Being Transformed

Romans 12:1,2

Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

so that you may prove what the will of God is,

that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Grammar. The very word used to cause fear in the minds of elementary school children.

I always understood it; I just never liked it. And perhaps it was in the presentation. Maybe it's like that with anything; math, Shakespeare, history, languages -- they can either be boring or interesting depending on the presentation. (Note of thanks: my Grade 10 History teacher, Jim Nawrot, was one of my most inspiring teachers. He made Canadian history come alive, introducing me to Gordon Lightfoot and ballads like "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy". Thank you, Mr. Nawrot! Hope I can be as inspiring as you!)

But back to grammar. Never found it to be much use -- until I started studying languages and how different groups put words and parts of words together to form meaning. Until I studied biology and saw how scientists put words and parts of words together to classify, or to describe techniques. Until I studied the Word of God and saw how beautifully the writers, inspired by the Spirit of God, put words and parts of words together to convey heavenly, eternal, infinite concepts to men and women with earthly, temporal, finite understanding.

In Romans, Paul pleads with us to give our bodies as a living sacrifice. We're not talking following dry rules; he really means giving everything -- our lives, our very identities -- as a figurative human sacrifice on an altar to God. We know there were pagan civilizations that did this; we recently went to Mexico and heard how often human sacrifice was involved in the Mayan religion. There was nothing held back. That's what Paul was getting at. In the language of today, he would likely say, "Be all in."

He likens it to worship. We tend, in modern day Western Christianity, to associate worship solely with music. You can be part of a worship team, you can buy a worship album. But worship comes from "worth-ship". It is attributing worth to something or someone by performing a determined action. So Paul is essentially saying that, by giving your life as a figurative sacrifice to God, you attribute to God the highest worth by holding nothing back. But that also means that the degree to which you hold back reflects the level of worth you attribute to God.

He goes on to say, "Do not be conformed to this world..." To be formed means to be shaped or molded; throw the prefix "con" on the front and it adds the thought of being shaped or molded together with this world. Instead, he instructs us to be transformed; different prefix here. When we did dissections in biology, we were sometimes instructed to do a transverse section,  or a cut across. The prefix means across, or perpendicular (at 90 degrees) to something. So Paul is, in effect, saying "Be shaped or molded in a way that cuts across the direction this world is taking." In other words, be counter-cultural.

So when the culture around you says to focus on power, or physical beauty, or money, or things, Jesus says, "Seek after God's Kingdom first; the rest of your needs God will take care of."  When the culture says, "Hold on to your money! You earned it, you need it, you deserve it!", the Word of God indicates that "God loves a cheerful giver" and that we are to be generous, because in our generosity, we reflect the heart of our Heavenly Dad. When the culture says, "I might forgive, but I'll NEVER forget!", God reminds us that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. And He says "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." It's not a passive "Oh I forgot!"; it involves an active choosing not to bring it to mind, to set it aside when it does come unbidden, and to purposely not hold it against the offender. This is hard; but it comes back to the worth you assign to God, by your willingness to do this for Him.

And how? "... by the renewing of your mind ..." It requires a habit of immersing yourself in the How-To Manual; the Bible. Ephesians 5:26 talks about "the washing with water by the Word". Spending time in God's Word, seeing His heart and learning to think like He thinks cleanses our mind of wrong thinking and molds us to think more like He does.

I struggle with it too. It's a daily battle, but it's a worthwhile one, because ultimately HE is worth it!