Conforming to This World

Everybody wants to belong, nobody wants to be an outcast, nobody wants to be shunned. It is a natural human feeling to want to have a sense of fitting in with everybody else. It is this desire that drives many people throughout their lives.

The feeling of not fitting in, whether real or imagined, can lead people to jealousy, feelings of ineptitude, anxiety, incompleteness, loneliness, or the feeling of being an outsider or an outcast as people seek to conform to what is considered normal and acceptable in this world at this time.

The natural movement of everything is toward its own end, and as time passes and things change that change usually means deterioration. Our cars rust and break down, our houses need repair, and even our bodies grow old and weak.

This deterioration also includes societal norms. Societal norms break down over time and some of this is good, but much of it is bad because sin has been redefined and normalized by the philosophy of subjective morality.

People are under constant pressure to conform to the new societal norms so that they will earn the respect of society and not be outcast themselves. But there is one unchanging and steady constant that people should be focused on instead.

Conforming to God’s Will

Much of the anxiety and depression people feel today is because they are focused on seeking the approval of people when they should be seeking approval from God. They should be trying to conform to God’s perfect will and not trying to conform to societal norms just to impress other people. While most things deteriorate and change over time, the one thing that we can count on is that God is unchanging, always good, and perfect. God is also forever.

Paul warns us about conforming to the world instead of conforming to God’s will in Romans 12:2:

² 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.¹

And Peter puts it this way:

¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct²

When you spend your time trying to conform to God’s will, instead of trying to satisfy the world, you will lead a more satisfying life. Suddenly the things that seemed central to your happiness will be on the periphery of your thought, and eventually vanish altogether. You will no longer care about being accepted in a fallen world because you have been accepted into God’s everlasting Kingdom.

Flesh Versus the Spirit

Galatians gives us a great synopsis on the difference between being conformed to this world and renewing the mind in the spirit. First, this is what it looks like when we walk in the flesh:

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.³

This is probably the understatement of the year, but that is an ugly list. However, this is what it looks like to walk in the spirit:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.⁴

The choice looks simple enough, yet it is a hard choice for many people to make because turning your life over to Christ in a world that has rejected him will bring a person scorn from the very same people they have spent their lives trying to impress. But Jesus reminds us:

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!

²³ Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.⁵

A Guiding Light to the World

In today’s world where the doctrines of moral relativism and subjective truth reign supreme, the concept of sin being an outdated human invention is gaining momentum. As Christians we stand opposed to this idea, and because of this we are portrayed as being judgmental, close-minded, old-fashioned, and out of touch with today’s values. But we understand that objective morality and objective truths exist and we aim to seek and to please the One from whom they come, rather than those who deny these realities.

People believe that the “freedom” they encounter in the doctrines of moral relativism and subjective truth leads them to better lives, but in reality the wages of sin is death,⁶ and the “freedom” they think they are enjoying is actually enslaving them⁷ because they are trading eternal bliss for temporal happiness.

Turning away from these doctrines, repenting from sin, and accepting Jesus Christ will grant people the eternal life that awaits those who accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. It is hard for people to set their eyes on things that are above and not on things that are on earth⁸ because they cannot see them, while that shiny new philosophy looks so tempting.

But it is our job to spread this message: while society, morals, and values change over time God does not change, and if something was a sin 2,000 years ago it is still a sin today. Just because the sin is tolerated today does not mean that the wages of the sin has been lessened, it means we have grown farther away from God. We need to show people the truth so they will not be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”⁹

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1. Romans 12:2 ESV ↩︎
2. 1 Peter 1:14,15 ESV ↩︎
3. Galatians 5:19-21 ↩︎
4. Galatians 5:22-23 ↩︎
5. Luke 6:22, 23 ESV ↩︎
6. Romans 6:23 ↩︎
7. See John 8:34 ↩︎
8. Colossians 3:2 ↩︎
9. Ephesians 4:14 ESV ↩︎