Verse of the Day for April 3

Paul has spent eleven chapters on doctrine. Chapter twelve begins the practical section, and the first instruction is about the mind rather than behaviour.

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Conformed is a word about being pressed into an external shape, the way a mould works. It happens by default and requires no decision from you at all.

Transformed is a different image entirely — the word behind it is the one used of the transfiguration. It is change that works outward from inside.

And the mechanism named is the renewing of the mind, which is not the same as learning more. Renewing is making new again, restoring something that has worn.

The purpose clause at the end is worth noticing: that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Discernment is downstream of a renewed mind. People who cannot tell what God wants are often not short of information; they are being pressed into a shape by something they have stopped noticing.

You are being shaped by whatever you soak in, and the shaping is silent. That is what conformed means.

Renewal is not more input. It is different input, repeated.