While this whole chapter in the book of Romans is packed full of information on how we should conduct ourselves as Christians, this scripture is almost a precursor to all of the things mentioned afterwards.

Without this understanding, without putting this into practice, we cannot fulfill the commission of Christ and certainly not the things mentioned in the verses that follow.

“Be not conformed”

“Conformed” is to mold yourself after someone or something else. “Fashioning” is another term used for the word. It makes me wonder if doing what is “fashionable” is also implied here.

Sometimes we conform ourselves not just to general ways of thinking or acting, but sometimes to very specific things that are currently in “fashion” within our culture.

How many “fads” do we follow after that so quickly fade away leaving us back in the same state as before?

Here, an implication is made to not conform ourselves to the world system or the world’s pattern. If you read through the rest of the chapter, it identifies what the opposite of the world’s pattern looks like.

If we conform to the world, we are making ourselves or rather, being made identical to the world.

We are to be transformed rather than conformed. Being transformed, we become something different from the inside out.

We become different than the world system.

We are not in agreement or harmony with the world’s pattern.

Ephesians 4:23 talks about being renewed in the spirit of your mind. “Spirit” being the soul of your being which is your mind, will, emotions.

Ephesians 4:24 says we “put on” the new man. This statement literally can mean to be as if we put on clothes. Other places in scripture it can denote someone else putting on or taking off your clothes. I think that is important to note, because we can sometimes allow others to take off what we have put on and unclothe what we have already clothed after Godliness.

This “putting on” is something we should do and must do ourselves, or we risk conforming ourselves to another person’s way of thinking.

The media and the consumer engine is always at work trying to convince us to put on what they claim to be the truth. I’ve watched people over the years follow after what “this person” said, or what “that article” said or what “these people” were doing. If it didn’t kill them, it most certainly made their lives miserable trying to conform to all of these other things.

Romans 13:14 tells us to “put on Christ”. Galatians 3:27 says that having been baptized into Christ we have “put on” Christ.

I do not find these two scriptures in contradiction to one another.

I believe that we have “put on” Christ, just as we are saved when we believed, but there is also this concept of continuing to “put on/wear” the clothes we are clothed with in Christ. The world seeks to strip us of who we are in Christ and it is the knowledge of Christ and who we are in Him that renews our mind and keeps us clothed in Him. This “putting on” of Christ is a daily decision we must make, lest we fall prey to seeing ourselves conform to the world.

The word “prove” here is a term used to denote the testing of metals, coinage or materials of the time to make sure they were genuine. It also can mean to test the words of other people or the words of the heart by the Lord.

In proving materials were genuine, the raw material would be refined and that which was not useful would be removed during the process, leaving only the pure behind.

It is important to note that this proving was for the purpose of drawing out the purity and the best in the material. Likewise, our proving is only to draw out the best in us and the best that God has for us.

In the renewing of our minds by putting our focus on God, we prepare ourselves to hear from God and to know His will for our lives.

I’ve struggled sometimes to know if I am really hearing from God, but after prayer, if I focus on Him, I will have a peace about what choice to make. If not a complete peace, sometimes a better peace with one decision over the other.

Trust God to reveal His will to you and then trust yourself to hear it. Sometimes you have to step out in faith and only after that will you see that God led you.