Formed

Romans 12:2

The ESV translates it as “the world”. “Do not be conformed to this world.” Through the years the church’s view of what is and isn’t of “the world” has morphed. What was worldly to our grandparents seems innocuous to us. Which “world” should we avoid being conformed to?

The Greek word for world, used here, is aiōni, meaning “a space of time, an age”. Another rendering of Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this age”.  This puts us in a predicament because no longer is the conversation only about outward conformity to an ever changing standard of behavior. And how can we resist being shaped by this age, by this period of time in which the Lord has ordained for us to exist? All people, everywhere have been formed and reformed by their family of origin, their culture, their life experiences, their passions and pains, their wealth or poverty. None can help but be shaped by their space in time, but church,  we can be transformed.

What has shaped you? Is it the living and active word of God which is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart? Or is it something else? What is at this very moment shaping you? We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is making his appeal through US, to the WORLD to be reconciled to Christ. This is part of God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.

There is only one way to be rightly formed. The Spirit of God must renew our minds with the Word of God to conform us to the image of the Son of God. In this age, this moment in time, I pray God will give us such a hunger for his word, that nothing lesser will ever satisfy.

-Natalie