Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. - Romans 12:1-8
"...be transformed" is sort of a strange command, a passive imperative. If I say to you "be cleaned" (not "be clean") it would mean that I subject myself to someone else washing me, like the way my socks would if they could choose to be laundered. It is subjecting oneself passively to someone else's actions. So "be transformed" is a command to surrender to being changed by another-in this case-by God. Not just changed-transformed-converted from one thing to another.
But it gets stranger: be transformed "by the renewing of your mind." So much of what defines our sense of self is encompassed in our mind. When we say that we "changed our mind" it means that the way we valued different potential alternatives has been reshaped so that what was once less valuable is now perceived as more important. God is really messing with our minds! Or rather he is asking us to choose to let God mess with our minds.
Why? Because the changes that God wants for us requires that we are fundamentally changed. Only after this fundamental change will we be able to see what is real. But once we submit ourself to this process "Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Do you want to know what God is doing and why he is doing? You will never be able to see it unless you surrender our very self to God and let him reform us.
Will I like what God does? I guess that depends on how much I trust him to care for me and how much I believe he is capable to being about the result he promises. Can I really be a more loving person? Can I really be wiser? Can I really change? Do I think he will do it the way he says he will. "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ... being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
It is one thing for Paul to say it, but Paul can't speak for me. I must say I will "be transformed" according to his promise. I sure hope so, or I will look pretty stupid in dropping my defenses.
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