“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” (Romans 12:2).

Recently, most of the articles on this site have talked about “renewal of the mind.” Romans 12:2 is the keynote verse for this topic. This verse appears in a section where Paul teaches about serving God and His people: offering ourselves as living sacrifices, using the gifts of the Spirit, etc. Verse 2 provides a context for Christian maturity so that we can fulfill that calling.

Before a disciple follows Christ, he is conformed to this world. He clings to worldly ideas about human nature, God, the universe, right and wrong, relationships, and virtually everything else that matters. A significant part of spiritual growth is renewal of the mind, as the Holy Spirit changes your thoughts and perspective. This leads to transformation (also a work of the Holy Spirit). As a result, the disciple can clearly discern the will of God. To stop conforming to this world, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Most disciples came to Christ with many misguided beliefs and an abundance of “stinking thinking.” Changing those ideas takes a lifetime. We have learned deception from our families, our culture, the media, educational and social institutions, etc. For example, many American Christians read the Bible through a lens of individualism. American society glorifies the self-made man. It urges us to put ourselves and our desires first. We may start to believe that the Bible itself teaches individualism. As a result, we hear the phrase “personal relationship with Jesus,” and are tempted to live as if our faith in Christ is detached from that of every other Christian. We may even try to redefine Jesus in our own image.

The process of mind-renewal takes a lifetime. The disciple of Jesus Christ is always growing throughout his or her life. As the disciple learns to think with the mind of Christ, he or she can more clearly discern the will of God.

Discerning the will of God implies a desire to obey it: not merely to understand or analyze it. Many Christians are trapped by another of Western culture’s lies, the belief that we can understand anything by analyzing it (thus, if I cannot rationalize it, it cannot be true). However, analysis can lead to spiritual paralysis. For example, some Christians approach the description of God’s will in Romans 12:2—“what is good and acceptable and perfect”—by trying to distinguish between different degrees of divine will. They try to distinguish between God’s perfect will and a lower degree of His will (good, acceptable, permissive, or something else). They think that really spiritual Christians should follow God’s “perfect” will, but that there is a lesser “good/acceptable” will that others can get away with.

Let us stop trying to compartmentalize and hyper-analyze God’s will and simply seek to know and obey it. God’s will for our lives is always good, acceptable, and perfect.

Please note, though, that we can distinguish between God’s global will for all people and His particular will for an individual. There are some actions and attitudes that God desires from all of us. However, He may expect each of us to practice them in different ways. We are all called to love our neighbor as ourselves. How we manifest that love will depend on our unique personalities and abilities.

God’s will is always consistent with Scripture, but He may call us to live it out in specific ways. For example, a Christian who is capable of attending church should not say, “God wants me to stop going to church and to just worship Him by myself.” That is simply unbiblical (see, e.g., Hebrews 10:24-25). So, if you think God is telling you to stop attending church and cease fellowship with other believers, do not believe it: That is probably Satan posing as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

However, you will not find a clear verse in the Bible telling you which church to attend. Does that leave us completely off the hook? Not at all. Instead, we should try to determine which particular local church God is calling us to attend. The Bible offers principles we can consider while we pray to learn God’s will: For example, if a church is a “good fit” for you, it is one where you will mature spiritually and where you will find opportunities to use your gifts and talents to serve others. It may not be the most entertaining, largest feel-good church.

Finally, let us bear in mind that renewal of the mind and transformation of the soul are works of the Holy Spirit. We can read the Bible for six hours per day, but if the Holy Spirit is not involved in our efforts, we will not mature spiritually. If we try to understand the Bible with our own prejudices and assumptions, without seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, it will not succeed. We must ask Him to speak through us via His word. We should trust the Holy Spirit to do His work in our lives, since spiritual renewal is entirely His work:

“…{He} saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…” (Titus 3:5).

“…{Put} off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:12-16).

May we be transformed day by day by the renewing of our minds, so that we may have the mind of Christ and know the will of our heavenly Father, through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

Copyright © 2018 Michael E. Lynch. All rights reserved.