People around us will say we’re prudes or don’t want to have fun—let them. Our priority, our strategy, our goal is to please God in how we behave, speak, and think. Perhaps there’s something in your life that causes you to stumble, that influences you to behave, speak, and think like the world. If there is, let it go.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul gives 11 chapters of pure, theological gold. From the doctrine of justification by faith alone to the doctrine of election, Paul touches on so many different facets of doctrine that make the first 11 chapters a masterpiece.

Then he gives an imperative to begin Romans 12. Essentially he is saying, “In light of what I just said, now do (or don’t do) X, Y, and Z.”And none greater than his exhortation at the beginning of Romans 12:2, which states, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Paul is encouraging us to go against the grain of the culture, to not follow the patterns of this world, to not fit in with society. Indeed, we must be outcasts as Christians. We are the anomalies; we are the sojourners; we are the weird ones.

His exhortation to not conform to this world doesn’t mean we are to be legalists. It means, among other things, that we should not behave, speak, and think like the world. Our lives should be markedly and obviously different from the rest of the culture. There ought to be a noticeable difference between a Christian and non-Christian.

This exhortation might be the hardest thing about living as Christians. Though indwelt by the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, it’s far too easy to go with the flow of the world. It’s far too natural for us to abandon, even momentarily, the will of God for the will of the world.

This means we cannot adopt the world’s priorities or desires or infatuations.

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