Romans 12:1-2 (NET) “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God — which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.”
The goal of mind renewal is a transformed life. But what is that? What does it look like?
I suggest to you that it’s a life through which the influence God wants to have on others flows freely.
And what is God’s intended influence?
In essence, it is that everyone at all times be helped as much as possible — in spirit, soul, mind, and body — because God is pure helplessness. It is impossible for him to do anything unhelpful.
Anyone who at any time or circumstance accuses God of being unhelpful in anything is professing their ignorance or foolishness.
I grant that people and demonic forces interfere with God’s will and his influence on themselves or others and which result in needless suffering. But no matter the situation you can be perfectly sure of this: God is always overcoming or going to overcome evil with good be it in this world or the next. That is what, I suggest, the scriptures mean in various passages that refer to God’s prevailing purpose.
So while God’s will can be and is often thwarted by virtue of human and demonic rebellion and disobedience, his purpose of always overcoming evil with good can never be undermined.
Hence perhaps we could say that the transformed life, as an extension of God’s helpfulness in this world, is primarily engaged in overcoming evil with good.
And the way forward is clear. Know this simple truth: a warped character cannot come from wholesome thinking, and wholesome thinking cannot produce a compromised character.
So if you want direct access to who you are becoming, you already have it. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, a transformed character is fostered through the thoughts you direct your mind to think and those you tell your mind to reject.
And here’s a helpful principle: be careful to think what you know would be wholesome thoughts in the eyes of people you know and respect.
