The Need For A Renewed Mind

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From the letter to the Christians in Rome,

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 – NKJV)

I am of the mind that never was this command more important to Christians than it is today, that we be “transformed by the renewing of (our) minds.” Again, I reference a media-saturated world in which you and I live. Voices and images coming at us from every direction, offering perspectives on matters of living life in this age. And the vast majority of them are not Scriptural.

The word “world” is really better translated “age.” It is the Greek word aion and it is a reference to any unbiblical philosophy of life. Paul writes in the imperative so the command is, “Stop being conformed to this age.”

The Christians in Rome were being seduced by all that was going on around them, by the general intellectual, moral and cultural climate in which they daily lived their lives. Paul commands the believers in Rome, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

And so the Scripture instructs us . . . . “Stop being conformed to this age in which you live and be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Why? So that you can fulfill your calling as disciples of Christ to “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

The apostle Peter speaks to this very matter in his first epistle,

“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of the men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles . . .” (I Peter 4:1-3 – NKJV)

Peter makes it clear that “we have spent enough” of our past lifetime” doing the will of the Gentiles,” of non-believers. We need now to “arm” ourselves with the “same mind” as “Christ” and strive to “cease from sin” and “no longer live the rest of (our) time in the flesh for” this age, “for the lusts of men.” Rather, we are to “live . . . for the will of God.” And that “will” is “proven” when our “minds” are “renewed” by the Word of God, and our thinking and our words and our actions reflect that newness.

When you and I are “transformed by the renewing of (our) minds” the “will of God” is manifested through us. And God, through “transformed” lives, declares to the “age” His righteous “will” for all of mankind. This is how we are His witnesses.

Are you in the Word of God? Are you reading it, studying it? Are you allowing it to “transform your mind” from thinking and acting like those who are called the “sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-3)?

“But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:2024 – NKJV)

Have a good day brethren . . . and be in the Word, allowing the Holy Spirit through its counsel to transform you mind and your will that you might in turn prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will God.

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