Forefront
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Today’s Text: Romans 12:1-8 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will is this: (1) to not think of oneself as any better than anyone else but to consider God’s mercy upon oneself, (2) to consider oneself as belonging to all the others in a church.
If more church folks would consciously make every effort to not conform to the patterns, the ways, the attitudes, the strategies of the world and consciously make every effort to please God, our churches would be very different. They would be filled with the love of Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit to save—both ourselves and others.
As it is, too many church folks expend too much effort to excommunicate the riff-raff from their perfect churches made in their own image. It helps to remember that Paul is making every effort to get the Jews and Gentiles in Rome and around the world to be one in fellowship with Jesus Christ, and that fellowship with Christ as the basis for fellowship with one another.
The way a person behaves is governed by the posture of his or her heart. Paul is telling us that the posture of our hearts needs to be transformed, and the transformation of our hearts can only happen with a change in the way that we think. The thought that should be in the forefront of a believer’s mind is to do the will of God.
If doing the will of God is in the forefront of a person’s mind, then obeying the word of God should be the immediate thought that follows. And if obeying the word of God is the immediate thought that follows, the subsequent action will not be to close our Bibles, or to close our eyes to the word of God, or to close our ears to the voice of Christ, or to close our hearts to obedience.
It takes little humility to tell God in our heads that we are wrong and that we repent. It takes a lot of humility to put our repentance into action—especially when it comes to our attitudes toward others.
And it’s hard. It’s hard because people are proud. And to act in humility toward someone who is proud may be one of the hardest things in the world to do. But that is what the apostle Paul is saying that we should do.
Why? Because that is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Maybe that’s why Paul told Timothy:
Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
— 2 Timothy 2:3
Father, You are good. Your ways are perfect. Your word is perfect. And so why do I have such a hard time obeying Your word. I confess that it is because of pride. I lean upon Your grace and mercy because sometimes it is so difficult for me to act in humility. Forgive my pride Lord. Change my thinking so that the posture of my heart may change—to glorify You even when (especially when) it hurts my pride. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
