It Starts Small

AS we continue our series and diving deep within scripture to learning God’s Word on godliness we have focused in on road blocks. Yesterday we learned that our flesh is a road block. Today we look at how culture is another road block.

Paul is teaching us that culture and the Christian life do not mix. They are not compatible with each other. The world strives for glory, but our model is servanthood. The world puffs in pride, but Jesus says our response is humility. Intolerance fuels hatred and conflict while God’s Word says patience and love should govern our relationships. There is a huge contrast between what the culture and world says and what the Word of God says.

The better we understand this contrast, the better we can allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in godliness. Paul says do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that we may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

What is Paul asking us to do? He is urging us to respond to God’s mercy, His forgiveness, and His inclusion of us into His family. The right response is to offer Him our entire lives as a living breathing sacrifice.

Paul is urging us to not conform to the world. In the New Testament, the world is often referred to as the world system. The world’s theology and ways. Remember this is our default setting. Our old nature will forever be programmed to desire the world’s ways. John described it as:

¹⁶ 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.

1 John 2:16

By instinct, all of us chase those things in pursuit of happiness and meaning. Paul says do not go this way, instead abandon youthful lusts. Remember our foundation verse has been 1 Timothy 6:11. Paul is again urging us to abandon the chase for pleasure, possessions, and status. I believe he is saying, stop living like everyone else.

But then Paul says to be transformed from the inside out. The problem with us is not the circumstances or world around us. The barrier is within us. Specifically, Paul says that we must be changed in how we think, to have our minds renewed so that we can begin to understand God’s will for our lives. That is not external work, but internal work.

God may continue to provide us with pleasure, possessions, and status in various forms, but he urges us to learn how to look at life with a new question:

What does God want for me?
What is truly a good, acceptable, and perfect use of my life for His purposes and not just for my own?
What areas of culture have infiltrated my heart?

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