Don't Be Conformed

March 18th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world…

As any Christian can attest, being a follower of Christ, sadly, does not always entail actually following Christ. There are times when Christians choose to follow their own ways or the ways of others who are not Christians and are thus not pleasing to God. Being a Christian does not keep us from being tempted to follow that which is wicked, but being a Christian does give us the freewill to either follow our Lord Jesus Christ or be conformed to the world.

The word “conform” (suschēmatizō) means “to form, or model, after.” Like building a sand castle with a plastic bucket, the sand is conformed to the bucket. Christians are not to be formed by anything except Christ. In the OT, Eve was conformed by the temptations of the serpent to choose her own way and shun God’s instructions (Gen. 3). Likewise, her son Cain opted to conform to his way by refusing to bring God the best of what he had (Gen. 4). In the same vein, Achan, being conformed by the call of riches, stole what belonged to God (Josh. 7:10-26). Also, Saul, believing God’s plan to destroy the Amalekites was unnecessary, shunned the word of the Lord, conforming to his own ideas of what he thought was best (1 Sam. 15).

In the NT, Judas Iscariot conformed to his own false ideas, leading to his betrayal of the Son of God. In Acts 5, Ananias and his wife conformed to the worldly notion that riches bring happiness, so he withheld what belonged to God and paid for it with his life. Jesus illustrated this specific sin in the parable of the soils (Mark 4:18-19), revealing that while some seemingly receive Christ, they refuse to repent of their conformity to the world, allowing the deceitfulness of riches to dictate their actions, proving that they never truly knew Christ or His saving power.

Paul’s traveling companion, Demas, fell in love “with this present world” and abandoned both Paul and perhaps the Christian faith (2 Tim. 4:10; cf. Col. 4:14; Philemon 24). Even Peter and Barnabas had to be rebuked by Paul for conforming to the desire to please men rather than standing up for the truth. Both men behaved hypocritically in associating with Gentiles until such a time as they felt like they would be criticized by the Jews for doing so (Gal. 2:11-14).

Truly the mind of man is depraved, but it is immediately renewed upon believing in Jesus Christ for salvation. Unlike the seeds in the parable of the soils (Mark 4:1-20) which looked like believers but who became apostate, true believers in Christ are the ones who “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixty fold and a hundredfold.” In other words, true Christians are not conforming to the world but are transformed and produce spiritual fruit in keeping with their faith—the result of a once-depraved mind that is being continually renewed.

Food For Thought
Conforming to the world is an ongoing problem for Christians in spite of the fact that we are not of the world. The question for us is this: “In our quest to be non-conformists to the world around us, how weird do we have to be?” Do we need to throw out our TVs, our clothes, our music preferences, and have all our tattoos removed? Do we then need to adapt to the common Christian culture around us by listening to nothing but Christian music and radio, wearing Christian T-shirts, calling everyone brother, praying in King James English, and saying “blessed” every time someone asks us how we’re doing? Do we have to remove our children from the public schools, shun all alcohol and card playing, repudiate the theater, and walk around everywhere we go with a Bible? Note that Paul does not say any of that! Just, Do not let the world in which we live mold us to its evil ways.