Read: Romans 12:1-2
The more time you spend with someone, the more you tend to become like them. This is probably most visible with teenagers whose interests can change like the wind. Almost overnight they can go from being super interested in one game, style of clothing, or genre of music to thinking those things are the lamest things ever while something else is now their favorite thing.
Why does that happen? Most of the time this change of interests can be traced to the friends that they’re spending the most time with. A kid whose best friend suddenly gets really into Fortnite and only talks about Fortnite, is going to try out playing Fortnite at least once. And if their friend continues to be interested in the game, they’re likely to keep that interest in it even if they initially didn’t like playing the game.
While this is probably most outwardly visible in youth, it serves as a truism for all people. The phenomenon is called conformity, and it goes beyond our mere outward actions all the way down to our very character. Paul is right when he says, “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). Someone who spends most of their time with people who curse, smoke, and drink all day is very likely to also start cursing, smoking, and drinking even if they were adamantly against such things before they met those people.
The opposite is true as well. A young man who enters into a personal discipleship relationship with a godly older Christian is likely to start picking up the traits, characteristics, and potentially even the mannerisms of that godly saint. Paul describes that very thing concerning his relationship with Timothy: “You…have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness” (2 Tim. 3:10). Our tendency to conform goes beyond people as well. We may hate a particular genre of music, but if, for some reason, we were to start listening to a lot of that style of music we may eventually go from hate, to dislike, to tolerate, to like, to loving that brand of music.
Why is this important to note? Here’s an important reason: We are born fallen, dead in our sin, and we live our entire lives in a fallen world that is diametrically opposed to Christ, his Word, and his people. When we are saved by his grace through faith in his person and work, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of us and gives us a new nature with a tender heart that truly does love Christ and his commands (Jer 31:31-33; Ezek 36:24-26; Titus 3:4-7).
As Christians we really do want to live righteously. We really do want to view and understand the world as Christ views it and made it. The problem is that by necessity we spend a lot of time in the world. So, not only do we have to struggle against our flesh and former ways of thinking and viewing God, the world, ourselves, and other people, but we are also inundated day after day with the things of this world and its ruler that seeks to influence us away from Christ and His kingdom (Eph. 6:12).
This is why, after spending eleven chapters expounding the gospel and what Christ has done for the believer through his death and resurrection, Paul starts his practical exhortations this way: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). How do we present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice? We do so by not letting ourselves be conformed to the image of world. We stop letting ourselves look like the world.
Instead, we spend time in the Word letting that have all the influence on our minds. Though we live in the world as sojourners, we do not allow the world’s values to color our vision or our thinking. Where the world and our own unredeemed thinking are at odds with Scripture, we humble ourselves, submit to God’s Word, and let it renew our minds so that we can think rightly about God, the world, ourselves, and others.
We cannot be lax in this. We must spend regular, consistent time in the Word, whether that is through reading, memorizing, and thinking about it continually, or hearing it preached to us. This cannot be a “Sunday only” thing. How can we expect to live godly lives if we only give Sunday mornings to letting God’s Word influence us while giving the world the other six and a half days? How can our love for Christ grow if we’re letting the world influence our thinking more than his Word? God has predestined all of his people to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29). That conformity will be complete when Christ returns and we receive our resurrected bodies (1 John 3:2), but if that is our future hope, shouldn’t we be striving to experience even a sliver of that in the present? Let us then spend time being influenced by Christ through His Word, having our minds renewed, so that we may look more like Christ each and every day.
Ponder and Pray: Consider how we can guard ourselves from being influenced by the world as we live in it. What are some gifts that God has given His people to help them in this? Finish by sharing prayer requests and praying for one another.