Conform
1. To act or be in accord or agreement; comply: a computer that conforms to the manufacturer's advertising claims. See synonyms at agree.
2. To act in accordance with current customs or modes. See synonyms at adapt.
3. To be in agreement, harmony, or conformity.
4. To become, fit, or equal
To bring into agreement, or correspondence, or make similar.
mind
noun
1. The seat of the faculty of intelligence and reason.
2. The faculty of thinking, reasoning, and acquiring and applying knowledge: intellect, intelligence mentality, sense, and understanding, wit. (used in the plural) See ability or inability, thoughts.
3. A person of great mental ability: intellect, intellectual, thinker. See ability or inability.
4. The thought processes characteristic of an individual: ethos, mentality, mindset, psychology.
5. Something believed or accepted as true by a person: belief, conviction, feeling, idea, notion, opinion, persuasion, position, sentiment, view.
6. A desire for a particular thing or activity: fancy, liking, pleasure, will.
ROMANS 12:2
2 Don't copy the behaviours and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
ROMANS 12:1-2
Paul’s appeal to the Christians in Rome, “do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2), continues to remind the church of the foundation for Christian ethics. In two verses, Paul summarizes the significance of the revelation of God’s wrath and righteousness for both Jews and Gentiles and lays the groundwork for how to live as God’s people in response to his call to faith.4 Christian ethics is built upon the foundation of God’s mercy revealed through Jesus Christ and the spirit of life which offers freedom from the power of sin and death. Christians are called to respond to this mercy by offering themselves as a living sacrifice in worship to God. In Romans 12:2, Paul contrasts the ongoing pressure to conform to this age with a call to “be transformed by the renewal of the mind.” The result of this transformation is the ability to discern and approve God’s will for life.
2. And be ye not conformed to this world—Compare (Eph 2:2; Gal 1:4)
but be ye transformed--or, "transfigured" (as in Mat 17:2 & 2 Col 3:18)
by the renewing of your mind--not by a mere outward disconformity’s to the ungodly world, many of whose actions in themselves may be virtuous and praiseworthy; but by such an inward spiritual transformation as makes the whole life new--new in its motives and ends, even where the actions differ in nothing from those of the world--new, considered as a whole, and in such a sense as to be wholly unattainable save through the constraining power of the love of Christ.
that ye may prove--that is, experimentally. (On the word "experience" see on Ro 5:4, and compare 1Th 5:10, where the sentiment is the same).
what is that--"the"
good and acceptable--"well-pleasing"
and perfect, will of God--"that ye may prove," or "discern the will of God, [even] what is good, and acceptable, and perfect." God's will is "good," as it demands only what is essentially and unchangeably good (Ro 7:10); it is "well pleasing," in contrast with all that is arbitrary, as demanding only what God has eternal complacency in (compare Mic 6:8, with Jer 9:24); and it is "perfect," as it required nothing else than the perfection of God's reasonable creature, who, in proportion as he attains to it, reflects God's own perfection. Such then is the great general duty of the redeemed, in our whole spirit and soul and body to Him who hath called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.
And be not conformed — neither in judgment, spirit, nor behaviour.
To this world — which, neglecting the will of God, entirely follows its own.
That ye may prove — Know by sure trial; which is easily done by him who has thus presented himself to God.
What is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God — the will of God is here to be understood of all the perceptive part of Christianity, which is in itself so excellently good, so acceptable to God, and so perfective of our natures.
2. Be not conformed to this world. The spirit of the world is opposed to that of Christ. Satan is "the Prince of this world." Christ died (Gal. 1:4) "to deliver us from this present wicked world." Hence the service of Christ renders necessary a refusal to fashion ourselves after its ways. But be ye transformed. Instead of following the ways of the world, the Christian must be "transformed," changed into a new form of life by the renewing of your mind, by having a new spirit, and walking after the Spirit. That ye may prove. Demonstrate, show forth. The saint, transformed, renewed, will show forth in his life "the will of God."
