“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Our culture professes to value individualism. We see this in all sorts of advertisements. We are constantly told that our buying this or that product will help us stand out from the pack as different. We are told to embrace our individualism and not be like everyone else. The truth, though, is that our culture only tolerates free expression within a pretty tight worldview range. You can do whatever you want as long as it comes out of and expresses a single set of worldview beliefs. Deviate from that, and there’s going to be trouble. The Gospel, though, is different. And if we are going to embrace it, we’re going to have to be different. Really different. Let’s talk about it.

We live in a day in which everybody professes to want to be unique. One of the most famous commercials in television history came from the tech company, Apple, in 1984. You can watch it here, but the ad is all about how their new personal computer, the Macintosh, will help you break from the controlling monotony of the world around you, and give you the freedom to truly be yourself. The twist, of course, is that Apple would have loved nothing more than to have every single person in the country purchase their new computer and start marching to the beat of their drums instead.

As much as the world around us crows about a desire to be unique, the truth is that everyone really just wants to fit in. It’s an ironic combination. I’ve occasionally seen it mocked with the line, “I want to be an individual just like everyone else.” I wouldn’t be hard to convince that the entire movement to encourage people (but especially young people) to be their own person is an elaborate scheme inspired by the Devil to serve as an effective way to keep people out of the kingdom of God. The reality of the culture we live in is that it highly prizes conformity to whatever its established norms happen to be. All violators will be identified and punished.

Christianity offers the chance to actually break free from that. This breaking free from the mechanized conformity will come with a cost. Paul talks about that in other places at length including citing personal examples. More than that, Jesus Himself makes this abundantly clear. In this life you will have trouble, Jesus promised. The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but in our world the tallest nail gets pounded. Yet if we are going to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices in light of His abundant mercies toward us, we have to break free from the bonds of conformity to whatever age we live in. Paul’s command here is timeless.

In order to do this, we must be transformed. Okay, but transformation is just what the world promises, isn’t it? Think of how many products and programs promise to transform our lives for the better. That may be their line, but their real goal if you listen closely to what they say is to make you more fully yourself. They promise to help you become who you truly are. That sounds nice, sure, but when you realize that the promise is coming out of a worldview that doesn’t reckon with the fact that we are all broken by sin, it takes on an entirely more sinister tone.

Getting trapped in the prison of myself is not a gift at all, but a curse. Given that we are all broken by sin, we don’t need to become more truly ourselves, we need to be transformed to more fully reflect the goodness and righteousness of someone a whole lot better than ourselves. We need to be transformed by the righteousness of God. The world doesn’t offer that at all. Only the Gospel does.

Notice too the differences between the kind of “transformation” the world offers and what Paul commands believers to embrace here. The world calls us to a variety of things that are only external. Exercise more. Eat differently. Purchase this or that product. Change a habit or two. Get a new job. Find a new relationship. All of these and more are little more than changing the decor of a house with a rotting foundation. If you don’t address the foundation, all the cosmetic changes in the world aren’t going to fix what’s actually broken.

The transformation Paul invites and commands Christians to embrace is not external, but internal. It starts not with any kind of a new pattern or habit, but with our minds. We are to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Embracing the Gospel involves embracing an entirely new worldview position. Gospel transformation happens from inside out. It is not and cannot be simply adopting a new set of behaviors.

If you just start coming to church and following the interpersonal commands of Jesus, that is going to make your life better in many respects because immersing yourself in a solid community and being a better person toward the world around you is always going to have a positive impact. Any religion can offer that. But if you don’t embrace the ideas that undergird those things, they aren’t going to do you the kind of lasting good you are seeking. They won’t by themselves fix what is broken. Embracing the Gospel is about embracing a totally new set of ideas. Unless and until we get our minds wrapped around those, they aren’t going to do us much good. They certainly won’t save us.

So, how do we renew our minds? How do we learn to think differently? There are a number of approaches that can work here, but three things stand out to me as primary in their importance. We need to engage with the Scriptures regularly and consistently. The Bible contains all of the information necessary for us to accept and understand the Christian worldview. It is the originating collection of writings marking out the boundaries of this mind renewal that will bring real and meaningful change to our lives. If you want to experience the kind of transformation that will actually make a difference, you’ve got to be in the Scriptures regularly.

The second practice here is prayer. As Monday’s sermon noted, prayer is a conversation with the God who loves you. It is the means by which we form and build a relationship with Him. If we want to be transformed by the worldview that is defined by the character of God, getting to know that God better is going to be a non-negotiable part of the process. The Scriptures will go a long way toward helping us in this direction on their own, but ultimately, they are His words. Without His help—which we gain access to by prayer—they won’t do much for us. Incorporating prayer into our lives on a regular and consistent basis is vital here as well.

The third thing is to engage with the church. As I was actually just telling my son yesterday, people will adopt the beliefs of the community in which they immerse themselves. If you want to experience a Gospel transformation, surrounding yourself with people who have already experienced that or who are working through that in their own lives will be a huge help in the right direction. The Christian life wasn’t meant to be lived on our own. In fact, we’ll fail if we try. The church matters a lot.

Now, you may have noticed that all three of these things are changes to habits or patterns in our life. How is this different from what the world offers? The difference lies not in the presence of patterns themselves, but in the thing we are pursuing with them. These three habits are all about providing the structure that will help us think differently. They will help us break from thinking like the world does, and instead to think according to the ethos of the kingdom of God. That’s where the real transformation lies.

The last part of this verse offers us a reason this is worth doing that is pretty interesting. Paul says we are to pursue this mind renewal leading to our transformation into the kind of people who will make themselves living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, in light of His mercies toward us in Christ “so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” To put that another way, this mind renewal leading to Gospel transformation will help us know and understand God’s will.

How many times have you wanted to know what God wants? How many times have you wondered what His will is for this or that situation? What Paul is offering us here is a solution to that tension. If you want to know God’s will, you have to have your mind renewed and transformed by the Gospel. If we want to understand God’s will, we have to think like He does. With our minds broken by sin, a total renewal is the only way forward. And when we do that, we will be more than just more fully ourselves. We will become fully who God made us to be: a beautifully unique individual reflective of His perfect image. That’s way better than anything the world offers.