I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:1-8 ESV)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” In the ESV Bible there is a footnote next to the word world in the quote here and the footnote says that the word in the Greek in age. Now that could mean the world, but it could also mean this current time… Now you might be saying, what is the difference? The world and the current time are really the same things. We live in a world that is so far from God and Jesus. We need for the world to be conformed to God. Or do we?
Is it a good thing for us to be a Christian nation where we all get complacent about our faith and just go through the motions of being the community God has called us to be? Where we follow rules and do what others want us to do because that is the polite thing to do, and it will make everybody happy. Do not be conformed to this age could mean that we are conformed to the age of the community that says they follow God when really they are following after what they want and not what God has called them to be or do. We are not to think more highly of ourselves that we have it all together and we know what to do. We have to constantly look at what God is leading us to do and be and to go and do that even if it flies in the face of the tradition we know of as the church. Because really that is what Jesus did. He rebelled against the powers of the religion of the day and was killed for it. He was trying to show those who were “following God” a better way and they wanted nothing to do with it because it was different from what they knew and was not the way we follow God because it was not following the rules.
But you see as Mumford and Sons shows us love will only set you free. Rules enslave us and make us do things we do not want to do for the sake of another. Love frees us to serve the other and that is different. When we do something out of love it is freeing to be serving. and when we do something to be right it is captivating and enslaving because we are doing it to please someone. Love is freeing and empowering, not enslaving…
Do not be conformed to any world that enslaves you and does not free you in the wonderful love that God has for you.
aSacredRebel 