Emphasis Preaching Journal

While growing up, most of us probably heard at one time or another, a parent ask us, "If your friend told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?" From early on, we wanted to fit in and be accepted by the world around us. We want to do what our friends do. If we were blessed by wise parents and strong self-esteem, we may have learned the life lesson that conformity is not always a good thing.

Paul tells us in this passage that conformity and non-conformity are spiritual matters. When Paul tells the young church in Rome to not be conformed by the world, he is telling them to grow without the constraints of social expectations and cultural norms. The world says curse your enemies, but God says bless them. The world says hang with the in crowd, but God says don't be haughty and arrogant. The world says look after numero uno, but God says think of your brother first. The world says if you don't conform you will be somehow lessened, but through Paul, God proclaims if you don't conform, you can be transformed and you will see more clearly the good, the acceptable, the perfect. Sometimes it seems as though the world is telling us to jump off a cliff. But God calls us to non-conformity. Be transformed, brothers and sisters, by the renewal of your minds.