole inner man. The inner man has got a wrong twist somehow; it needs to be moulded over again. It is held in slavery to the material; it is a mass of affections fixed upon the transient; a predominant self-regard characterises it and its actions.
3. This new creation of the inner man is only possible as the result of the communication of a life from without; the life of Jesus, put into your heart, on condition of your opening the door of your heart by faith, and saying, Come in, Thou blessed of the Lord. And He comes in, bearing in His hands a germ of life which will mould and shape our mind after His own blessed pattern.
4. That new life, when given, needs to be fostered and cherished. It is only a little spark that has to kindle a great heap of green wood, and to turn it into its own ruddy likeness. We have to keep our two hands round it, for fear it should be blown out by the rough gusts of passion and of circumstance. It is only a little seed that is sown in our hearts; we have to cherish and cultivate it, to water it by our prayers, and to watch over it, lest either the fowls of the air with light wings should carry it away, or the heavy wains of the worlds business and pleasures should crush it to death, or the thorns of earthly desires should spring up and choke it.
II. What he expects from the inward change–a life transfigured, the same word as is employed in the account of our Lords transfiguration. In that event our Lords indwelling divinity came up to the surface and became visible.
1. A transfigured life suggests–
(1) That the inward life will shape the outward conduct and character. Just as truly as the physical life moulds the infants limbs, and as every periwinkle shell on the beach is shaped into the convolutions that will fit the inhabitant, by the power of the life that lies within, so the renewed mind will make a fit dwelling for itself. Did you never see goodness making men and women beautiful? Have not there been other faces besides Moses that shone as men came down from the Mount of Communion with God? Certain weeds that lie at the bottom of the sea, when their flowering time comes, elongate their stalks and reach the light and float upon the top, and then, when they have flowered, they sink again into the depths. Our Christian life should come up to the surface and open out its flowers there. Does your Christianity do that? It is no use talking about the inward change unless there is the outward transfiguration.
(2) That the essential character of our transfiguration is the moulding of us into the likeness of Christ. Christs life is in you if you are in Him. And just as every leaf that you take off some plants and stick into a flower-pot will in time become a little plant exactly like the parent from which it was taken, so the Christ-life that is in you will be growing into a copy of its source and origin. The least speck of musk, invisibly taken from n cake of it, and carried away ever so far, will diffuse the same fragrance as the mass from which it came; and the little slice of Christs life that is in you and me, will smell as sweet if not as strong as the great life from which it came.
2. But as with the inward renewal so with the outward transfiguration, the life within will not work up to the surface except upon condition of our own honest endeavour. The fact that Gods Spirit is given to us is not a reason for our indolence, but for our work, because it gives us the power by which we can do the thing we desire. What would you think of a man that said, It is the steam that drives the spindles, so I need not put the belting on?
III. The ultimate consequence which the apostle regards as certain, from this inward change; unlikeness to the world around. Be not conformed, etc.
1. The more we get like Jesus Christ, the more certainly we get unlike the world. For the two theories of life are clean contrary–the one is all limited by time, the other lays hold on the eternal. The one is all for self, the other is all for God. So that likeness and adherence to the one must needs be dead in the teeth of the other.
2. And that contrariety is as real to-day as ever it was. Pauls world was a grim, heathen, persecuting world; our world has got christened, and goes to church and chapel, like a respectable gentleman. But for all that it is the world still, and we have to shake our hands free of it.
3. How is the commandment to be obeyed?
(1) Well, of course there are large tracts of life where the saint and the sinner have to do the same things, feel the same anxieties, weep the same tears, and smile the same smiles. And yet there shall be two women grinding at a mill, the one shall be a Christian, the other not. They push the handle round, and the push that carries the handle round half the circumference of the millstone may be a bit of religious worship, and the push that carries it round the other half may be a bit of serving the world and the flesh and the devil. Two men shall be sitting at the same desk, two boys at the same bench at school, two servants in the same kitchen, and the one shall be serving God and glorifying His name, and the other shall be serving self and Satan. Not the things done, but the motive, makes the difference.
(2) And there are a great many things in which not to be conformed to the world means to have nothing to do with certain acts and people. Have nothing to do with things which in themselves are unmistakably wrong; nor with things which have got evil inextricably mixed up with them, like the English stage; nor with things which, as experience shows you, are bad for you. This generation of the Church seems to be trying how near it can go to the world. It is a dangerous game, like children trying how far they can stretch out of the nursery window without tumbling into the street; you will go over some day when you miscalculate a little bit.
(3) Rather be ye transfigured, and then you will find that when the inner mind is changed, many of the things that attracted tempt no more, and many of the people that wanted to have you do not care to have you, for you are a wet blanket to their enjoyments. The great means of becoming unlike the world is becoming like Him, and the great means of becoming like Him is living near Him and drinking in His life and Spirit.
4. And then, as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. But we must begin by opening our hearts to the leaven which shall work onward and outwards till it has changed all, The sun when it shines upon a mirror makes the mirror shine like a little sun. We all with open face, reflecting as a mirror does the glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Transfiguration
One master word, for the whole Christian life is sacrifice, self-surrender, and that to God. Paul here brackets, with that great conception of the Christian life, another equally dominant and comprehensive. In one aspect, it is self-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. The inner man, having been consecrated as a prince, by yielding of himself to God, is called upon to manifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice; an inward renewing of the mind is regarded as the necessary antecedent of transformation of outward life.
I. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of character and conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind. Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of us in our own cases, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that the power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Any man that has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit which he desires to get rid of, or to alter in the slightest degree the set of some strong taste or current of his being, knows how little he can do, even by the most determined toil. The problem that is set before a man when you tell him to effect self-improvement is something like that which confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool; If you can walk you wilt be able to get to the pool that will make you able to walk. But you have got to be cured before you can do what you need to do in order to be cured. Only one Christ presents itself, not as a mere republication of morality, not as merely a new stimulus and motive to do what is right, but as an actual communication to men of a new power to work in them. It is a new gift of a life which will unfold itself after its own nature, as the bud into flower, and the flower into fruit; giving new desires, tastes, directions, and renewing the whole nature. And so, says Paul, the beginning of transformations of character is the renovation in the very centre of the being. Now, I suppose that in my text the word mind is not so much employed in the widest sense, including all the affections and will, and the other faculties of our nature, as in the narrower sense of the perceptive power, or that faculty in our nature by which we recognise, and make our own, certain truths. The renewing of the mind, then, is only, in such an interpretation, a theological way of putting the simpler English thought, a change of estimates, a new set of views; or, if that word be too shallow, as indeed it is, a new set of convictions. It is profoundly true that as a man thinketh, so is he. Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable. Why, we all know how often a whole life has been revolutionised by the sudden dawning or rising in its sky of some starry new truth, formerly hidden and undreamed of. If you want to change your characters–and God knows they all need it–change the deep convictions of your mind; and get hold, as living realities, of the great truths of Christs gospel. If you and I really believed what we say we believe, that Jesus Christ has died for us, and lives for us, and is ready to pour out upon us the gift of His Divine Spirit, and wills that we should be like Him, and holds out to us the great and wonderful hopes and prospects of an absolutely eternal life of supreme and serene blessedness at His right hand should we be, could we be, the sort of people that most of us are? Truth professed has no transforming power; truth received and fed upon can revolutionise a mans whole character. Make of your every thought an action; link every action with a thought. Or, to put it more Christian-like, let there be nothing in your creed which is not in your commandments; and let nothing be in your life which is not moulded by these. The beginning of all transformation is the revolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of the gospel.
II. Well then, secondly, note the transfigured life. The life is to be transfigured. Yet it remains the same, not only in the consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and drift of the character. There is nothing in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked individuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the gospel is meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more intensely himself, more thoroughly individual, and unlike anybody else. But whilst the individuality remains, and ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a change should pass over our lives, like the change that passes over the winter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from the hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown pastures. Christ in us, if we are true to Him, will make us mere ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus. And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the pattern of all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. There are two types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We have to make our choice, That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution which underlies it may be instantaneous. The working out of the new motives, the working in of the new power, is no mere work of a moment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. And remember, this transformation is no magic change effected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace ourselves to perform. But this positive commandment is only one side of the transfiguration that is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a new likeness is being stamped upon a man, the process may be looked at from the other side; and that in proportion as we become liker Jesus Christ, we shall become more unlike the old type to which we were previously conformed. This world here, in my text, is more properly this age, which means substantially the same thing as Johns favourite word world, viz., the sum total of godless men, and things conceived of as separated from God. Only by this expression the essentially fleeting nature of that type is more distinctly set forth. And although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a very earnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very specially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people, who call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they can come in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates of literature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, in trade, and especially in amusements–the nearer they can come to the unchristian world, the more broad and superior to prejudice they are. And it seems to be by a great many professing Christians thought to be a great feat to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot over the path and the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. You are safer there. There is a broad gulf between the man who believes in Jesus Christ and His gospel and the man who does not. And the resulting conducts cannot be the same unless the Christian man is insincere.
III. And now, lastly, note the great reward and crown of this transfigured life. The issue of such a life is, to put it into plain English, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely, what it is Gods will that we should do. To know beyond doubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to have no hesitation or reluctance in doing it, seems to me to be heaven upon earth. And the man that has it needs but little more. This, then, is the reward. Each peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into the untravelled land before us. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. And be not conformed to this world] By this world, , may be understood that present state of things both among the Jews and Gentiles; the customs and fashions of the people who then lived, the Gentiles particularly, who had neither the power nor the form of godliness; though some think that the Jewish economy, frequently termed olam hazzeh, this world, this peculiar state of things, is alone intended. And the apostle warns them against reviving usages that Christ had abolished: this exhortation still continues in full force. The world that now is-THIS present state of things, is as much opposed to the spirit of genuine Christianity as the world then was. Pride, luxury, vanity, extravagance in dress, and riotous living, prevail now, as they did then, and are as unworthy of a Christian’s pursuit as they are injurious to his soul, and hateful in the sight of God.
Be ye transformed] , Be ye metamorphosed, transfigured, appear as new persons, and with new habits, as God has given you a new form of worship, so that ye serve in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. The word implies a radical, thorough, and universal change, both outward and inward. SENECA, Epis. vi, shows us the force of this word when used in a moral sense. Sentio, says he, non EMENDARI me tantum, sed TRANSFIGURARI; “I perceive myself not to be amended merely, but to be transformed:” i. e entirely renewed.
By the renewing of your mind] Let the inward change produce the outward. Where the spirit, the temper, and disposition of the mind, Eph 4:23, are not renewed, an outward change is of but little worth, and but of short standing.
That ye may prove] , That ye may have practical proof and experimental knowledge of, the will of God-of his purpose and determination, which is good in itself; infinitely so. Acceptable, , well pleasing to and well received by every mind that is renewed and transformed.
And perfect] , Finished and complete: when the mind is renewed, and the whole life changed, then the will of God is perfectly fulfilled; for this is its grand design in reference to every human being.
These words are supposed by Schoettgen to refer entirely to the Jewish law. The Christians were to renounce this world-the Jewish state of things; to be transformed, by having their minds enlightened in the pure and simple Christian worship, that they might prove the grand characteristic difference between the two covenants: the latter being good in opposition to the statutes which were not good, Eze 20:25; acceptable, in opposition to those sacrifices and offerings which God would not accept, as it is written, Ps 40:6-8; and perfect, in opposition to that system which was imperfect, and which made nothing perfect, and was only the shadow of good things to come. There are both ingenuity and probability in this view of the subject.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Be not conformed to this world; do not fashion or accommodate yourselves to the corrupt principles, customs, or courses of worldly and wicked men; and what they are, you will find in Rom 13:13; Eph 4:18,19; 1Pe 4:3. You have somewhat the like counsel, Exo 23:2; 1Pe 1:14.
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind: q.d. Be you regenerated, and changed in your whole man; beginning at the mind, by which the Spirit of God worketh upon the inferior faculties of the soul: see Eph 4:23.
That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God: by prove, understand discerning: by the will of God, his revealed will in his word; and so it best accords with the reasonable service, spoken of Rom 12:1, and with the scope of the text itself; which is, to exhort unto holiness and obedience, which is according to the rule of the word. He annexeth three adjuncts to the will or word of God: it is good; revealed only for our benefit. It is acceptable; i.e. by obedience thereunto we shall be accepted. It is perfect, and the observance thereof will make us so too, 2Ti 3:17. There are different readings of these words, but all to the same sense. Some thus, that you may prove the will of God, which to do, is good, acceptable, and perfect. Others thus, that you may prove what the will of God is, and what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. And be ye not conformed to thisworldCompare Eph 2:2;Gal 1:4, Greek.
but be ye transformedor,”transfigured” (as in Mt17:2; and 2Co 3:18, Greek).
by the renewing of yourmindnot by a mere outward disconformity to the ungodly world,many of whose actions in themselves may be virtuous and praiseworthy;but by such an inward spiritual transformation as makes the wholelife newnew in its motives and ends, even where the actions differin nothing from those of the worldnew, considered as a whole, andin such a sense as to be wholly unattainable save through theconstraining power of the love of Christ.
that ye may provethatis, experimentally. (On the word “experience” see on Ro5:4, and compare 1Th 5:10,where the sentiment is the same).
what is that“the”
good andacceptable“well-pleasing”
and perfect, will of GodWeprefer this rendering (with CALVIN)to that which many able critics [THOLUCK,MEYER, DEWETTE, FRITZSCHE,PHILIPPI, ALFORD,HODGE] adopt”thatye may prove,” or “discern the will of God, [even] what isgood, and acceptable, and perfect.” God’s will is “good,“as it demands only what is essentially and unchangeably good (Ro7:10); it is “well pleasing,” in contrast withall that is arbitrary, as demanding only what God has eternalcomplacency in (compare Mic 6:8;Jer 9:24); and it is “perfect,“as it required nothing else than the perfection of God’s reasonablecreature, who, in proportion as he attains to it, reflects God’s ownperfection. Such then is the great general duty of theredeemedSELF-CONSECRATION,in our whole spirit and soul and body to Him who hath called us intothe fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. Next follow specific duties,chiefly social; beginning with Humility, the chiefest of all thegracesbut here with special reference to spiritual gifts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And be not conformed to this world,…. By this world is meant, either the Mosaic dispensation, and Jewish church state, so called in opposition to , “the world to come”, the Gospel dispensation; in which there were a worldly sanctuary, and the rites and ceremonies of which are styled the rudiments and elements of the world; to which believers in the present state are by no means to conform, there being sacrifices and ordinances of another nature, it is the will of God they should observe and attend unto: or else the men of the world are designed, carnal and unregenerate men, among whom they formerly had their conversation, from among whom they were chosen, called, and separated, and who lie and live in wickedness, and therefore should not be conformed unto them: which is to be understood, not in a civil sense of conformity to them in garb and apparel, provided that pride and luxury are guarded against, and decency and sobriety observed, and the different abilities of persons and stations in life are attended to; or to any other civil usages and customs which are not contrary to natural and revealed religion; but of a conformity in a moral sense to the evil manners of men, to walk vainly, as other Gentiles do, to go into the same excess of riot with them; for this is contrary both to the principle and doctrine of grace, which teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts: and of a compliance with the men of the world in a religious sense, by joining with them in acts of idolatry, superstition, and will worship, and in anything that is contrary to the order, ordinances, and truths of the Gospel.
But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind; which regards not the first work of conversion and renovation; for in this sense these persons were transformed, metamorphosed, changed, and renewed already; but the after progress and carrying on the work of renovation, the renewing of them day by day in the spirit of their minds; see Eph 4:23; which believers should be desirous of, and pray for, and make use of those means which the Spirit of God owns for this purpose, attending to the spiritual exercises of religion, as reading, meditation, prayer, conference, the ministration of the word and ordinances, which is the reverse of conformity to the world: and the end to be attained hereby is,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God; by which is meant not the secret will of God, which cannot be searched into, proved, and known, till time and facts discover it: but the revealed will of God, both in the law, as in the hands of Christ, which contains nothing but what is good; and which when done in faith, from a principle of love, and to the glory of God, is acceptable through Christ; and is perfect as a law of liberty, and rule of walk and conversation; and which is to be proved and approved of by all the saints, who delight in it after the inward man: and also that which is contained in the Gospel; as that all that the Father had given to Christ should be redeemed by him, that these should be sanctified, and persevere to the end, and be glorified; all which is the good will of God, an acceptable saying to sensible sinners, and such a scheme of salvation as is perfect and complete, and needs nothing to be added to it; and is, by such who are daily renewed in the spirit of their minds, more and more proved, tried, discerned, and approved of, even by all such who have their spiritual senses exercised to discern things that differ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Be not fashioned ( ). Present passive imperative with , stop being fashioned or do not have the habit of being fashioned. Late Greek verb , to conform to another’s pattern (1Cor 7:31; Phil 2:7). In N.T. only here and 1Pe 1:14.
According to this world ( ). Associative instrumental case. Do not take this age as your fashion plate.
Be ye transformed (). Present passive imperative of , another late verb, to transfigure as in Mt 17:2 (Mr 9:2); 2Co 3:18, which see. On the distinction between and , see Php 2:7. There must be a radical change in the inner man for one to live rightly in this evil age, “by the renewing of your mind” ( ). Instrumental case. The new birth, the new mind, the new () man.
That ye may prove ( ). Infinitive of purpose with , “to test” what is God’s will, “the good and acceptable and perfect” ( ).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Conformed – transformed [ – ] .
See on was transfigured, Mt 17:2. For conformed to, Rev., correctly, fashioned according to.
Mind [] . See on ch. Rom 7:23. Agreeing with reasonable service. That good and acceptable and perfect will. Better to render the three adjectives as appositional. “May prove what is the will of God, what is good,” etc. The other rendering compels us to take well – pleasing in the sense of agreeable to men.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And be not conformed to this world,” (kai me suschemati zesthe to aioni touto) “And be not patterned to or toward, glued to, or conformed to this age,” the order of sinful state of things of this age,” for the world order is sinful, decaying, and passing away, 1Jn 2:15-17; 1Co 7:31.
2) “But be ye transformed,” (alla metamorphousthe) “But be ye changed in appearance before men, from old habits of carnal conduct to one of Christ-like appearance, 1Co 5:1-2; 1Co 5:9; 1Co 5:13; 2Co 6:14-17; and concerning such Paul also wrote “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit,” Gal 5:25; Mat 17:2.
3) “By the renewing of your mind,” (te anakainosei tou noos) “By means of the renewing of your mind,” from an higher order of thinking and reasoning than exists of this age, 1Pe 3:18; Col 3:10; Man’s mind is to be renewed or refreshed of purer and higher thoughts by giving heed to God’s word and voice which are above man’s, Isa 55:8-9; Psa 40:5; Jer 29:11-12.
4) “That ye may prove,” (eis to dokimazein humas) “So that you all may prove, show or demonstrate,” or be a display of, the love of God, Joh 13:34-35; obedience to Christ, Joh 14:15; Joh 15:14; Heb 12:1-2.
5) “What is the will of God,” (ti to thelema tou theou) “What exists as the high, holy, divine, sublime, moral will of God,” Psa 19:7-11; Every child of God should seek to understand and follow that will daily, Joh 7:17; Eph 5:17.
6) “Good, and acceptable, and perfect,” (to agathon kai euraeston kai teleion) “Which is of a holy quality of moral goodness, and well pleasing, and perfect or spiritually mature,” in his serving children –those most obedient to him, 1Th 4:3; 1Th 5:18; Eph 5:27; Mat 5:48.
NONCONFORMITY TO THE WORLD-OUTWARD
The bird of paradise, which has such a dower of exquisitely beautiful feathers, cannot fly with the wind; if it attempts to do so, the current being much swifter than its flight, so ruffles its plumage as to impede its progress, and finally to terminate it: it is, therefore, compelled to fly against the wind, which keeps its feathers in their place, and thus it gains the place where it would be. So the Christian must not attempt to go with the current of a sinful world: if he does, it will not only hinder, but end his religious progress; but he must go against it, and then every effort of his soul will be upward, heavenward, Godward.
-M. Davies
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2. And conform ye not to this world, etc. The term world has several significations, but here it means the sentiments and the morals of men; to which, not without cause, he forbids us to conform. For since the whole world lies in wickedness, it behooves us to put off whatever we have of the old man, if we would really put on Christ: and to remove all doubt, he explains what he means, by stating what is of a contrary nature; for he bids us to be transformed into a newness of mind. These kinds of contrast are common in Scripture; and thus a subject is more clearly set forth.
Now attend here, and see what kind of renovation is required from us: It is not that of the flesh only, or of the inferior part of the soul, as the Sorbonists explain this word; but of the mind, which is the most excellent part of us, and to which philosophers ascribe the supremacy; for they call it ἡγεμονικὸν, the leading power; and reason is imagined to be a most wise queen. But Paul pulls her down from her throne, and so reduces her to nothing by teaching us that we must be renewed in mind. For how much soever we may flatter ourselves, that declaration of Christ is still true, — that every man must be born again, who would enter into the kingdom of God; for in mind and heart we are altogether alienated from the righteousness of God.
That ye may prove, (380) etc. Here you have the purpose for which we must put on a new mind, — that bidding adieu to our own counsels and desires, and those of all men, we may be attentive to the only will of God, the knowledge of which is true wisdom. But if the renovation of our mind is necessary, in order that we may prove what is the will of God, it is hence evident how opposed it is to God.
The epithets which are added are intended for the purpose of recommending God’s will, that we may seek to know it with greater alacrity: and in order to constrain our perverseness, it is indeed necessary that the true glory of justice and perfection should be ascribed to the will of God. The world persuades itself that those works which it has devised are good; Paul exclaims, that what is good and right must be ascertained from God’s commandments. The world praises itself, and takes delight in its own inventions; but Paul affirms, that nothing pleases God except what he has commanded. The world, in order to find perfection, slides from the word of God into its own devices; Paul, by fixing perfection in the will of God, shows, that if any one passes over that mark he is deluded by a false imagination.
(380) Ut probetis , εἰς τὸ δοκιμάζειν ὑμᾶς; “ ut noscatis — that ye may know,” [ Theophylact ]; “ ut diligenter scrutemini — that ye may carefully search,” [ Jerome ], “That ye may experimentally know,” [ Doddridge ]; “that ye may learn,” [ Stuart ]. The verb means chiefly three things, — to test, i.e., metals by fire, to try, to prove, to examine, 1Pe 1:7; Luk 14:19; 2Co 13:5, — to approve what is proved, Rom 14:22; 1Co 16:3, — and also to prove a thing so as to make a proper distinction, to discern, to understand, to distinguish, Luk 12:56; Rom 2:18. The last idea is the most suitable here, “in order that ye may understand what the will of God is, even that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
What [ Stuart ] says on the last clause seems just, that it is to be taken by itself, and that the words do not agree with “will,” but stand by themselves, being in the neuter gender. Otherwise we cannot affix any idea to “acceptable;” for it would be unsuitable to say that God’s will is “acceptable” to him, that being self-evident.
“
Good,” ἀγαθὸν, is useful, advantageous, beneficial; “acceptable,” εὐαρεστον, is what is pleasing to and accepted by God; and “perfect,” τέλειον, is complete, entire, without any defect, or just and right.
It ought to be borne in mind, as [ Pareus ] observes, that in order to discern, and rightly to understand God’s will, the Apostle teaches us, that “the renewing of the mind” is necessary; otherwise, as he adds, “our corrupt nature will fascinate our eyes that they may not see, or if they see, will turn our hearts and wills, that they may not approve, or if they approve, will hinder us to follow what is approved.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 12:2. And be not conformed.Be not configured to this world, but rather as Christ was transfigured on the mount. Be not like the men of this world whose all is in the present. Live for eternity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 12:2
Nonconformity to the world.We must be careful not to fall into the error of disparaging this world. The habit of holding many secular things in abhorrence is nonsense, bigotry. We need to look on all questions apart from prejudice, and be perfectly ready to take them on their merits. We are to repudiate the method of the devil in life, but not necessarily repudiate the world. Jesus is witness to the fact that this is wrong; for His treatment and His reception of this world, His recognition of the great and beautiful world of nature, wherein He spake of ravens, lilies, cornfieldslight touches of nature, everywhere recognising beauty, shaped and glorified at the hands of Godall this is enough to answer those who are wilfully blind to what the Lord of earth and heaven was glad to see: a world on which the Creator looked and saw that it was good.
I. This world: what is meant by it?
1. Not the beautiful world of nature, nor the social world merely, nor the world of intellect, nor the world of commerce.
2. It is fallen human nature, acting itself out in the human family, fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies. It is the reign of the carnal mind.
3. It is also everything that is in antagonism with God. A. difficulty lies in the fact of the changeability of this world. What is world to me is not world to another. A business mans temptations differ from a professional mans, and so on. Further, according to a mans constitution, so is this world good or bad, safe or dangerous, to him. Thus text acts as a caution.
II. Christs estimate of the world.
1. No attempt made by Him at depreciation. He recognised political life and social claims. Notice His treatment of commerce. He castigated, not commerce as commerce, but fraudulent commerce. He sought to show that we are not to be absorbed in this worlds engagements to the forgetfulness of nobler thoughts.
2. It differed from Solomons estimate. He was a jaded worldling when he said all was vanity and vexation. Christ rather taught men to use the world, but not to abuse it. Glory in it, mingle in it, work in it, rejoice and prosper in it, but do not allow it to have such a hold upon you as to master you and fashion your soul according to its will.
III. The influence of our environment.A man is known by the company he keeps. Given the character of a mans surroundings, and we can gauge the force of his temptations and difficulties. Physically, man is moulded by climate, by food, by occupation. Mentally, he is moulded by institutions, by government, by inherited beliefs and tendencies. So, religiously, a mans environment has the same and even more forcible effect upon him. Recognising this, the key of the text is: whatever tends to wean our soul from God; whatever tends to vitiate our moral environment, to bring us down or keep us low, preventing our uprising, that is an evil world to us, striving to fashion us in anything but Godlike shape of our Lord and Master, whose mind we must have if we would be of God.
IV. A Christians attitude towards the world.
1. He must breathe the spirit of nonconformity: not here speaking of denominational differences, but of the spirit of nonconformity to anything that curtails our reverence or spoils our service Godward, or robs us of Christs likeness.
2. There is an inward nonconformity: the soul lives in the world without being absorbed in its evil.
3. There is an outward nonconformity: it will not appear to agree with the worlds evil, but will resolutely stand against it.
4. This attitude is a difficult one. Hard not to be fashioned by the world. But this nonconformity can be attained by the help of God. Any who feel a sense of weakness, let them cast their whole care on the divine Helper. He who conquered death will not let death conquer you.Albert Lee.
True nonconformity.The word translated world here is not cosmos, which in the New Testament sometimes means the material world, sometimes the existing generation of men, and sometimes the unrenewed portion of humanity, but aion, which is used to represent the course and current of this worlds affairs, especially in a bad sense (Rom. 12:2; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 2:2); all that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims at any time current in the world, and which it is impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale; all this is included in the aion, which is, as Bengel expressed it, the subtle informing spirit of the cosmos or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God (Bayley). Now in the text we are exhorted not to be conformed to this state of things, not to be shaped and figured by the prevalent immorality of a passing generation. The exhortation includes at least three things:
I. Be practical theists.The world, the existing generation of mankind, is mainly without God. God is not in all its thoughts. If He appear in the horizon, it is only as a fleeting vision, a passing phantom. He is not the great object filling up the horizon and causing all other objects to dwindle into shadows. Theoretical theism is somewhat prevalent. It talks and prays and sings and preaches throughout Christendom. But practical theism is rare and unworldly. Mere theoretical theism is a hypocrisy, a crime, and a curse. Practical theism alone is honest, virtuous, and beneficent. Practical theism is nonconformity to the world.
II. Be practically spiritual.The world, the existing generation, is essentially materialistic; the body rules the spirit. What shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewithal shall we be clothed? This is the all-pervading, all-animating aspiration. Men everywhere judge after the flash, walk after the flesh, live after the flesh; they are of the earth earthy. Nonconformity to the world is the opposite to this. Spirit is the dominating power. Intellect governs the body; conscience governs the intellect; moral rectitude governs the conscience. The things of the spirit are everything to them: they walk after the spirit; they live to the spirit. The soul is regal.
III. Be practically unselfish.The great body of existing generations is selfish. Each man lives to himself and for himself. Self is the centre and circumference of his activities. The commerce, the governments, and even the Churches of the world, are mainly conducted on selfish principles. Each man is in quest of his own interest, his own aggrandisement, his own happiness. Nonconformity to the world means the opposite of this. It means that supreme sympathy with God, that brotherly love for the race, that absorbs the ego, that buries self, that is in truth the spirit of Christ, the spirit of self-sacrificing benevolence. Let no man, says Paul, seek his own, but every man anothers wealth.
Conclusion: What is true nonconformity?Not a mere dissent from this Church or that Church, this creed or that creed, but a dissent from that spirit of moral wrong which pervades and animates the generation. This was the nonconformity which Christ exhibited and He implored on behalf of His disciples. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Let us cultivate this nonconformity, knowing that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, and that if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.W. Thomas.
Conformity sinful compliance.As for the conformity to the world that is here forbidden, I believe nobody thinks there is any more intended by this prohibition than only a sinful compliance with the customs of the world, a framing of our lives and manners after the impious practices and examples that we see frequently represented before us, an indulging ourselves in such bad courses as the men of the world do too often give themselves liberty in.
Taking, now, this to be the true notion of being conformed to the world, then the being transformed by the renewing of our minds, which is put in opposition to it, must denote our being actuated with more heavenly and divine principles, and framing our conversation in such a way as is suitable to the profession of Christianity which we have taken upon ourselves. It must denote such a holy disposition and frame of soul as doth effectually produce a conformity of all the outward actions to the law of the gospel, to which the law of sin and the course of the world are opposite.
There are these two inconveniences in multiplying the signs and marks of regeneration: one is, that oftentimes such marks are given of it as that a man may be a very good Christian, and, without doubt, a regenerate person, and not find them in himself. Another inconveniency is this: that such marks are likewise given that even a bad man may experience them in himself, though some good men cannot.
The truest mark is that of our Saviour: the tree is known by its fruits. If a man be baptised, and, heartily believing the Christian religion, doth sincerely endeavour to live up to it; if his faith in Jesus Christ be so strong that, by virtue thereof, he overcomes the world and the evil customs thereof; if, knowing the laws of our Saviour, he so endeavours to conform himself to them that he doth not live in any known wilful transgression of them, but in the general course of his life walks honestly and piously, and endeavours, in holy conversation, to keep a good conscience both towards God and man,such a man, however he came into this state, and with whatever infirmities it may be attendedof which infirmities yet he is deeply sensible, and fails not both to pray and strive against themyet he is a good man, and gives a true evidence of his regeneration, though he have not all the marks and qualifications that he may meet with in books. And such a man, if he persevere in the course he is in, will without doubt at last be justified before God and find an admission into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.Archbishop Sharpe.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Rom. 12:2. What stopped the saw-mill.In one of the older States of America resided an infidel, the owner of a saw-mill, situate by the side of a highway, over which a large portion of the community passed every Sabbath to and from the church. This infidel, having no regard for the Sabbath, was as busy, and his mill was as noisy, on that holy day as any other. Before long it was observed, however, that a certain time before service the mill would stop, remain silent and appear to be deserted for a few minutes, when its noise and clatter would recommence, and continue till about the close of the service, when for a short time it again ceased. It was soon noticed that one of the deacons of the church passed the mill to the place of worship during the silent interval; and so punctual was he to the hour that the infidel knew just when to stop the mill, so that it should be silent while the deacon was passing, although he paid no regard to the passing of the others. On being asked why he paid this mark of respect to the deacon, he replied, The deacon professes just what the rest of you do, but he lives, also, such a life that it makes me feel bad here (putting his hand upon his heart) to run my mill while he is passing. Let your light so shine before men.Ellen Preston.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(2) Be not conformed . . . but be ye transformed.Here the English is somewhat misleading. It would naturally lead us to expect a similar play upon words in the Greek. But it is not so; indeed, there is a clear distinction between the two different words employed. It is the difference between an outward conformity or disguise and a thorough inward assimilation. The Christian is not to copy the fleeting fashions of the present time, but to be wholly transfigured in view of that higher mode of existence, in strict accordance with Gods will, that he has chosen.
This world.Not here the same word as that which is used, e.g., in 1Jn. 2:15-17, but another, which signifies rather the state of the world as it existed at the Coming of Christ, as opposed to the newly-inaugurated Messianic reign. To be conformed to this world is to act as other men do, heathen who know not God; in opposition to this the Apostle exhorts his readers to undergo that total change which will bring them more into accordance with the will of God.
By the renewing of your mind.The mind (i.e., the mental faculties, reason, or understanding) is in itself neutral. When informed by an evil principle, it becomes an instrument of evil; when informed by the Spirit, it is an instrument of good. It performs the process of discrimination between good and evil, and so supplies the data to conscience. The mind here is not strictly identical with what we now mean by conscience; it is, as it were, the rational part of conscience, to which the moral quality needs to be superadded. The renewed mind, or the mind acting under the influence of the Spirit, comes very near to conscience in the sense in which the word is used by Bishop Butler.
Prove.As elsewhere, discriminate, and so approve. The double process is included: first, of deciding what the will of God is; and, secondly, of choosing and acting upon it.
What is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.The will of God is here, not the divine attribute of will, but the thing willed by God, the right course of action. Are we to take the adjectives good, and acceptable, and perfect (with the Authorised version), as in agreement with this phrase, or are they rather in apposition to it, that we may prove the will of God, that which is good, and acceptable, and perfect? Most of the commentators prefer this latter way of taking the passage, but it is not quite clear that the former is impossible, that good, and acceptable, and perfect thing, or course of action which God wills. Acceptable, that is to say, to God Himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. And By the power of this complete surrendering faith.
Conformed Is external, while transformed is internal. Full effective faith reforms us from the image of the world, and conforms to the model of the divine will. And when that is completed in the glorified man he is renewed in the divine likeness.
To this world The word for world here, , signifies not the physical frame of the globe, (for which is the more proper term,) but the living world or age of man. The nonconformity here does not consist of that cheap nonconformity which consists of a peculiar fashion of coat or bonnet. Christianity does not prescribe a certain fashion or costume, or a special grammar. Conformity to our age in things involving no sin or moral depravation is right. It is a waste of moral strength where there is so much real sin and ruin in the world to expend our efforts on incidental trifles. And it was a terribly heathen world in which these Romans lived and the apostle wrote. Christianity had not softened and shaded the world to its own likeness. Hence the external non-conformity of that age meant a wider contrast than is possible now between the Christian and his more immediate surrounding world. Yet in the receding background our present age darkens into a darkness almost as deep as heathenism itself. The age still largely lies in wickedness.
Transformed renewing mind The apostle strikes deeply. True perfected faith renews the mind, and changes it from the world’s fashion to the model of God’s will.
Prove That is, may test or ascertain by a full, rich actual experience. The will of God here is God’s wish or requirement from us. And the terms good, acceptable, and perfect are not, as in our translation, adjectives qualifying will, but adjective nouns in apposition with it. The real meaning, then, is, Ye may prove what God’s requirement of us is; namely, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. Faith, therefore, is our self-commitment to God, and to all goodness, acceptability, and perfection.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rom 12:2 . Infinitives (see the critical notes): , to become like-shaped , and , to become transformed . The two verbs stand in contrast only through the prepositions , without any difference of sense in the stem-words. Comp. the interchange of and in Phi 2:7 , also the Greek usage of and , which denote any kind of conformation according to the context (Plut. Mor . p. 719 B: , Eur. Iph. T . 292: ). Here of moral conformation, without requiring us to distinguish and as inner and outer (Bengel, Philippi), or as appearance to others and one’s own state in itself (Hofmann), On the interchange of the infinitive of the aorist ( ) and present , comp. on Rom 6:12 .
] to the present age , running on to the Parousia , (see on Mat 12:32 ), the character (ethical mould) of which is that of immorality (Eph 2:2 ; Gal 1:4 ; 2Co 4:4 , et al .). is also found in rhetoricians with the dative (as also 1Pe 1:14 ), instead of with or .
. . ] whereby the . is to be effected: through the renewal of the thinking power ( here, according to its practical side, the reason in its moral quality and activity; see on Rom 7:23 ; Eph 4:23 ). It needs this renewal in order to become the sphere of operation for the divine truth of salvation, when it, under the ascendency of in the , has become darkened, weak, unfree, and transformed into the (Rom 1:28 ), the (Col 2:18 ). Comp. on Rom 7:23 . And this renewal, which the regenerate man also needs on account of the conflict of flesh and spirit which exists in him (Rom 8:4 ff.; Gal 5:16 ff.) through daily penitence (Col 3:10 ; 2Co 7:10 ; 1Th 5:22-23 ), is effected by means of the life-element of faith (Phi 3:9 ff.), transforming the inner man (Eph 3:16-17 ; 2Co 5:17 ), under the influence of the Holy Spirit , Eph 4:23-24 ; Tit 3:5 . This influence restores the harmony in which the ought to stand with the divine ; not, however, annulling the moral freedom of the believer, but, on the contrary, presupposing it; hence the exhortation: to be transformed ( passive ). As to the in ., see on Col 3:10 .
.] belongs not merely to . . as its direction (Hofmann), but (comp. Phi 1:10 and on Rom 1:20 ) specifies the aim of the . . . . . . To the man who is not transformed by the renewal of his intellect this proving which is no merely theoretical business of reflection, but is the critical practice of the whole inner life forms no part of the activity of conscience. Comp. Eph 5:10 . The sense: to be able to prove (Rckert, Kllner), is as arbitrarily introduced as in Rom 2:18 . He who is transformed by that renewal not merely can do , but which Paul has here in view as the immediate object of the . . . actually does the , and has thereby the foundation for a further moral development; he does it by means of the judgment of his conscience, stirred and illuminated by the Spirit (2Co 1:12 ). On , what is willed by God , comp. Mat 6:10 ; Eph 5:17 ; Eph 6:6 ; Col 1:9 ; 1Th 4:3 .
. . . .] is, by the Peschito, the Vulgate, Chrysostom, and most of the older interpreters, also by Rckert and Reiche, united adjectivally with . But as . would thus be unsuitable to this, we must rather (with Erasmus, Castalio, and others, including Tholuck, Flatt, Kllner, de Wette, Fritzsche, Reithmayr, Philippi, van Hengel, Hofmann) approve the substantival rendering (as apposition to . . ): that which is good and well-pleasing ( to God ) and perfect . The repetition of the article was the less necessary, as the three adjectives used substantivally exhaust one notion (that of moral good), and that climactically. Comp. Winer, p. 121 [E. T. 159]; Dissen, ad Dem. de cor . p. 373 f.; Khner, II. 1, p. 528.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1905
AGAINST CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD
Rom 12:2. 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.
THE morality, no less than the doctrines, of the Gospel far excels the boasted inventions of philosophy. There is not one principle in the human heart, or one action of our lives, which is not depraved by sin. The whole system of mans conduct is deranged: and to rectify it in all its parts, is the scope of that revelation which God has given us. The inspired writers are not satisfied with lopping off a few branches; they strike at the root of all sin; and labour to bring us back to that state of allegiance to our Maker from which we are fallen. This is peculiarly observable in the exhortation before us, in explaining which we shall shew,
I.
What is that conformity to the world which we are to avoid
Doubtless there is a degree of conformity to the world which is necessary, if we would not render ourselves perfectly ridiculous and absurd: but there are limits, beyond which we ought not to go. To mark out those limits we may observe, that we should not be conformed to,
1.
Its company and conduct
[We cannot wholly avoid worldly company; for then we must needs go out of the world: but we surely should not choose such for our companions; and much less form an indissoluble alliance with them [Note: 1Co 7:39. only in the Lord.]. If we ourselves be spiritual, it is not possible that we should enjoy the society of a carnal person, because his views, desires, and pursuits must of necessity be as opposite to ours as darkness is to light [Note: 2Co 6:14-17.]. By forming a connexion with such persons, what can be expected but that we should be enticed to imitate their conduct? And though we commit no flagrant evil, we are assured, that while we are walking according to the course of this world, we walk after the will of Satan and not of God [Note: Eph 2:2.].]
2.
Its maxims and principles
[According to the established maxims of the world, we should seek above all things the favour and esteem of men; we should avoid every thing that may make us appear singular; and on no account testify our disapprobation of any practice that is sanctioned by general custom. But how do such principles accord with the Holy Scriptures? In them we are told that, if we make it our grand aim to please men, we cannot be the servants of Jesus Christ [Note: Gal 1:10.]: and, if we have attained that object, instead of congratulating ourselves upon our success, we have reason to tremble on account of the woe denounced against us [Note: Luk 6:26.]. Instead of dreading a necessary singularity, we are required to shine as lights in a dark world [Note: Php 2:15.], and not only to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but faithfully to reprove them [Note: Eph 5:11.]. We are to be armed with a steady determination to live the rest of our time, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God [Note: 1Pe 4:2.].]
3.
Its spirit and temper
[In what does the spirit of the world consist? It consists altogether in self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-confidence, and self-complacency. Now can any thing be more abhorrent from a Christian state than such a disposition as this? We are not to be resting satisfied with present attainments, or studying how much we can please the flesh without forfeiting the favour of God; but are rather to be pressing forwards towards perfection, without at all regarding the loss or pain we may be called to undergo in the prosecution of our duty [Note: Act 20:24; Act 21:13.]. How hateful a want of such a holy resolution is, may be seen in the reply which our Lord made to Peter, who would have dissuaded him from exposing himself to the trials he had predicted: Get thee behind me Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men [Note: Mat 16:23.].]
Further light will be reflected on this subject by considering,
II.
Wherein consists that transformation of soul that is opposed to it
The Christian is a new creature; old things are passed away; and all things are become new: according to the proficiency he has made, he conforms himself to,
1.
Other principles
[The worldly man knows no higher principle than self-love: whatever be his subordinate motive of action, all may be traced up to this. But they who are partakers of the Gospel salvation, are under the influence of a far nobler principle, the love of Christ: the thought of Christ having died for them, fills their hearts with admiration and gratitude: it inspires them with an ardent desire to testify their sense of his kindness: and forms a powerful incentive to holy actions. This is attested by St. Paul [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.]; and it constitutes a most essential part of that transformation of soul, which characterizes the true Christian. Subordinate motives indeed a believer may feel; but a desire of pleasing and honouring God, and a fear of dishonouring or displeasing him, will operate with the greatest force; and that too, in opposition to carnal considerations, no less than in aid of them.]
2.
Other rules
[The fashion of the world is the standard by which men in general regulate their conduct: but the Christian takes the word of God for his guide, and the example of Christ for his pattern; and, instead of reducing the rule to his practice, he endeavours to elevate his practice to the rule. He brings every thing to the law and to the testimony: and a plain declaration, or command, of God will be more to him than any precepts of men, or than the example of the whole universe. It is his ambition to walk as Christ walked: and though he knows that he can never attain the measure of his perfection, yet he strives incessantly to follow the pattern of it, that so he may be perfect even as his Father that is in heaven is perfect [Note: Mat 5:48.].]
3.
Other ends
[A Christian would not be content with ordering his actions aright, even if he could arrive at the highest degrees of holiness, unless he had also the testimony of his conscience that he sought, not his own glory, but the glory of God: having been bought with a price, he is conscious that he is not his own, and that consequently he ought not to live unto himself, but unto him that died for him. He feels that, if in any thing he consult merely his own honour or interest, he so far withholds from God the honour due unto his name; and therefore he labours to comply with that divine injunction, Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God [Note: 1Co 10:31.].]
Thus is the Christian transformed, not in respect of his life only, but in the spirit of his mind; and therefore can declare from experience,
III.
What effects this progressive renovation will produce
There are many objections raised by the world against the sanctity that has been before described; and there is much opposition to it in the heart of every unrenewed person: but the experience of it will most effectually discover it to be,
1.
Good in itself
[Piety is too generally considered as needless preciseness: nor need we have any thing more than a separation from the world, and a transformation of soul after the Divine image, in order to become objects of reproach and contempt. Even the more sober and discreet part of mankind regard the precepts before us as hard sayings, unsuitable to modern times, and unfit for general practice. But as our Lord said of his doctrines, that whosoever would do his will, should know whether they were of God [Note: Joh 7:17.], so we may say of his precepts. While we are blinded by carnal desires, the commands of God will appear rigorous; and we shall labour more to explain them away, than to obey them: but if once we adopt them as the rule of our conduct, their beauty and excellence will manifestly appear; and we shall be convinced that, to obey them is, to be truly happy [Note: Isa 32:17.].]
2.
Acceptable to God
[While religion is accounted superstition, it is no wonder that the sublimer duties of Christianity are declined as unnecessary, and that they who practise them are deemed righteous over-much. But a renovation of soul will soon dispel this error, and shew us that, the more entire our devotedness to God be, the more highly shall we be raised in Gods esteem. If only we make the word of God the standard of our actions, we cannot possibly be too earnest in improving the talents committed to us: nor can we doubt but that the tokens of Gods approbation that we shall receive, shall be proportioned to the sacrifices we have made, and the exertions we have used in his service [Note: Mat 25:20-23.].]
3.
Beneficial to man
[It is usually supposed that a compliance with the directions in the text would weaken our faculties, and so distract our minds as to render us unfit for the common offices of life. But the very reverse of this is known to be true by all those who make the experiment. Heavenly-mindedness tends to perfect the man of God in all his faculties, and thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works. Till this takes possession of the soul, a man is the sport of every temptation, and liable to be led captive by every lust: but grace will establish his heart; it will bring a consistency into his whole conduct; it will change him into the very image of God; and will render him meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.]
Address
1.
Those who are yet conformed to the world
[If you are free from gross vices, you do not apprehend your conformity to the world to be any reason for questioning the safety of your state. But it is scarcely possible for God to declare in more express terms your guilt and danger, than he has done in various parts of Holy Writ [Note: Joh 17:16. Gal 1:4. 1Jn 2:15-16. Jam 4:4.]. You are therefore reduced to this alternative, either to come out of Sodom, or to perish in it; either to enter in at the strait gate, and walk in the narrow way, or to fall into that destruction that awaits you at the end of the broad and frequented path. O that God may enable you to choose the good part; and to adhere to it in spite of all the odium your singularity may bring upon you!]
2.
Those who profess to have experienced a transformation of soul
[You need to be much upon your guard lest after you have escaped the pollutions of the world, you should be again entangled therein and overcome [Note: 2Pe 2:20.]. It is your wisdom to avoid temptation, and to guard against the snares that are laid for your feet. However circumspectly you may walk, you will find reason enough to lament your manifold defects. Lay not then any stumbling-blocks in your own way; but seek rather to experience the transforming efficacy of the Gospel: let the world be crucified unto you, and be ye crucified unto the world [Note: Gal 6:14.]. As obedient children, fashion yourselves in no respect according to your former lusts in your ignorance, but as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [Note: 1Pe 1:14-15.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
2 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.
Ver. 2. To this world ] To the corrupt customs and courses of wicked worldings. See them set forth, Rom 13:13 ; Eph 4:18-20 1Pe 4:3 , and shun them. Erasmus rendereth it, Ne accommodetis vos ad figuram, Accommodate not yourselves to the figure and fashion of the world; do not impersonate and act the part of such; as a player doth, when he playeth the drunkard or wanton on the scaffold or stage (so signifies). St Paul writeth to his Corinthians, not to company with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or idolaters, lest they should conform to them, 1Co 5:9-10 . For as the creatures living in the several elements are commonly of the temperature of the element they live in (as the fishes, cold and moist like the water; the worms, cold and dry as the earth, &c.), so are we apt to conform to the company we converse with. It is both hard and happy not to do as the rest do; but to be like fishes, that retain their sweetness in the salt sea; like salamanders, that remain unscorched in the fire; like pearls, that growing in the sea, have the colour and brightness of heaven; like oil, that will easily overtop all other liquors, and not commingle; ever holding constant a countermotion to the course of the world and corruptions of the times; that amidst all, a good conscience may be kept, that richest treasure and dearest jewel that ever the heart of man was acquainted with.
But be ye transformed ] Gr. metamorphosed, the old frame being dissolved, and a new form acquired.
That ye may prove ] so. By your practice.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2. ] is not Imperative in sense, but dependent on . (Of course, in all such questions betwen and , the confusing element of itacism comes in: but in no case where both forms are equally admissible in the text, can the mere suspicion of itacism be allowed to decide the question.)
, here, the whole world of the ungodly , as contrasted with the spiritual kingdom of Christ.
The dat. is not the instrument by which, but the manner in which the metamorphosis takes place: that wherein it consists: compare , Col 2:11 .
, that ye may prove , viz. in this process and the active Christian life accompanying it, compare reff. Eph., Phil.: not ‘ that ye may be able to prove ,’ ‘acquire the faculty of proving,’ as Bucer, Olsh., Rckert: the Apostle is not speaking of acquiring wisdom here, but of practical proof by experience.
. . . . . are not epithets of . as in E. V., for in that case they would be superfluous, and in part ( ) inapplicable: but abstract neuters, see Rom 12:9 , that ye may prove what is the will of God (viz. that which is) good and acceptable (to Him) and perfect . The non-repetition of the art. shews that the adjectives all apply to the same thing.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 12:2 . : the imperative is better supported ( [24] [25] [26] ) than the infinitive ( [27] [28] [29] [30] ). For the word cf. 1Pe 1:14 . The distinctions that have been drawn between and on the ground of other distinctions assumed between and though supported by distinguished scholars, remind one of the shrewd remark of Jowett, that there is a more dangerous deficiency for the commentator than ignorance of Greek, namely, ignorance of language. In the face of such examples as are quoted by Weiss (Plut., Mor. , p. 719 B: : Eur., Iph. . , 292, ) and Wetstein (Sext. Emp., , , , ) it is impossible not to regard the distinctions in question as very arbitrary. For the best supported and most relevant, reflected in Sanday and Headlam’s paraphrase (“do not adopt the external and fleeting fashion of this world, but be ye transformed in your inmost nature ”), see Lightfoot on Phi 2:7 , or Gifford on the same passage ( The Incarnation , pp. 22 ff., 88 ff.). : “This world” or “age” is opposed to that which is to come; it is an evil world (Gal 1:4 ) of which Satan is the God (2Co 4:4 ). Even apparent or superficial conformity to a system controlled by such a spirit, much more an actual accommodation to its ways, would be fatal to the Christian life. By nature, the Christian is at home in this world ( cf. Eph 2:2 ); such as it is, its life and his life are one; and his deliverance is accomplished as he is transformed , by the renewing of his mind. in the Apostle’s usage (see chap. 7) is both intellectual and moral the practical reason, or moral consciousness. This is corrupted and atrophied in the natural man, and renewed by the action of the Holy Spirit. The process would in modern language be described rather as sanctification than regeneration, but regeneration is assumed (Tit 3:5 ). : this is the purpose of the transforming renewal of the mind. It is that Christians may prove, i.e. , discern in their experience, what the will of God is. Cf. Rom 2:18 . An unrenewed mind cannot do this; it is destitute of moral discernment has no proper moral faculty. : these words may either qualify as in A.V., or be in apposition to it, as in R.V. margin. The last agrees better with the rhythm of the sentence. The will of God is identified with what is , good in the moral sense: well pleasing, sc. , to God (so in all the nine cases of the adjective and three of the verb which are found in the N.T.); and ethically adequate or complete: Deu 18:13 , Mat 5:48 . No one discovers the line of action which from possessing these characteristics can be identified as the will of God unless he is transformed from his native affinity to the world by the renewing of his mind by the Holy Spirit.
[24] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[25] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[26] Codex Porphyrianus (sc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Rom 2:13-16 .
[27] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[28] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[29] Codex Augiensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of , and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.
[30] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Romans
TRANSFIGURATION
Rom 12:2
I had occasion to point out, in a sermon on the preceding verse, that the Apostle is, in this context, making the transition from the doctrinal to the practical part of his letter, and that he lays down broad principles, of which all his subsequent injunctions and exhortations are simply the filling up of the details. One master word, for the whole Christian life, as we then saw, is sacrifice, self-surrender, and that to God. In like manner, Paul here brackets, with that great conception of the Christian life, another equally dominant and equally comprehensive. In one aspect, it is self-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. And, just as in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded the outward sacrifice, and that the inner man, having been consecrated as a priest, by this yielding of himself to God, was then called upon to manifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice, so in this further exhortation, an inward ‘renewing of the mind’ is regarded as the necessary antecedent of transformation of outward life.
So we have here another comprehensive view of what the Christian life ought to be, and that not only grasped, as it were, in its very centre and essence, but traced out in two directions-as to that which must precede it within, and as to that which follows it as consequence. An outline of the possibilities, and therefore the duties, of the Christian, is set forth here, in these three thoughts of my text, the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life, crowned and rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we ought to be and do.
I. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of character and conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind.
Now, I suppose that in my text the word ‘mind’ is not so much employed in the widest sense, including all the affections and will, and the other faculties of our nature, as in the narrower sense of the perceptive power, or that faculty in our nature by which we recognise, and make our own, certain truths. ‘The renewing of the mind,’ then, is only, in such an interpretation, a theological way of putting the simpler English thought, a change of estimates, a new set of views; or if that word be too shallow, as indeed it is, a new set of convictions. It is profoundly true that ‘As a man thinketh, so is he.’ Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable. And what the Apostle is thinking about here is, as I take it, principally how the body of Christian truth, if it effects a lodgment in, not merely the brain of a man, but his whole nature, will modify and alter it all. Why, we all know how often a whole life has been revolutionised by the sudden dawning or rising in its sky, of some starry new truth, formerly hidden and undreamed of. And if we should translate the somewhat archaic phraseology of our text into the plainest of modern English, it just comes to this: If you want to change your characters, and God knows they all need it, change the deep convictions of your mind; and get hold, as living realities, of the great truths of Christ’s Gospel. If you and I really believed what we say we believe, that Jesus Christ has died for us, and lives for us, and is ready to pour out upon us the gift of His Divine Spirit, and wills that we should be like Him, and holds out to us the great and wonderful hopes and prospects of an absolutely eternal life of supreme and serene blessedness at His right hand, should we be, could we be, the sort of people that most of us are? It is not the much that you say you believe that shapes your character; it is the little that you habitually realise. Truth professed has no transforming power; truth received and fed upon can revolutionise a man’s whole character.
So, dear brethren, remember that my text, though it is an analysis of the methods of Christian progress, and though it is a wonderful setting forth of the possibilities open to the poorest, dwarfed, blinded, corrupted nature, is also all commandment. And if it is true that the principles of the Gospel exercise transforming power upon men’s lives, and that in order for these principles to effect their natural results there must be honest dealing with them, on our parts, take this as the practical outcome of all this first part of my sermon-let us all see to it that we keep ourselves in touch with the truths which we say we believe; and that we thorough-goingly apply these truths in all their searching, revealing, quickening, curbing power, to every action of our daily lives. If for one day we could bring everything that we do into touch with the creed that we profess, we should be different men and women. Make of your every thought an action; link every action with a thought. Or, to put it more Christianlike, let there be nothing in your creed which is not in your commandments; and let nothing be in your life which is not moulded by these. The beginning of all transformation is the revolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of the Gospel.
II. Well then, secondly, note the transfigured life.
The life is to be transfigured, yet it remains the same, not only in the consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and drift of the character. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked individuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the Gospel is meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more intensely himself, more thoroughly individual and unlike anybody else. The perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit, to the furthest point, of the characteristics of our nature, and so, by reason of diversity, there is the greater harmony, and, all taken together, will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories of which they are all partakers. But whilst the individuality remains, and ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a change should pass over our lives, like the change that passes over the winter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from the hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown pastures. There should be such a change as when a drop or two of ruby wine falls into a cup, and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint over all the whiteness of the water. Christ in us, if we are true to Him, will make us more ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus.
And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the pattern of all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. There are two types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We have to make our choice which is to be the headline after which we are to try to write. ‘They that make them are like unto them.’ Men resemble their gods; men become more or less like their idols. What you conceive to be desirable you will more and more assimilate yourselves to. Christ is the Christian man’s pattern; is He not better than the blind, corrupt world?
That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution which underlies it may be instantaneous. The working out of the new motives, the working in of the new power, is no mere work of a moment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. Michael Angelo, in his mystical way, used to say that sculpture effected its aim by the removal of parts; as if the statue lay somehow hid in the marble block. We have, day by day, to work at the task of removing the superfluities that mask its outlines. Sometimes with a heavy mallet, and a hard blow, and a broad chisel, we have to take away huge masses; sometimes, with fine tools and delicate touches, to remove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling block, but always to seek more and more, by slow, patient toil, to conform ourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have learned to love in Jesus Christ.
And remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic change effected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace ourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of more completely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be a solemn question for each of us whether we can say, ‘To-day I am liker Jesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which renews the mind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before.’
But this positive commandment is only one side of the transfiguration that is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a new likeness is being stamped upon a man, the process may be looked at from the other side; and that in proportion as we become liker Jesus Christ, we shall become more unlike the old type to which we were previously conformed. And so, says Paul, ‘Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed.’ He does not mean to say that the nonconformity precedes the transformation. They are two sides of one process; both arising from the renewing of the mind within.
Now, I do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon the thoughts that are here, but I dare not pass them by altogether. ‘This world’ here, in my text, is more properly ‘this age,’ which means substantially the same thing as John’s favourite word ‘world,’ viz. the sum total of godless men and things conceived of as separated from God, only that by this expression the essentially fleeting nature of that type is more distinctly set forth. Now the world is the world to-day just as much as it was in Paul’s time. No doubt the Gospel has sweetened society; no doubt the average of godless life in England is a better thing than the average of godless life in the Roman Empire. No doubt there is a great deal of Christianity diffused through the average opinion and ways of looking at things, that prevail around us. But the World is the world still. There are maxims and ways of living, and so on, characteristic of the Christian life, which are in as complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims and practices that prevail amongst men who are outside of the influences of this Christian truth in their own hearts, as ever they were.
And although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a very earnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very specially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people, who call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they can come in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates of literature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, in trade, and especially in amusements-the nearer they can come to the un-Christian world, the more ‘broad’ save the mark! and ‘superior to prejudice’ they are. ‘Puritanism,’ not only in theology, but in life and conduct, has come to be at a discount in these days. And it seems to be by a great many professing Christians thought to be a great feat to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot over the path and the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. You are safer so. Although, of course, I am not talking about mere conventional dissimilarities; and though I know and believe and feel all that can be said about the insufficiency, and even insincerity, of such, yet there is a broad gulf between the man who believes in Jesus Christ and His Gospel and the man who does not, and the resulting conducts cannot be the same unless the Christian man is insincere.
III. And now lastly, and only a word, note the great reward and crown of this transfigured life.
There may be many difficulties left, many perplexities. There is no promise here, nor is there anything in the tendencies of Christ-like living, to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard to matters of prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will follow from such a transfigured life. All such matters are still to be determined in the proper fashion, by the exercise of our own best judgment and common-sense. But in the higher region, the knowledge of good and evil, surely it is a blessed reward, and one of the highest that can be given to a man, that there shall be in him so complete a harmony with God that, like God’s Son, he ‘does always the things that please Him,’ and that the Father will show him whatsoever things Himself doeth; and that these also will the son do likewise. To know beyond doubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to have no hesitation or reluctance in doing it, seems to me to be heaven upon earth, and the man that has it needs but little more. This, then, is the reward. Each peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into the untravelled land before us.
And so, brethren, here is the way, the only way, by which we can change ourselves, first let us have our minds renewed by contact with the truth, then we shall be able to transform our lives into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and our faces too will shine, and our lives will be ennobled, by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire, though it may rebuke them. And as the issue of all we shall have clearer and deeper insight into that will, which to know is life, in keeping of which there is great reward. And thus our apostle’s promise may be fulfilled for each of us. ‘We all with unveiled faces reflecting’-as a mirror does-’the glory of the Lord, are changed . . . into the same image.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
not. Greek. me. App-105.
conformed. Greek. suschematizo. Only here and 1Pe 1:14. Compare 1Co 4:6.
world. Greek. aion. App-129.
transformed. Greek. metamorphoomai. See Mat 17:2.
renewing. Greek. anakainosis. Only here and Tit 3:5. Compare Heb 6:6.
your = the.
that, &c. = to (Greek. eis) your proving.
that = the.
perfect. Greek. teleios App-125.
will. Greek. thelema. App-102.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2.] is not Imperative in sense, but dependent on . (Of course, in all such questions betwen and , the confusing element of itacism comes in: but in no case where both forms are equally admissible in the text, can the mere suspicion of itacism be allowed to decide the question.)
, here, the whole world of the ungodly, as contrasted with the spiritual kingdom of Christ.
The dat. is not the instrument by which, but the manner in which the metamorphosis takes place: that wherein it consists: compare , Col 2:11.
, that ye may prove, viz. in this process and the active Christian life accompanying it, compare reff. Eph., Phil.: not that ye may be able to prove, acquire the faculty of proving, as Bucer, Olsh., Rckert: the Apostle is not speaking of acquiring wisdom here, but of practical proof by experience.
. . . . . are not epithets of . as in E. V., for in that case they would be superfluous, and in part () inapplicable: but abstract neuters, see Rom 12:9, that ye may prove what is the will of God (viz. that which is) good and acceptable (to Him) and perfect. The non-repetition of the art. shews that the adjectives all apply to the same thing.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 12:2. – ) , form, conformation, denotes something more inward and thoroughly finished, than , fashion or external appearance [habitus].-Comp. Php 2:6; Php 2:8; Php 3:21. The external appearance of the saints should not be inconsistent with the internal form [conformation].-, to the world) which neglects the will of God, and is entirely devoted to selfish pursuits.-, to prove [approve by testing]) This also refers to that new , form. The antithesis is in ch. Rom 1:28. [While a mans mind continues in its original condition (the old man), how sagacious soever he may be, he cannot prove the will of God. He will endeavour to defend at one time this, and at another that (objectionable thing), thinking that God is such a one as himself.-V. g.]-[128] , and perfect) He, who presents [his body] an oblation, living, holy, acceptable, knows the will of God as good, requiring what is living and holy, acceptable, and, with the progress of believers [in course of time, as believers make progress] perfect. [They by unworthy means shun this perfect will, who are continually seeking after such things as they are at liberty still to engage in without sin (as they think). The conduct of such men as these resembles that of the traveller, who takes a delight in walking, not in the safe path, but without necessity on the extreme verge of the bank.-V. g.]
[128] , the will) For special reasons very many questions occasionally arise, whether it would be right to do this or that, or not. They can easily decide, who make the will of God their great concern and chief delight. But they require experience [to prove and test things] and intelligence. Eph 5:17.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 12:2
Rom 12:2
And be not fashioned according to this world:-To be conformed to the world is to seek worldly good, to follow worldly ends, guided by the wisdom of the world. [By this world is meant the whole world of the ungodly as contrasted with the followers of Christ; the temporary order of things in which sin predominates. It is false, impure, and turbulent, mighty heaving confusion of fallen spirits, wrestling with each other and with God. As such, this world is in eternal opposition to him. Besides the grosser kinds of sensual and spiritual evil, this world has a multitude of refined and subtle powers of enmity against the divine will. There is, besides the lusts of the flesh, also the lusts of the eyes, the vainglory of life, pomp, ease, luxury, and self-pleasing; and there is, moreover, the stately self-worship, the fastidious self-contemplation of intellectual or secular men. And with this comes also a throng of less elevated sins-levity, love of pleasure, a thirst for money, a hunger for popularity and its debasing successes. These things steal away the heart and make men false to the Master. To be fashioned to the world is to be like unrenewed men in temper and in life.]
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,-To be transformed is to be changed from the pursuit of worldly ends by renewing the mind, directing it by gospel motives into new channels for spiritual ends. [In other words, the mind, instead of being fashioned after this world, is to be so changed in belief, desire, and purpose as to lead to a life unlike the world in the particulars meant. The old, unrenewed mind fashions the life after the world; the renewed mind refuses because of the antagonism between it and the world. The renewed mind induces a new life.]
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.-Test by experience what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God will do toward making happy and bringing good. Before they obeyed the gospel they had in their daily life sought enjoyment in gratifying their lascivious appetites and passions. The entreaty now is that they should no longer practice these licentious habits, but prove the good of the will of God by practicing its precepts. [The mind must be renewed in order to judge correctly of Gods will. The things that enter into and make the Christian life are the things to be judged, and not of his will at large. It is his will respecting what, in Christian conduct, is in itself good, what is well-pleasing because right, what is perfect, or without flaw or defect. In regard to these things God has an expressed will, and to judge of it correctly the mind must be renewed.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In Fashion or in Favour
Be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.Rom 12:2.
1. The great aim of St. Paul in the first eleven chapters of the Epistle to the Romans is to convince his readers that men of no race or class, whether Jews or Gentiles, can claim eternal life on the ground of their own merits, but, in order to receive it, must be content to accept it humbly and thankfully from the grace of God. His own summary of his whole argument is, For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. To this mercy or grace he traces the calling, the election, the justification, the sanctification, the peace, the joys, the hopes, and, in a word, all the blessings shown by him to be included in the portion of a Christian. These glorious privileges are all mercies, pure mercies of God.
From the commencement of the twelfth chapter to the close of his Epistle we find the Apostle presenting those mercies, the nature and fulness of which he had previously unfolded in doctrine, as motives to Christian activity. They do not produce the effect which they ought to have if they do not produce righteous and holy living. It is accordingly on the valid foundation which these mercies supply that the Apostle raises his practical exhortations.
2. St. Paul addresses men here on the hypothesis that in some sense or other they are responsible for their surroundings. He says: Be not conformed to this world. He would not have us for a moment listen to this suggestion of a necessity. Be not. He speaks as to people who make their own circumstances for themselves. And yet, in fact, the freedom of our will does not lie in any power to create or to fashion circumstances or facts or motives outside ourselves; our will has none of that properly creative or constructive power, but what it can do is to select among the actual facts and motives which lie in our circumstances already. Our freedom lies in selecting, in paying attention to, this or that element in our actual surroundings, and by thus attending to it we have the power to give it such predominant force that all the other elements in our surroundings sink by the side of it into insignificance. Thus, in fact, men can do what in effect comes to making their own surroundings.
In this London of ours there are the same surroundings for all of us, and, for the most part, they are ugly enough, grimy enough, in our atmosphere; but the artistic spirit selects, it looks to those particular buildings where it can find something which will gratify its sense of form. As the man of artistic sensibility walks up Whitehall he looks not to all the buildings indiscriminately. He selects and distinguishes the Banqueting Hall on his right. He loves its form. It is something which responds to his sense of beauty and of fitness. As he gets to the top of Whitehall he selects and distinguishes that one statue of incomparable beauty which is the distinction of LondonLe Sueurs statue of Charles I. Under the grime with which the London atmosphere has incrusted it, his eye can distinguish the lines of beauty and the majestic pose of the beautiful figure and the horse. A little farther and his imagination penetrates through the walls of the National Gallery and recalls those countless forms of beauty and of grace which have already passed into his memory from the pictures of Flemish or Italian or English School. He selects, and, by selecting, makes his own atmosphere.
So he knows what are the special glories of the sunset as it slopes along the Serpentine, what are the extraordinary beauties of the low and lurid lights which are always to be found as he walks along the Thames Embankment by day or by night. The artistic temperament selects; by selecting it attends to particular objects; it is not indiscriminate; it takes what it chooses. Thus it makes its own environment, and though it moves, in fact, among exactly the same multitudinal and thronging objects amidst which we all move, it makes its own world by that incomparable power which is possessed by the human will, of attending to what it pleases and, by attending to it, giving it the predominant force which makes that real and all the rest of little account.
And so it is with the religious man. He creates his atmosphere by what he attends to. He penetrates behind the show and glamour of the world, back to what lies behind.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]
The question which St. Paul invites the Christians in Rome to decide is whether they ought to be in fashion with the world or in favour with God. He urges them not to be fashioned according to this world, but to be transformed or transfigured, i.e. changed from the figure or fashion of things belonging to the world into likeness to Christ. In that way they will be in harmony with Gods will, and will discover how good God is.
Thus we may separate the good advice of the Apostle into three parts, and ask
I. What is meant by being fashioned according to this world?
II.What is meant by being transformed by the renewing of the mind?
III.What is meant by proving that Gods will is good and acceptable and perfect?
I
Fashioned according to this World
i. Fashion
1. It is a custom of St. Paul to make a distinction between the form of a thing, which really and necessarily belongs to it, and the fashion, which is only a matter of outward seeming, or at best is subject to change; and so it is misleading here to talk of being conformed or transformed, when St. Paul speaks of only the good thing as a form, and of the bad one as a mere fashion. In another Epistle he says, The fashion of this world passeth away (1Co 7:31); here he reminds us that it is a passing thing, by the mere use of the word fashion.
2. This very fact, that the fashion of this world is changeable and uncertain, makes it harder to give definite rules as to the way to avoid being fashioned according to this world. St. Paul does not attempt to do so; he does not say, Such and such talk, such and such employments, such and such pleasures are worldly: therefore the servants of God must avoid them; but he gives us the warning against accommodating ourselves to the fashion, whatever it be, of this world. That warning holds good however the fashion may change.
Our English virtues and vices would seem at times to go in and out of fashion like our wearing apparel. Up to the time, say, of William Cobbett, contentment was accounted a virtue in an Englishman and enthusiasm a vice. To Hume or Gibbon the words discontented enthusiast would have suggested a repulsive and seditious personality of the Czolgosz typeor, at least, some contemptible Ranter or Shaker. It is curious to reflect how matters altered later on when the Divine duty of discontent came openly to be preached, and Besant and Rices Dick Mortiboy impressed upon the school-feast children that unless your station in life was already among the great ones of the earth it was a despicable thing therewith to be content.1 [Note: Recreations and Reflections (from The Saturday Review), 373.]
Another virtue, charity or philanthropy, seems to have fluctuated in favour. In The Moonstone, Mr. Murthwaite, suggesting Godfrey Ablewhite as the possible culprit, observes, I am told that he is a great philanthropistwhich is decidedly against him to begin with. Mr. Brough, the worthy family solicitor, cordially agreed with this, and it is pretty obvious that Wilkie Collins himself agreed with them both. The Moonstone was of course written long before charitable slumming came into fashion. Society philanthropists are always liable to offend by self-advertisement and the airs they give themselves of standing in loco Dei to the poor.
But the good bishop with a meeker air
Admits, and leaves them, Providences care.
Popes bishop was no doubt a worse man, but he avoided this particular rock of offence.2 [Note: Ib., 377.]
3. The last new fashion. There is something inherently contemptuous in the phrase. When we say of anything that it has become a fashion, we almost mean it to be inferred that it has become so for no particularly good reason, and will probably some day cease to be so for some reason no better. Ever since the word came to be applied in our language to mens customs or whims, it has absorbed that other idea of change, and therefore of comparative worthlessness. Now there is nothing intrinsically worthless or wrong in mere change, or in the substitution of one fashion for another. In things into which the moral element does not enter, there is no harm in fashion, but obviously much good. Take the most obvious, because vulgarest, use of the term, as applied to dress. Into this fashion, as into everything human, the evil will, the low morality of man can intrude. Ostentation, extravagance, self-indulgence, vulgar and reckless competition in all these things must, and do, intrude. But the love of beauty, of variety, in colour and form, is not base or worldly love. It should not shame us to find pleasure in letting the eye rest upon such things, which like all Gods gifts are seen and loved first as we gaze upon the faultless beauties and the everchanging beauties of His creation. That the eye, given us to perceive and rejoice in these beauties, should long for an ever-changing succession of them, should discern the loveliness of alternation and variety, is no disgrace. Change, transition, contrast, whether in Nature or in Arthow large a part do not these make in the beauty of Gods creation, and of that human art which has grown out of the study of that creation! Should we not be grateful for the shifting fashionsfor so they areof Gods world, for the shifting fashions of the landscape in winter and in summer, in spring and in autumn?
Robertson had seen a great deal of the fashionable society of watering-places. With the exception of the brief interludes of Oxford and Winchester, he had lived all his days in such places. By the world generally he would himself be regarded as a man of fashion. He himself keenly appreciated the social and intellectual side of such society. But he had a thorough suspicion and dislike of the essential characteristics of these places. This comes out in his sermons and also in his letters: If you wish to know what hollowness and heartlessness are, you must seek for them in the world of light, elegant, superficial fashion, where frivolity has turned the heart into a rock-bed of selfishness. Say what men will of the heartlessness of trade, it is nothing compared with the heartlessness of fashion. Say what they will of the atheism of science, it is nothing to the atheism of that round of pleasure in which many a heart livesdead while it lives.1 [Note: F. Arnold, Robertson of Brighton, 224.]
4. There are fashions in morals as well as in art, in religion, even, as well as in social etiquette; and it is against these that St. Paul warns his Roman Christians. Whenever and wherever the shifting moral sense of Society forms its own rules and standards, without reference to the revelation of God in His Word, and in His Son Jesus Christ, these fashions take their risethe creations of the worldwith no assurance of permanence, because they depend ultimately upon the conscience of the hour, which must needs vary. This must be true of every ageof this age no less than of that of which the Apostle was writing. It is to the conscience of the hour that we are not to conform, or be fashioned, if only because it has no permanence. There is no security, even if it is decently moral to-day, that it will be the same to-morrow.
The relations of the Kingdom of heaven and the world have grown infinitely more complex since St. Pauls day. When he wrote, the boundary line between the Church and the World was tolerably clear and defined. It is no longer so, and the World presents new fronts to the Church, or rather is so permeated by the ways, if not the spirit, of the Church, that its fashions have become both more complex and more alluring. Now the World has become leavened to a certain extent by the ethics of the Church, and the Church leavened, alas! by the lower morals of the World, so that the boundary lines between the two become fainter and more misleading. And the pressure of the World upon the Church is greater than it was in St. Pauls day, because it touches it at a greater number of points. The fashion of the World seriously threatened the real Christians in Rome; but it now threatens in a thousand fresh ways the nominal Christians of to-day.
Fashion, as a term, has degraded since St. Pauls day. Unreality, as well as instability, is inseparable from the name of fashion. Why does such and such a man or woman do so and so? Oh, because its the fashionbecause its the thing to do! Fashion is the public opinion of the set, to which everything else is sacrificed. The tyranny of the sethow inflexible its grip! what evils has it not to answer for! The vox populi, even when it is that of the large, free, public conscience, has no security for being the vox Dei; but how when it is the voice of a sect or a clique? To be really cynical is a bad enough thingan affront to God and an insult to the law of Christian love; but what shall we say of the cynical fashion, taken up because for the moment, and with certain people we admire, it is the sign of cleverness and distinction. Then there is the sceptical fashion. To refuse Gods revelation, in Nature and in Conscience and in His Word, is sad enough; it is matter for deep pity as well as reproach. But what shall we say when it too has no root at all, good or evil, but is taken up as a badge of enlightenment, as a mark of separation from the humdrum superstitions of the world, and to win the good opinion of those in whom the same scepticism is perhaps at least genuine?
Terrible, again, is the growing defiance of the accepted moralities and decorumsthe custom-hallowed decencies and reticences of lifewhich we see everywhere about us. Everywhere do we see signs of this revolt against old ideas of reverence, of modesty, of charity, and of courtesy, under the pretence of protesting against whatever is unreal or hypocritical in the so-called respectabilities of life. Where this is a genuine revolt, having a supposed excuse in undoubted conventionalities and hypocrisies to be found among us, it is at least not ignoble; but for one person who is fired by a genuine indignation that overmasters him, how many are there who follow in the same track only to win credit for the same thing, or even, must we not say, because the laxer morality, the reduced stringency, is easier and pleasanter?
These and a thousand other fashions and follies are all around us. The satirists of the day know these things well. The world is keenly alive to its own weak points. But satire has no power to cure them, has no healing in its wings. For satire treats symptoms only, and no wise physician is content with this. It was one of Popes half-truths that
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen.
But hated is just the wrong word here. To see the hatefulness of a thing and to hate it are quite different stages of moral growth. To hate is the correlative of to love; and when we have once begun to hate the evil that is in the world, we have also begun to hate the evil that is in ourselves, and our deliverance is at hand.1 [Note: Alfred Ainger.]
In the department of the minor morals various little changes of fashion are observable. The change in the drinking habits of society is too hackneyed a topic to be more than mentioned, but if we are not mistaken, a striking change has taken place in the matter of strong language. It is quite true that damns had their day onceand it is equally certain that they are having another one now. Twenty years ago when one was sitting in the stalls it was not unusual, when the obnoxious word was uttered, to hear materfamilias let fall some such remark as, I really do think he might have left that out! Nowadays of course it passes absolutely unnoticed; nor does any man in telling a story think it necessary to omit the word, if it comes in naturally, because of the presence of women-folk. Nay, we appeal to our readers whether they do not hear it, more or less in play, from the lips of beauty in distressin a bunker or elsewhere. Nous ne discutons pasnous constatons. We merely remark that the mothers of this generation would not have done it any more than they would have smoked cigarettes.1 [Note: Recreations and Reflections, 377.]
One day, says Madame de Hausset, in her curious memoirs of the Pompadour, Madame said to the Due dAyen that M. de Choiseul was very fond of his sisters. I know it, Madame, said heand many sisters are the better for it. What can you mean? she asked. Why, he answered, as the Due de Choiseul loves his sisters, it is thought fashionable to do the same; and I know silly girls, whose brothers formerly cared nothing for them, who are now most tenderly beloved. No sooner does their little finger ache than their brothers are running all over Paris to fetch the doctor for them. They flatter themselves that some one will say in M. de Choiseuls drawing-room, Ah, what a good brother is M. de! and that they will gain advancement thereby. We need scarcely add that the Due de Choiseul was chief minister, and the dispenser of royal favours.2 [Note: J. H. Friswell, This Wicked World, 56.]
ii. This World
1. The marginal reference here gives age as an alternative reading for worldbe not fashioned according to the age or timeand it should not be overlooked that the Greek word, here rendered world, does really mean the world in special relation to time as distinguished from place or space. The changing forms or fashions to which the Apostle here refers are those which essentially belong to changes incident to time, the suppressed contrast being, of course, with a heavenly order, which is eternal. The idea is not necessarily theological: we are quite accustomed to the thought as a necessary consequent on our observations of life and history, and of the changes which every careful watcher of life must needs note in other people and even in himself.
The Time-Spiritthe Zeit-Geistis naturalized among us as a phrase to indicate the force which we see to be exercised, however little able we are to grasp and analyse it, in each succeeding epoch of our history; and it is clearly something after the same kind that St. Paul saw to be at work in the world of his day. And because his beloved converts must needs be in daily touch with the world, though it was their first duty and privilege to be not of it, he had seen how necessary it was to them to beware of the subtle power, the alluring and plausible charm, which it was certain to exercise over them, unless they were forewarned and forearmed.
2. When St. Paul lifted up his voice against the world, and besought the Christians committed to his charge to be separate from it, he was thinking of that imposing paganism which was ever fronting them. With its love of pleasure, its glorification of power, its imperial pageantry, its idolatrous temples, its unredeemed Art, its seduction both for the senses and for the intellect, paganism cast its glamour over the new Christian converts. Writers so far apart as Cardinal Newman in his Callista and the author of Quo Vadis suggest to our minds the fascinating atmosphere into which Christianity was born, and where in its youth it had to fight the good fight of faith. Beneath the beauty of form and colour, the magnificence of ceremonies and arms, the arts and riches of civilization, that was an unclean and leprous world. Whether they lived in Corinth, with its unblushing worship of lust, or in Rome, which was the moral sewer of the world, or in Ephesus, where Christians were tempted by the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, or in Pergamos, where there were those who held the abominable doctrine of Balaam, or in Thyatira, where Jezebel seduced Gods servants, or in Sardis, where only a few had not defiled their garments, Christians had ever to stand on guard. No wonder that some in Corinth had fallen through the lures of the flesh, or that a Demas had forsaken the faith before that imperial magnificence. Christians had to choose between their Lord and their world, and it was a world hard to escape or to resist.
3. It is evident that the world of to-day has changed, and it is unreasonable to require of modern Christians the line of action which was necessary in the first century. The spirit of Christ has counted for something during nineteen centuries, and Western society is not arrayed in arrogant hostility to the claims and ethics of our Master. His disciples are neither persecuted nor seduced after the fashion of the former days, and it is not necessary to preach that separation which once was compulsory, or to warn against the gross temptations which once beset the disciple from street and temple, from book and Art. Religious writers have shown a want of historical insight in adopting those fiery denunciations of the world which applied to the Corinth of St. Paul and the Rome of Juvenal. But this does not mean that there is no anti-Christian world or that Christians have not need to watch and pray; it only means that war has changed its form, and instead of the clash of swords we have the unseen danger of the rifle. We have to get to the principle which underlies all forms, and what constitutes the world in every age is devotion to the material instead of to the spiritual.
Preachers may talk with airy rhetoric about the distinction between the Church and the World; but we feel, somehow, that the lines of division tend to melt away before our eyes. We cannot draw sharp lines of separation. Men may try, they have often tried, to do so in one way or another. They may wear, like Quakers, a peculiar dress, or they may ticket certain forms of amusement as worldly, or they may use a peculiar phraseology; but experience tells us how ludicrous and disastrous such attempts have been, to what hypocrisies and absurdities they lead. The very expression, common enough once, still occasionally appears in newspapers, the religious worldhow unreal it sounds! No, if we are to choose between the religious world and the world without a prefix, we must frankly prefer the latter.1 [Note: H. R. Gamble.]
4. A man does not cease to be unworldly by adopting a ritual of renunciation any more than a Bushman becomes a European by washing off his grease and ochre, and attiring himself in clean linen and broadcloth. The casual gossip of the cloister may show that society and the petty interests of the butterfly crowd loom as large as ever in the imagination of its inmates. The unconscious leanings of an evangelical home ruled by the straitest maxims may show that the silly, senseless world finds a tell-tale mirror there. The trivialities of life, upon which the back has been ostensibly turned, cling like burrs to the textures of the inner man. Honest unworldliness is central to a mans scheme of thought, and begins far down below the surface. We cannot bind it upon men by artificial precepts.
Are saints to be distinguished as men and women to whom everyday concerns offer no sort of attraction? Is their attitude towards civilization, and art, and business, and amusement that of unconcern or even of disdain? Are they to be recognized by differences of dress, or manner of speaking, from others around them? If so, Brother Lawrence in his kitchen, and Santa Zita going about her work as a housemaid, and even St. Paul weaving cloth for his tents, cannot properly be described as saints.1 [Note: A. W. Robinson, The Voice of Joy and Health, 105.]
(1) If any one is indulging in what the Prayer-Book calls notorious sin, i.e. sin of which no Christian can doubt that it is serious and deadly sin; if he is a scorner of God, or of his parents, a blasphemer, a fornicator, a thief, a slanderer, a liar; he must know at once, without further question, that he is fashioned according to this world.
A story is told of Dr. Guthrie, that, finding a little girl weeping in great distress in Edinburgh, he, pitying her, asked the reason, and discovered that she had lost sixpence. The Doctor not only supplied the money, but took the child to a baker, not far from the spot, to buy a loaf for her. That little girl, said the baker, seems always to be losing sixpences, Doctor; perhaps it is her trade. And so it was. The poor little lassie had been brought up in a padding ken, or a fencing crib, a school for young thieves; and her peculiar vocation was to take her walks abroad, drop a pretended sixpence, and burst into uncontrollable weeping. The best of the story is that Doctor Guthrie, bending down, told the child that she was now more than ever an object of pity, since she earned her living by sin, and, finding out where she dwelt, he rescued her from her terrible position.2 [Note: J. H. Friswell, This Wicked World, 14.]
(2) But, apart from open or notorious sin, if a mans heart is so set upon anything here in this present life that the thought of the world to come is unpleasant and irksome to him, he may be said to be fashioned according to this world. When a man is so entirely taken up with his property, pursuits, schemes, and employments in this world, innocent though they may be and useful in themselves, that he is more in earnest about them than about his devotions and the preparation of his soul for death, such a man has much need to watch and pray that he enter not into temptation; to pray that he may pray better, lest by little and little he fall away, and become a thorough child of this world, before he is aware.
St. Benedict, so the old story ran, was sitting in his cell, meditating upon heaven, when suddenly the glory of this world was presented to his gaze, gathered, as it seemed, into a single dazzling and bewitching beam. But the appeal was made in vain to a heart that had dwelt among the celestial realities. Inspexit et despexithe saw and he scorned it. Was that altogether un-Christlike? Did not He also turn aside with something of loathing from the vision of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them? Did He not say, I have overcome the world? Was not His Apostle led by His Spirit when he declared that if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him? And were not all of us called upon to renounce the world before we were enrolled as His disciples?1 [Note: A. W. Robinson, The Voice of Joy and Health, 112.]
(3) Again, we may be sure the world is getting or keeping too much hold of us, when we cannot bear being scorned or ridiculed for doing what we know in our heart to be right. This is especially a temptation of the world, because it is a temptation from our fellow-mortals, not from Satan, and because it is so entirely without a man.
Some time ago, at the close of a meeting, a young man remained behind, and after the way of salvation was explained, he was urged to decide for Christ. His answer was, I dare not, and the reason he gave was that he would be the only Christian in the workshop, and he dreaded the taunts and laughter of his workmates, and so he turned away from Christ for fear of a laugh. How different was the conduct of the young recruita lad of eighteen years of agewho stood as bravely as any Christian hero ever did. For two or three weeks he was the butt of the camp because he knelt and said his prayers, and testified for his Master. At length his company was ordered to the seat of war, and the battle came, and after a fierce fight the dead body of the young Christian was carried back, and the ringleader of his persecutors said, Boys, I couldnt leave him. He fought so bravely that I thought he deserved a decent burial. And as they dug a grave and buried him, a comrade cut his name and regiment on a piece of board, and another added, I guess youd better put in the words Christian Soldier; he deserves it, and it may console him for all our abuse. That is the courage we want. The courage that hates the cowardice of doing wrong, as Milton magnificently puts it, and the daring that stands unmoved amid scorn and obloquy. If you want to see that courage at its best, then look at Christ, and listen to these words of the Apostle, Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.1 [Note: J. E. Roberts.]
II
Transformed by the Renewing of the Mind
1. The word transform occurs elsewhere in the New Testament on two occasions. It is the word used to denote our Lords Transfiguration (Mat 17:2; Mar 9:2); and it is the word employed by St. Paul to describe that growing conformity to the likeness of our Lord, which results from the contemplation of His excellency: We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changedtransformed or transfiguredinto the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2Co 3:18).
2. A transfigured life suggests to us, in the light of the Lords Transfiguration, even nobler and loftier aspirations and hopes than the phrase a transformed life. And there lie in it and in the context such thoughts as these: the inward life, if it is healthy and true and strong, will certainly shape the outward conduct and character. Just as truly as the physical life moulds the infants limbs, just as truly as every periwinkle shell on the beach is shaped into the convolutions that will fit the inhabitant by the power of the life that lies within, so the renewed mind will make a fit dwelling for itself.
To a large extent a mans spirit shapes his body; within limits, of course, but to a very large and real extent. Did you never see some homely face, perhaps of some pallid invalid, which had in it the very radiance of heaven, and of which it might be said without exaggeration that it was as it had been the face of an angel? Did you never see goodness making men and women beautiful? Did you never see some noble emotion stamp its own nobility on the countenance, and seem to dilate a mans very form and figure, and make the weakest like an angel of God? Have there not been other faces like the face of Moses, which shone as he came down from the Mount of Communion with God? Or, as Milton puts it,
Oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind.
Even as the fashion of His countenance was altered, so the inner life of Christ, deep and true in a mans heart, will write its presence in his countenance, and show how awful and how blessed goodness is.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
Do you remember the scene in Roderick Hudson, a story written by Henry James? The hero, who is a young artist, has wandered to Rome, and there drifted into a life of selfish indulgence. But far away from the old American home a mothers prayers had followed him. Her absent boy made her forget self in those moments when she kneeled at the throne of Grace; then face and soul become strangely plastic. She was conscious of no change as the years sped, but when at last she crossed the ocean in search of her son, and they met in the foreign city, the artist asked in surprise: What has happened to your face? It has changed its expression. Your mother has prayed a great deal, she replied. Well, it makes a good face, answered the artist. It has very fine lines in it.2 [Note: A. G. Mackinnon.]
3. Now, how is this transfiguration to take place in our lives? We are not left in doubt as to the power which is to produce the change. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind; the change must begin within; we must invoke spiritual influences, power from on high. It will not be denied us if we seek it. Ask, and ye shall receive. We must not begin trying to correct outward habits till we have implored inward grace. We must believe that the Holy Spirit is willing to make His abode in our hearts.
Have you ever thought about the large place the New Testament gives to our mind? In the very next verse to this St. Paul goes on to say, For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. That is characteristic of New Testament teaching. Set your mind on the things that are above. When St. Peter was trying to lead Jesus Christ into temptation, Jesus said to him, Thou mindest not the things of God. And when St. Paul is describing people who are alienated from God, he says they mind earthly things. You and I become like the things we think about. If we let our mind be a caravansary for all sorts of evil thoughts, we shall become evil. If we fix our mind upon worldly things, we shall become worldly. If we fix our mind upon things that are above, where Christ is, we shall become like Christ. We grow like the things we think about, and the renewing of the mind means that there is implanted in our heart, if we will have it so, a Divine power that will enable us to think about the things that have praise and virtue until we are changed into their image. We can be transformed by the renewing of our mind.1 [Note: J. E. Roberts.]
The real secret of a transfigured life is a transmitted lifeSomebody else living in us, with a capital S for that Somebody, looking out of our eyes, giving His beauty to our faces, and His winningness to our personality.2 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]
III
The Motive
That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
1. These remarkable words give the reason or motive why those to whom St. Paul wrote should seek for such a change. The meaning of the words is this: that we may, each one in our own experience, provethat is, make proof ofthat will of God which is good, and acceptable, and perfect.
Good, acceptable, perfect. These adjectives may either qualify the will of God as in the Authorized Version, or be in apposition to it, as in the Revised Version margin. The latter construction agrees better with the rhythm of the sentence. The will of God is identified with what is good in the moral sense; acceptable, well pleasing (that is, to God); and perfect, that is, ethically adequate or complete.
You wish to know what is the will of God which you must follow amid the dark perplexities of your life. Well, remember that the will of God is a living will. It develops from age to age. It moves within a world of constantly changing circumstances, and amid conditions which, like mans life upon the earth, never continue in one stay. It is one thing to be sure that Jesus Christ dealt with the various situations that confronted Him with the certain authority of a sovereign conscience. It is quite another to examine His teaching in order to discover a moral code, or a system of casuistry which will apply to every development of social and personal life. There are those who hope to settle each matter that comes to them for decision by opening the sacred volume and accepting the first text on which the eye falls as revealing the Divine Will. There is more reason in this method of consulting the oracles of God than in that attitude towards it, still far too popular, which seems to regard it as a sort of religious red book, where precepts of conduct are to be learned as though they were the details of drill. Why, even the old Hebrews were taught that the way in which God reveals His mind to His children is more intimate and spiritual than this. The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart. The Word of God is not graven on stone; it is written on the tablets of the heart. Not outward conformity to a system, but the inward response to the self-revealing Spirit is that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him.1 [Note: J. G. Simpson.]
2. To see the great importance of this declaration let us inquire, in the first place, what it implies. Now it implies two things.
(1) Our salvation is the will of God.It is the will of God that we should be good, and holy, and acceptable in His sight; that (to gather all into one word) we should be saved; and that, if we are not saved, it is not because it is Gods will to leave us to perish, but in spite of Gods will, which would have us saved.
The will of God is not an eccentric will, like that of His wayward creatures, neither is it an arbitrary will, the will of one who is merely All-Power; but it is the will of Him who is Holiness, Wisdom, and Love, just as much as Power. When, therefore, He wills our salvation, He wills it in a certain way: in the way of truth, and wisdom, and love. He wills, that is, first, that we should truly be; that we should be not mere machines through which He works, but reasonable beingsbeings who can choose; who can love Him; who can return love for love.1 [Note: S. Wilberforce.]
He told me that in the loneliness of his own room he had been thinking of his sinful and wretched life, and feeling how impossible it was for him ever to be a different man, when all of a sudden, just like a voice in his soul, he heard the announcement that Christ alone can take away the sins of a man. In a flash he saw that he had nothing to do but surrender; that he was not to strive, but to be grateful; that God was only asking him to believe, not to struggle, not to build up the ruins of his life. I simply gave myself to God, he said quietly. I dont know how else to put it. I surrendered, laid down my arms, and felt all through my soul that I was pardoned and restored. That is nine years ago. For nine years this man has not only been immune from drink, has not only made a comfortable home for his children, has not only been a first-rate workman and a good citizen, but throughout those nine years he has been, in Sister Agathas phrase, a worker for Christ, beloved by all, and a hiding-place for many. If you could see the brightness of his face and feel the overflowing happiness of his heart, you would better realize the miracle of conversion. The man is a living joy.2 [Note: H. Begbie, In the Hand of the Potter, 266.]
(2) It is given to us to make trial of this will of Godto experience it; to prove it; to find it working in us; to know that it is real, by its life within ourselves. This Will of God is on our side; it is not in word and by accommodation, but indeed true, that He would have us perfect, acceptable, and blessed; and if we will but seek to be renewed, we shall know that all this is indeed so, by His blessed power day by day renewing us ourselves.
The primary meaning of the word prove in our text is to recognize, discern, discriminate. Hence we find that to come thus into affinity with God is to evolve an organ of spiritual consciousness. We cannot even know one another except through affinity. This is everywhere the key to intimacy with a person. It is this that conducts us behind the veil, and admits us to the adytumthe holy place of personality which is screened from the common gaze. The same law holds for the Divine. Love and loyalty and likeness to God will admit us to the secret place of His will. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.3 [Note: H. Howard.]
3. We have examined what the words imply. Let us now see some of the consequences which follow.
(1) The danger of thwarting Gods will.Here is the key to the secret history of every careless life amongst us Christians, in its course and in its end. In its coursefor such a life is a continuous striving against the will of God for us; against His gracious will that we should be good, and perfect, and acceptable before Him.
(2) The assurance of success.What an untold might would be ours in striving against sin, if we did indeed believe it to be Gods will that we should overcome in the struggle! The first condition of success is the expectation of succeeding. How it nerves the soldiers arm to know that he fights under a general who has always conquered. And so it is also in all the conflicts of our spiritual life. The lack of such confidence is one of the most common grounds of our weakness. We do not strengthen ourselves in God; we doubt His good will towards us; we practically shut Him out of our thoughts; and we are lost.
(3) The reality imparted to the spiritual life.The proving of Gods will is that which gives a sense of true reality to all the spiritual world around us and within us. Gods word, prayer, the holy Sacraments, all the ordinances of Christs Church, as well as the more hidden suggestions of the blessed Spirit, through the heart and consciencethese are all full of a living reality for him who knows that he is here training under the active loving energies of the Almighty Will.
I worship Thee, sweet Will of God!
And all Thy ways adore,
And every day I live, I seem
To love Thee more and more.
Thou wert the end, the blessd rule
Of our Saviours toils and tears;
Thou wert the passion of His Heart
Those three-and-thirty years.
And He hath breathed into my soul
A special love of Thee,
A love to lose my will in His,
And by that loss be free.
He always wins who sides with God,
To him no chance is lost;
Gods Will is sweetest to him, when
It triumphs at his cost.
When obstacles and trials seem
Like prison-walls to be,
I do the little I can do,
And leave the rest to Thee.1 [Note: F. W. Faber.]
In Fashion or in Favour
Literature
Ainger (A.), The Gospel and Human Life, 137.
Balmforth (R.), The Evolution of Christianity, 107.
Burrows (H. W.), Lenten and Other Sermons, 29.
Candlish (R. S.), The Two Great Commandments, 40.
Flint (R.), Sermons and Addresses, 145.
Gamble (H. R.), The Ten Virgins, 63.
Greenhough (J. G.), in Great Texts of the New Testament, 181.
Hayman (H.), Rugby Sermons, 99.
Howard (H.), The Summits of the Soul, 83.
Inge (W. R.), All Saints Sermons, 181.
Jackson (G.), Memoranda Paulina, 38.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year (Christmas and Epiphany), 396.
Knight (G. H.), Full Allegiance, 43.
Lucas (H.), At the Parting of the Ways, 256.
Macaskill (M.), A Highland Pulpit, 28.
Maclaren (A.), Creed and Conduct, 122.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Romans, 230.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, iii. 3.
Percival (J.), Some Helps for School Life, 237.
Selby (T. G.), The Divine Craftsman, 229.
Simcox (W. H.), The Cessation of Prophecy, 251.
Simpson (J. G.), Christian Ideals, 111.
Temple (F.), Rugby Sermons, i. 282.
Watson (J.), The Inspiration of our Faith, 122.
Wilberforce (S.), Sermons, 237.
Christian World Pulpit, lix. 161 (Gore); lxv. 45 (Stewart); lxxix. 276 (Roberts).
Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., v. 40 (Vaughan); vii. 38 (Maurice).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
be not: Exo 23:2, Lev 18:29, Lev 18:30, Deu 18:9-14, Joh 7:7, Joh 14:30, Joh 15:19, Joh 17:14, 1Co 3:19, 2Co 4:4, 2Co 6:14-17, Gal 1:4, Eph 2:2, Eph 4:17-20, Jam 1:27, Jam 4:4, 1Pe 1:14, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 4:2, 2Pe 1:4, 2Pe 2:20, 1Jo 2:15-17, 1Jo 3:13, 1Jo 4:4, 1Jo 4:5, 1Jo 5:19, Rev 12:9, Rev 13:8
be ye: Rom 13:14, Psa 51:10, Eze 18:31, Eze 36:26, 2Co 5:17, Eph 1:18, Eph 4:22-24, Col 1:21, Col 1:22, Col 3:10, Tit 3:5
prove: Rom 12:1, Psa 34:8, Eph 5:10, Eph 5:17, 1Pe 2:3
good: Rom 12:1, Rom 7:12, Rom 7:14, Rom 7:22, Psa 19:7-11, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:48, Psa 119:72, Psa 119:97, Psa 119:103, Psa 119:128, Psa 119:174, Pro 3:1-4, Pro 3:13-18, Gal 5:22-23, Eph 5:9, Col 4:12, 1Th 4:3, 2Ti 3:16, 2Ti 3:17
Reciprocal: Lev 3:6 – he shall Lev 3:14 – the fat that covereth Deu 6:18 – shalt do Deu 12:30 – How did Deu 14:21 – Thou shalt 2Sa 15:16 – ten women 2Ki 16:10 – saw an altar 1Ch 15:12 – sanctify Ezr 10:11 – do his Job 34:4 – know Psa 18:30 – his way Isa 58:5 – an acceptable Isa 66:20 – an offering Eze 20:32 – We will Mat 6:10 – Thy will Mat 7:14 – and few Mat 7:21 – that Mat 17:2 – transfigured Mar 9:2 – transfigured Mar 10:43 – so Luk 22:26 – General Joh 3:7 – Ye Act 16:20 – do Rom 6:4 – even Rom 7:6 – serve Rom 14:18 – is Rom 15:16 – offering up 1Co 7:34 – both 1Co 14:15 – and I will sing 2Co 3:18 – are 2Co 4:16 – is 2Co 5:10 – in Eph 4:23 – be Eph 6:1 – for Phi 1:10 – ye Col 1:9 – of his 1Th 4:1 – to please 1Th 5:21 – Prove 1Ti 1:8 – the law 1Ti 2:3 – this Tit 2:12 – this Heb 10:36 – after Heb 12:28 – we may Heb 13:21 – to do 1Pe 2:20 – this 1Pe 3:3 – adorning let 1Jo 2:17 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2:2
Rom 12:2. Be not conformed or be not like the things of this world. Be transformed means to be changed to a different form of living. Renewing of your mind denotes a “complete change for the better” in the desires and motives of the mind. Prove or demonstrate by living it out that the will of God is a good and acceptable way of living.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 12:2. And not to be. The best authorities give the infinitive (not the imperative) form in this verse, which must therefore be connected closely with beseech (Rom 12:1). The tense used points to continued action.
Fashioned after. The words rendered conformed and transformed have different derivations; the former refers more to the outward form (the noun is usually rendered fashion), the latter to the organic form. Some deny such a distinction in this instance, but it is well to reproduce the verbal variation in English.
This world, or, age; comp. Gal 1:4; Eph 2:2. The phrase is used in a bad sense.
But to be transformed, or, transfigured, as in Mat 17:2; Mar 9:2 (the same word occurs in 2Co 3:18). Here also a continuous process is indicated.
By the renewing of your mind. This is the instrument of the transformation. The mind (comp. chap. Rom 7:23; Rom 7:25, and Excursus), or, practical reason, is naturally under the dominion of the flesh; it needs renewal, which is wrought by the Holy Spirit, faith being the subjective element of its operation. Through this renewed mind there results the transformation in the whole man. The passive suggests the agency of the Holy Spirit, while the exhortation implies moral freedom.
That ye may prove, or, in order to prove, to put to the practical test, what is the will of God. Not simply to be able to do this, but actually to do so, the conscience being continually educated by the Holy Ghost. The inward renewal has as its result an increasing delicacy of judgment in Christian ethics, the will of God respecting our conduct in the world. The practical portion of this Epistle is designed to help this judgment
What is (lit, the) good and well-pleasing (to God) and perfect. This is in apposition with what precedes, and not a qualification of it as the E. V. indicates. The latter view compels us to take well-pleasing in the sense of agreeable to men. What God wills is that which is good, in its end, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect as uniting these two. As a practical matter, what is Gods will in our particular circumstances is determined by the renewed mind prayerfully seeking what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The apostle’s dehortation, Be not conformed to this world, that is, “Do not fashion or accommodate yourselves to the corrupt principles or customs, to the sinful courses and practices, of the men of the world.” The Christian is to walk singularly, and not after the world’s guise; he must not cut the coat of his profession according to the fashion of the times, or the honour of the company he falls into.
Observe, 2. An apostolical exhortation, Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind; that is, “Be ye regenerated and changed in your whole man, beginning at the mind or understanding, by which the Spirit of God worketh upon the inferior faculties of the soul.” Every converted person is truly and really changed, thoroughly sanctified and renewed, endowed with new dispositions and affections; yet this conversion and renovation is not a substantial, but a qualitive change, a change not in the substance of the faculties of the soul, but in the quality of those faculties. And the renewed Christian is sanctified totus, but not totaliter; he is sanctified thoroughly in all faculties, but not perfectly in all degrees. There is in a renewed man’s understanding too much blindness and ignorance, in his will too great obstinacy and perverseness, in his affections too much irregularity and sensuality. yet such is the indulgence of the gospel, as to call him an holy person, a person transformed by the renewing of his mind.
Observe, 3. The reason of the apostle’s exhortation, Be ye transformed, &c. that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God: that is, that he may discern and approve what the will of God is under the gospel, which requires not what is ritually, but what is substantially good, and consequently always acceptable to him.
Note here, That opposition to the Levitical ceremonies and ritual injunctions, the apostle styles the gospel institution, the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God; and as such may we love and embrace it, and be found in the delightful practice of it.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 12:2. And be not conformed Neither in judgment, spirit, nor behaviour; to this vain and sinful world Which, neglecting the will of God, entirely follows its own; but be ye transformed Regenerated and created anew; by the renewing of your minds Of your understandings, wills, and affections, through the influence of the Spirit of God, Tit 3:5. Thus, Eph 4:22-25, the new man is described as renewed in the spirit of his mind; that is, in all his faculties; in his affections and will, as well as in his understanding: in consequence whereof his whole conduct becomes holy and virtuous. That ye may prove May be enabled to discern, approve, and know, not merely speculatively, but experimentally and practically, and by sure trial; what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God The will of God is here to be understood of all the preceptive part of Christianity, which is in itself so excellently good, so acceptable to God, and so perfective of our nature: and it is here set in opposition, on the one hand, to the idolatrous rites of worship practised by the heathen, which in their own nature were extremely bad; and, on the other, to the unprofitable ceremonies and sacrifices of the law of Moses, concerning which God himself declared that he had no pleasure in them, Heb 10:5-9. The rites of Moses, therefore, in which the Jews gloried, were no longer acceptable to God. Whereas the duties recommended by the apostle are of eternal obligation, and separate the people of God from the wicked in a more excellent manner than the Jews had been separated from idolaters by the rites of Moses. Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 2. And be not fashioned after this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may discern what is the will of God, that good, acceptable, and perfect will.
We have already said that we are not to seek in this verse, as Meyer does, the idea of the sanctification of the soul, as completing the consecration of the body. This idea would have been placed first, and the term soul or spirit would certainly have been used instead of , the mind, which denotes only one of the faculties of the soul, and that the faculty of simple perception. The relation between the two verses is quite different. Paul has just pointed to the believer’s body as a consecrated instrument. What remains to him to indicate, except the rule according to which the believer ought to make use of it? The , and, therefore signifies here: and in order to that. The T. R., with several ancient documents and the two oldest versions, reads the two verbs in the imperative: conform ye, transform ye, while the Greco-Latin MSS. read them in the infinitive. It is probable that the copyists by this latter reading meant to continue the construction of Rom 12:1, and to make these two verbs dependent on , I exhort you. The authorities speak in favor of the imperative. But even if the other reading were adopted, we should have to give to the infinitive the meaning of the imperative, as is so often the case in Greek; comp. in this very chapter, Rom 12:15. For the relation of dependence on is in any case forced.
In the use of his consecrated body, the believer has first an everywhere present model to be rejected, then a new type to be discerned and realized. The model to be rejected is that presented to him by the present world, or, as we should say, the reigning fashion, taking this word in its widest sense. The term denotes the manner of holding oneself, attitude, pose; and the verb , derived from it, the adoption or imitation of this pose or received mode of conduct. The term (this) present world is used in the Rabbins to denote the whole state of things which precedes the epoch of the Messiah; in the N. T. it describes the course of life followed by those who have not yet undergone the renewing wrought by Christ in human life. It is this mode of living anterior to regeneration which the believer is not to imitate in the use which he makes of his body. And what is he to do? To seek a new model, a superior type, to be realized by means of a power acting within him. He is to be transformed, literally, metamorphosed. The term , form, strictly denotes, not an external pose suitable for imitation, like , attitude, but an organic form, the natural product of a principle of life which manifests itself thus. It is not by looking around him, to the right and left, that the believer is to learn to use his body, but by putting himself under the dominion of a new power which will by an inward necessity transform this use. It is true that Meyer, Hofmann, and others refuse to acknowledge this difference of meaning between the substantives and , and between the two verbs derived from them, alleging that it is not confirmed by usage. But if Php 2:5 et seq. be adduced, the example proves precisely the contrary. Etymology leads naturally to the distinction indicated, and Paul evidently contrasts the two terms of set purpose.
It should be remarked, also, that the two imperatives are in the present. The subject in question is two continuous incessant acts which take place on the basis of our consecration performed once for all (the aorist , Rom 12:1).
And what will be the internal principle of this metamorphosis of the believer in the use of his body? The renewing of his mind, answers St. Paul. The , the mind, is the faculty by which the soul perceives and discerns the good and the true. But in our natural state this faculty is impaired; the reigning love of self darkens the mind, and makes it see things in a purely personal light. The natural mind, thus misled, is what Paul calls , the carnal mind (under the dominion of the flesh), Col 2:18. This is why the apostle speaks of the renewing of the mind as a condition of the organic transformation which he requires. This faculty, freed from the power of the flesh, and replaced under the power of the Spirit, must recover the capacity for discerning the new model to be realized, the most excellent and sublime type, the will of God: to appreciate (discern exactly) the will of God. The verb does not signify here, as it has often been translated (Osterv., Seg.): to prove, to make experience of. For the experience of the excellence of the divine will would not be an affair of the mind only; the whole man would take part in it. The meaning of the word here, as usually, is to appreciate, discern. By means of his renewed mind the believer studies and recognizes in every given position the divine will toward him in the circumstances, the duty of the situation. He lifts his eyes, and, like Christ Himself (Joh 5:19-20), he sees what his Father shows him to be done. This perception evidently requires a renewed mind. In order to it we require to be raised to the viewpoint of God Himself.
It is against the rules of grammar to translate the following words, either in the sense of: that the will of God is good (Osterv., Seg.), or in the sense: how good it is (Oltram.). The only possible meaning is: what is the good, acceptable…will of God. It is not always easy for the Christian who lives in the world, even with a heart sincerely consecrated, to discern clearly what is the will of God concerning him, especially in regard to the externals of life. This delicate appreciation demands a continual perfecting, even of the transformed mind.
And why is the model to be studied and reproduced in the life not the present world’s mode of acting, but the will of God? The apostle explains by the three epithets with which he qualifies this will; literally: the good, the acceptable, the perfect. Such, then, is the normal type to which, in all circumstances, we must seek to rise with the mind first, then with the conduct. Good: in that its directions are free from all connivance with evil, in any form whatever. Acceptable: this adjective is not accompanied here with the words to God, as in Rom 12:1; it refers, consequently, to the impression produced on men when they contemplate this will realized in the believer’s life. They cannot help paying it a tribute of admiration, and finding it beautiful as well as good. Have not devotion, disinterestedness, self-forgetfulness, and self-sacrifice, a charm which subdues every human heart? Perfect: this characteristic follows from the combination of the two preceding. For perfection is goodness united to beauty. The meaning would not be very different if, with some commentators, we regarded these three adjectives as three substantives forming an apposition to the term: the will of God. The will of God, to wit, the good, the acceptable, the perfect. But the article would require to be repeated before each of the terms if they were used substantively.
The following, then, is the rsum of the apostle’s thought: To the false model, presented in every age by the mundane kind of life, there is opposed a perfect type, that of the will of God, which is discerned by the renewed mind of the believer, and which he strives to realize by means of his God-consecrated body, at every moment and in all the relations of his life; thus is laid down the principle of life in salvation. This life he now proceeds to show as manifesting itself simultaneously in two spheres, that of the church, chap. 12, and that of the state, chap. 13.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
And be not fashioned according to this world [or, literally, “age”]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. [Here the apostle shows in general terms by what manner of life the demanded sacrifice is rendered or accomplished. To each soul there was presented then, as now, two models for character building, the standards of the world-life and the Christ-life, the first represented by the imperative suschematizesthai, which means to imitate the pose or attitude of any one, to conform to the outward appearance or fashion of any one. The demands of the world require no more than an outward, superficial conformity to its ways and customs. As these ways and customs are the natural actions and methods of the unregenerate life, the sacrifice-resenting, fleshly nature of the Christian has no difficulty in conforming to them, if given rein and permission. Attainment to the Christ-life is, however, represented by the imperative metamorphousthai, which demands that complete and fundamental inner change which fulfills and accomplishes regeneration, and which, in turn, is accomplished by the renewing of the mind. The natural mind, weakened, trammeled, confused and darkened by sin and Satan, can neither fully discern nor adequately appreciate the Christ model, so as to metamorphose the life to its standards. But in the regenerated man the mind once fleshly (Col 2:18; Rom 7:23), but now renewed by Christ (2Co 5:17; Eph 4:21-24) and the Holy Spirit (Tit 3:5), and strengthened to apprehend by the Holy Spirit (Eph 3:16-19), is able to so discern and love the Christ model as to be gradually metamorphosed into his image (Phil 3:8-16). With this recovered capacity to discern and appreciate the life which God wills us to live, as exemplified in the incarnation of his Son, we are exhorted by the apostle to set about exploring, investigating, proving or testing the excellence of the will of God in selecting such a pattern for us, that we may have experimental knowledge that his will was devised in goodness toward us, that its choice for us is really well pleasing and acceptable to us; as our minds have become enlightened to truly understand it, and that considered in all ways its purposes and ends for us are the perfection of grace and benevolence, leaving nothing more to be asked or even dreamed of by us. Thus the renewed mind tests by experience the will of God, and knows it to be indeed the will of the Holy One of Israel (Joh 7:17), to be admired, followed and reduced to life. It remains to be shown how the word “age” comes to be translated “world.” The Jews divided time into two divisions; viz., before the Messiah, and after the advent of the Messiah. The former they called “this age”; the latter, “the age to come.” Thus the term “this age” became associated with those evils, vanities and Satanic workings which the Christian now calls “this world.” Both terms are used by Jesus (Mat 12:32 . Comp. Heb 6:5), and the expression “this age” is commonly used after the advent of Jesus to describe the moral and spiritual conditions which then and still oppose Christ and the age which he is developing– Mat 13:22; Luk 16:8; Mat 20:34; 1Co 1:20; 1Co 2:6; 2Co 4:4; Gal 1:4; Eph 6:12; 2Ti 4:10; Tit 2:12].
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
2. Be not fashioned after this age. We are living in Satans dark, wicked age of the world. If we follow its foolish and vivacious fashions we go headlong to ruin. But be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind. All sinners have the carnal mind only; sanctified people the mind of Christ only; while the unsanctified Christians are all double-minded (Jas 1:4;
4:8), having the mind of Christ and the carnal mind in a state of irreconcilable conflict, the one or the other destined to perish. In order that you prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. When the glorious transformation above specified takes place, and you are wholly sanctified, you become a living exemplar of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, illustrated to light up the world. The injunction to consecrate our bodies to God has a beautiful significance, from the fact that the heart or spirit fills the whole body, making every member glorify God. Hence, when the entire body with all its members, physical and mental, is consecrated to God, it is demonstrative proof that the immortal soul is fully given up to Him for time and eternity. This chapter is beautifully and lucidly expository of the sanctified experience throughout. For I say through the grace which is given to me to every one who is among you, not to think above that which it behooveth him to think, but to think soberly, as God has imparted unto each one the measure of faith Humility is the primary Christian grace, outshining all others. It keeps you down on the Lords bottom at the feet of Jesus, whence you never can fall unless you imbibe some pride from Satan and go climbing. Then you can fall and break your neck. The perfect humility involved in the sanctified experience precludes all pride, its inimical and incompatible antithesis. We see here that faith is the grand Archimedian lever of spiritual power in every phase of heroic enterprise and gracious availability.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 2
Conformed to this world, in sinful character.–Transformed; changed.–Prove; exemplify.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
12:2 {2} And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your {f} mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(2) The second precept is this, that we do not take other men’s opinions or conduct as a rule for life, but that we wholly renounce this world, and set before us as our mark the will of God as is manifested and revealed to us in his word.
(f) This is the reason that there is no room left for reason, which the heathen philosophers place as a queen in a castle, nor for man’s free will, which the popish scholars dream of, because the mind must be renewed; Eph 1:18 2:3 4:17 Col 1:21
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Rom 12:1 deals with making the commitment and Rom 12:2 with maintaining it.
"The first verse calls for an explicit act; the second commands a resultant lifelong process. These verses are a call for an act of presentation and the resultant duty of transformation." [Note: Hiebert, "Presentation and . . .," p. 312.]
Both activities are important. The present tense in the Greek text of Rom 12:2 indicates our continuing responsibility in contrast to the aorist tense in Rom 12:1 that stresses a decisive act. The "world" (Gr. aion) is the spirit of our age that seeks to exclude God from life (1Jn 2:15). The world seeks to "squeeze you into its own mold." [Note: J. B. Phillips’ paraphrase.] The Christian should be continually renewing his or her mind by returning mentally to the decision to dedicate self to God and by reaffirming that decision. This continual rededication to God will result in the transformation of the Christian into Christ’s image (Rom 8:29; cf. Mar 9:2-3). A daily rededication is none too often.
"This re-programming of the mind does not take place overnight but is a lifelong process by which our way of thinking is to resemble more and more the way God wants us to think." [Note: Moo, p. 757.]
The Holy Spirit is the unidentified transformer that Paul set in contrast to the world (Rom 8:9-11; cf. Mat 17:1-2; 2Co 3:18; 2Co 6:17-18; 2Co 7:1; Col 3:9-10; 1Th 5:23; Tit 3:5). "Prove" or "test and approve" involves evaluating and choosing to practice what is the will of God instead of what the world recommends (cf. Eph 5:8-10). We clarify what God’s will for us is by rededicating ourselves to God often. God’s will sometimes becomes blurred when our commitment to Him wavers (cf. Eph 5:8-10; Jas 1:6-8). However it is always good. Notice that total commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ is a prerequisite for experiencing God’s will.
Dedication results in discernment that leads to delight in God’s will. The initial dedication and the subsequent reaffirmation both please God (Rom 12:1-2, "acceptable" or "pleasing"; cf. Php 4:18; Heb 13:16). "Good" means essentially good. "Acceptable" means pleasing to God. "Perfect" means it cannot get any better.
Rom 12:1-2 are extremely important verses for Christians. They express our most important responsibility to God, namely, submitting completely to His lordship over our lives. The popular saying, "God is my co-pilot," does not give God His rightful place. God wants and deserves to be our pilot, not our co-pilot. Christians should make this commitment as close to the moment of their justification as possible. However notice that Paul addressed his appeal to believers, not the unsaved. Dedication to God is a response to the mercy of God that we receive in salvation. It is not a condition for receiving that mercy. It is a voluntary commitment that every Christian should make out of love for the Savior, but it is not one that every Christian does make. It is possible to be a Christian without ever making this commitment since it is voluntary.
"To require from the unsaved a dedication to His lordship for their salvation is to make imperative what is only voluntary for believers (Rom 12:1; 1Pe 3:15)." [Note: Livingston Blauvelt Jr., "Does the Bible Teach Lordship Salvation?" Bibliotheca Sacra 143:569 (January-March 1986):38.]