Romans 12:1-2 says: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 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.
This says to “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world”. Pattern means “a plan or model used as a guide…”; “a model that is considered to be worthy of imitation” (Encarta).
Harper’s Bible Dictionary says this about “world”: “The world is the arena in which sin, which alienates people from God, reigns. Therefore, ‘the world’ is a shorthand way of referring to the totality of humanity in the bondage of sin.”
The New Bible Dictionary says this about “world”: “It is not the world as God intended it to be, but ‘this world’ set over against God, following its own wisdom and living by the light of its own reason (1 Cor. 1:21), not recognizing the Source of all true life and illumination (Jn. 1:10). The two dominant characteristics of ‘this world’ are pride, born of man’s failure to accept his creaturely estate and his dependence on the Creator, which leads him to act as though he were the lord and giver of life; and covetousness, which causes him to desire and possess all that is attractive to his physical senses (1 Jn. 2:16). And, as man tends in effect to worship what he covets, such covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). Accordingly, worldliness is the enthronement of something other than God as the supreme object of man’s interests and affections. Pleasures and occupations, not necessarily wrong in themselves, become so when an all-absorbing attention is paid to them.”
So, when Romans 12 says that we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, what it is saying is that we should not follow after; we should not use as our guide; and we should not imitate the plan or model presented to us by the world as is described above.
I Corinthians 1:20-21: Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
This says that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world and that he uses the “foolishness” of the preaching of the gospel (not the wisdom of the world) to save those who believe. So many believers in Jesus and/or so many of today’s church congregations try to win people to Christ using the “wisdom of this world”, whereas God uses the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel to save those who believe.
I Corinthians 2:11-13: We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
This says that we don’t speak words taught us by human wisdom but we speak words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words (not worldly words). So, again, our methods, words, etc. for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world in need of a Savior should be expressed in spiritual words, not worldly words thinking we are attracting the world to Jesus. This is not God’s plan; this is man’s plan to use worldly methods to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 3:18-21a: Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So then, no more boasting about men!
This says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.
II Corinthians 10:3-5: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
This says that we don’t use the world’s methods to fight a spiritual battle. The methods we use, i.e. these spiritual weapons, are the only weapons that have divine power to demolish sinful strongholds (grip; control; rule; sway; influence; mastery; dominance) in our lives.
Galatians 6:14: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
This says that in Christ, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. I should no longer be following the pattern of the world in any aspect of my life, most especially in trying to reach an ungodly world with the truth of the gospel of Jesus.
Colossians 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
This says that we need to be careful that we are not taken captive to human philosophies that depend on the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. This, again, applies to trying to use worldly methods to try to reach people for Jesus Christ. It is counterproductive. Paul became all things to all people that he might win some, but he never compromised his faith, and he never used worldly methods. Jesus never used worldly methods to share the gospel, either. Sin does not lead sinners to Jesus.
Colossians 2:20: Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules.
There are many, many “rules” of this world in relation to how we should act, the things that we should say or not say, or do or not do, or by which we pattern our lives and even our testimony for Jesus Christ, and the Lord is saying in all of this that when we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that we died to those worldly principles and that we should no longer live by them. We need to refuse to adopt the world’s standards, and we need to live lives that are separate from this world and the world system and methodology, and we need to live lives holy and pleasing unto God.
This idea of using worldly methods and marketing techniques, etc., in order to attract the world to Jesus is not of God. It is of man. We need to see that. Jesus didn’t tell us to use methods that would attract the world. If the world is being attracted via worldly methods, then what they are being attracted to is the world, not to Jesus – not to the Jesus of the scriptures, and certainly not to being crucified to the world and the world being crucified to us. I hope and pray God opens our eyes to see the areas of our lives and in our congregations where we have bought into the lie that we must use worldly methods to attract the world to the church and to Christ. If we want to bring people truly to Jesus Christ, we need to do it through the foolishness of preaching the gospel – expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
Crucified With Christ / Phillips Craig and Dean
As I look back on what I thought was living
I'm amazed at the price I chose to pay
And to think I ignored what really mattered
Cause I thought the sacrifice would be too great
But when I finally reached the point of giving in
I found the cross was calling even then
And even though it took dying to survive
I've never felt so much alive.
As I hear the Savior call for daily dying
I will bow beneath the weight of Calvary
Let my hands surrender to His piercing purpose
That holds be to the cross but sets me free
I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss
And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His Cross will never ask for more than I can give
For its not my strength but His
There's no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
And I will offer all I have
So that His cross is not in vain
For I found to live is Christ
And to die is truly gain
This says to “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world”. Pattern means “a plan or model used as a guide…”; “a model that is considered to be worthy of imitation” (Encarta).
Harper’s Bible Dictionary says this about “world”: “The world is the arena in which sin, which alienates people from God, reigns. Therefore, ‘the world’ is a shorthand way of referring to the totality of humanity in the bondage of sin.”
The New Bible Dictionary says this about “world”: “It is not the world as God intended it to be, but ‘this world’ set over against God, following its own wisdom and living by the light of its own reason (1 Cor. 1:21), not recognizing the Source of all true life and illumination (Jn. 1:10). The two dominant characteristics of ‘this world’ are pride, born of man’s failure to accept his creaturely estate and his dependence on the Creator, which leads him to act as though he were the lord and giver of life; and covetousness, which causes him to desire and possess all that is attractive to his physical senses (1 Jn. 2:16). And, as man tends in effect to worship what he covets, such covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). Accordingly, worldliness is the enthronement of something other than God as the supreme object of man’s interests and affections. Pleasures and occupations, not necessarily wrong in themselves, become so when an all-absorbing attention is paid to them.”
So, when Romans 12 says that we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, what it is saying is that we should not follow after; we should not use as our guide; and we should not imitate the plan or model presented to us by the world as is described above.
I Corinthians 1:20-21: Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
This says that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world and that he uses the “foolishness” of the preaching of the gospel (not the wisdom of the world) to save those who believe. So many believers in Jesus and/or so many of today’s church congregations try to win people to Christ using the “wisdom of this world”, whereas God uses the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel to save those who believe.
I Corinthians 2:11-13: We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
This says that we don’t speak words taught us by human wisdom but we speak words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words (not worldly words). So, again, our methods, words, etc. for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world in need of a Savior should be expressed in spiritual words, not worldly words thinking we are attracting the world to Jesus. This is not God’s plan; this is man’s plan to use worldly methods to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 3:18-21a: Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So then, no more boasting about men!
This says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.
II Corinthians 10:3-5: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
This says that we don’t use the world’s methods to fight a spiritual battle. The methods we use, i.e. these spiritual weapons, are the only weapons that have divine power to demolish sinful strongholds (grip; control; rule; sway; influence; mastery; dominance) in our lives.
Galatians 6:14: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
This says that in Christ, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. I should no longer be following the pattern of the world in any aspect of my life, most especially in trying to reach an ungodly world with the truth of the gospel of Jesus.
Colossians 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
This says that we need to be careful that we are not taken captive to human philosophies that depend on the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. This, again, applies to trying to use worldly methods to try to reach people for Jesus Christ. It is counterproductive. Paul became all things to all people that he might win some, but he never compromised his faith, and he never used worldly methods. Jesus never used worldly methods to share the gospel, either. Sin does not lead sinners to Jesus.
Colossians 2:20: Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules.
There are many, many “rules” of this world in relation to how we should act, the things that we should say or not say, or do or not do, or by which we pattern our lives and even our testimony for Jesus Christ, and the Lord is saying in all of this that when we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that we died to those worldly principles and that we should no longer live by them. We need to refuse to adopt the world’s standards, and we need to live lives that are separate from this world and the world system and methodology, and we need to live lives holy and pleasing unto God.
This idea of using worldly methods and marketing techniques, etc., in order to attract the world to Jesus is not of God. It is of man. We need to see that. Jesus didn’t tell us to use methods that would attract the world. If the world is being attracted via worldly methods, then what they are being attracted to is the world, not to Jesus – not to the Jesus of the scriptures, and certainly not to being crucified to the world and the world being crucified to us. I hope and pray God opens our eyes to see the areas of our lives and in our congregations where we have bought into the lie that we must use worldly methods to attract the world to the church and to Christ. If we want to bring people truly to Jesus Christ, we need to do it through the foolishness of preaching the gospel – expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
Crucified With Christ / Phillips Craig and Dean
As I look back on what I thought was living
I'm amazed at the price I chose to pay
And to think I ignored what really mattered
Cause I thought the sacrifice would be too great
But when I finally reached the point of giving in
I found the cross was calling even then
And even though it took dying to survive
I've never felt so much alive.
As I hear the Savior call for daily dying
I will bow beneath the weight of Calvary
Let my hands surrender to His piercing purpose
That holds be to the cross but sets me free
I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss
And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
Not I but Christ that lives within me
His Cross will never ask for more than I can give
For its not my strength but His
There's no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live
And I will offer all I have
So that His cross is not in vain
For I found to live is Christ
And to die is truly gain