Verse
VERSE

Romans 12:2

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. 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. 

 English Standard Version 

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Short Content

Be Different

“Be different.” That slogan is everywhere. No one wants to look just like the next guy, right?

Bad news: We are all the same. As much as we tell ourselves we are all unique, the Bible says that by default, we all live according to a pattern the world has set for us.

We all worship; we all live for something. While the Bible says we were made to live for God—body, mind, and soul—it also tells us that we follow the ways of the world. It describes us as dead and lifeless, following by nature the worldly pattern set for us (Ephesians 2:1-3).

The world wants us to be godless, unaccountable, self-directed (Romans 1:18-32). When we submit to this mold, we become foolish, senseless, deceived, and depraved. We’re spiritually dead. And, we’re on our way to just punishment for ignoring the God who made us.

Now the good news: God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He rescued us, at a cost only to himself. He has shown us mercy. He shouted over our ignorance by sending Jesus Christ to earth to die on the cross for the sins of anyone who will believe in him as Lord and Savior.

Jesus freely gives new life: life as a free citizen of heaven who is able to resist the world’s agenda and live for God. Let God change your thoughts. Ask him to!

To those who have faith in his Son Jesus, he gives the Holy Spirit. God himself comes to live in us, changing us from the inside out. The Spirit gives us power to resist the world and helps us understand God’s thoughts.

God has also recorded his thoughts for us in the Bible. God’s Word is God’s thought, and we’ve got it right in front of us.

So don’t conform! Don’t let the world squish you into its thinking! “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2 NIV).

When we submit to God’s prescribed pattern of thought, we become wise, able to discern and approve God’s direction in our lives, which is good, pleasing, and perfect. God has higher plans for you. He wants you to look like his perfect Son.

Will you ask him to start the process of making you into the mold he wants for you? Don’t conform to the world. Be different, be truly different.

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by Bibles.net

Compare Versions

ESV

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.

CSB

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

NLT

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

NIV

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.

KJV

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Videos

Article: 8 Min

How to Discern God's Will

by Bibles.net

Verse
ROMANS 12:1 NLT

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 

Verse
TITUS 3:3-7 NIV

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

Quote
But we never can prove
The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
John Henry Sammis
Article: 15 Min

The Transformed Life 

by H.B. Charles Jr.

Quote

This is the difference
Jesus makes.
In the Old Testament,
the worshiper
brought a sacrifice.
In the New Testament,
the worshiper
becomes a sacrifice.
God does not want
something from you.
God wants you.

Verse
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Image

Instead,
let the Spirit
renew your thoughts
and attitudes.
Put on your new nature,
created to be like God—
truly righteous and holy.

Ephesians 4:23-24 NLT
Article: 5 Min

A Test to See If Worldly Wisdom Has Crept Into Your Life

by Candi Finch at Radical.net

Verse
1 PETER 1:13-16 ESV

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

Article: 5 Min

How to Be Conformed to the World

by Tim Challies at his blog

Verse
1 JOHN 2:15-17 NIV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. 

Verse
JAMES 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Quote

You know not
what you lose

by your conformity
to the world.
It cuts the tendons
of your strength,
and makes you creep
where you ought to run.
Then, for your own
comfort's sake,
and for the sake of
your growth in grace,
if you be a Christian,
be a Christian,
and
be a marked
and distinct one.

Article: 7 Min

Guard Against Worldliness

by Tim Challies at his blog

Message: 39 Min

A Mind

Transformed
by the Gospel

by Colin Smith 

Verse
2 PETER 1:3-4 NIV

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 

Quote

The will of God
is always bigger than we
bargain for,
but we must believe that
whatever it involves, it is good,
acceptable, and perfect.

Jim Elliot
Verse
1 PETER 4:1-11 ESV 

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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Quote

This is hugely dignifying. 
God is not telling us
what to think
at every
moment, 
but how to
think.
 He’s rarely telling
us what decision to
make, but teaching us
how to make decisions.

Verse
EPHESIANS 5:8-10 NIV

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  and find out what pleases the Lord. 

Quote

If the renovation
of our mind is
necessary, in order
that we may prove
what is the will of God,
it is hence evident
how opposed it is to God.

Message: 41 Min

The Renewed

Mind and How to Have It

by John Piper

Verse
2 CORINTHIANS 3:17-18 ESV

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 

Messages: 28 Min

How to Discern

God's Will for Your Life

by Dave Patty

Verse
ROMANS 8:5-6 ESV

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.