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Romans 12:2

The Verse:

"Do not conform any longer 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." (from the New International Version)

Here is our expanded and interpreted paraphrase: "Do not allow yourself to be engineered by anyone who tries to press you into a mould of these times but get yourself into the metamorphosis the Lord intends for you by renewing your mind, so you can prove for yourself what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God"

Our thoughts on this verse:

We feel strongly that this verse provides the method by which Christians change and grow. It is a call for active, critical and independent thinking instead of passively being controlled. Mould pressing is what others would do to us.

A mould is something that someone else has designed and engineered. And they've done it with us in mind. Engineering historically has been a man's activity more than a woman's. For example, an engineer will take a chunk of steel, heat it until it glows red and then hammer it into a mould. This is useful for making things but it is not appropriate for people.

Mould pressing is also done by systems and thought put into place by people long dead. There is more of this in our articles Thinking Tools and Theology of Structure. But for now we must understand very clearly that the Christian must use her/his mind and that this is what the Lord intends to activate and guide our personal metamorphosis.

Note that the mind multi-tasks. While the renewing of mind gets us into metamorphosis the mind also proves to us what is God's will.

There is in English some confusion over the use of the word "prove". Not least confusing is the old adage that "The exception proves the rule". However, the confusion disappears when we understand the adage uses the old English meaning of the word. It means "test". In the context of Romans 12:2 we Christians are instructed to use our minds continually to test the ongoing personal changes.

It is a paradigm shift for Christians to become aware of the mould pressing influences and also the strength of the intent behind them. Mould pressing is done by dictators of all stripes, by religious and political structures we grow up in, by media, by peers, and not least by our own minds when we do not exercise our personal self-critical capacity.

Metamorphosis, on the other hand, is actually the way the universe operates. There are some useful examples from nature. A caterpillar becoming a butterfly or a snake shedding its skin. These are examples of growth and change and always in the direction the Creator intends. But lest we attempt to mould press or engineer ourselves, we should note that these processes operate on the Creator's time scale. If we attempt to extract a pupating caterpillar we don't get a beautiful butterfly, we just kill the creature. There is a lesson here when we become impatient with ourselves or with organizational structures. We should not submit ourselves to mould pressing but neither should we expect others to submit themselves to moulds of our engineering. And that especially includes children.

Renewing of mind is one of God's most beautiful gifts. Something we should rejoice in and share with others.