Transforming Not Conforming

Once you put your faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, you become a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17), but that doesn’t mean that we become perfect. Instead, our Christian life is filled with struggles, struggles with sin and our old nature. However, God asks us to draw closer to Him and to follow Christ’s example with our actions. However, it isn’t always easy. With the temptations of the world at our door every day, you may find it difficult to always do the right thing.

But God isn’t interested in simply our actions. He’s interested in our hearts, our minds, and our motivations. God knows that transforming to be more Christ-like brings us closer to His character and makes us more of a testimony for Him. Modern Christian apparel gives you a chance to further highlight God’s light in your life as you live out His plan for others to see, and this post helps you understand how you can best transform to God’s plan instead of conforming to the world’s path.

Why Christians Should Focus on True Transformation

Romans 12 tells Christians what God wants for our lives—He wants us to avoid conforming to the world but be transformed to His will. Sometimes Christians apply this by showing outward transformation, but not true transformation. This type of outward transformation comes from our own efforts and isn’t true, Christ-like transformation.

True transformation comes from allowing our minds to be transformed with God’s wisdom, not our own (Proverbs 3:5–6). When the Bible talks about conforming, it refers to molding yourself to another pattern, but when the Bible refers to transformation, it means changing from one thing into another. Even when we try to make the changes ourselves, we are conforming because we’re trying to pattern ourselves after what Christians should be, but God wants us to open our hearts to His wisdom and allow Him to transform us from the inside out.

When we open ourselves to true transformation, we are allowing God to work in our lives and lead us with His wisdom to walk in His will. Our actions are merely an outward reflection of this inward transformation, and we highlight this transformation even further when we walk in God’s will while also wearing our modern Christian clothing. God wants us to share His love with others, but even if we can’t talk to others about God, we can still share Him with others with our faith-based clothing. If God is the foundation of our lives, we can testify to that without even speaking and thus glorify Him.

Our actions clearly reflect God’s leading in our lives when we exhibit the fruit of the spirit. The spirit dwells within each Christian, and God expresses Himself through us, through the fruit of the spirit and our good works. Ephesians tells Christians that we are God’s workmanship and that we were created for good works (2:10). Colossians instructs Christians to be filled with God’s wisdom and knowledge so that our lives will honor and please God who gave His son to die on the cross for our sins.

How Do We Continue to Be Transformed?

So if transformation is God’s doing, you may be wondering whether Christians should just sit and wait for it to happen automatically. God’s word offers Christians some instructions on how to be open to God’s leading:

• We must obey God. Jesus said that anyone who loves him will obey his teachings (John 14:23). It may seem easy to sit in the church pew, simply read and enjoy God’s word, or commune with Him in prayer, but God needs us to obey Him. James 1:22 encourages Christians to not just listen to God’s word but do what it says. Listening to what God is trying to teach you is important, but following it and doing what God teaches is just as important.
• Submit to God. If you struggle with obedience, examine your submissiveness. Submitting your mind is an essential part of obedience. Your mind houses your beliefs and thoughts and Romans 8 informs Christians that if your mind is hostile to God it won’t submit to Him, but minds that submit to God can enjoy peace. Jesus described true submission in Luke 9 when he said that you have to take up your cross daily and follow him to be his disciple. Submission is a daily, purposeful action. Denying yourself and your wants and desires to focus on what God wants for you represents true submission. When you happily submit to God, you share with others the power of God, and that inner change can show by representing your connection to Him with your modern Christian clothing.
• Study who God is and the wisdom He wants to share with you. To lay a foundation for submission and obedience, we need to know God. Like anything in our Christian lives, this study of God is a daily task. We need to pick up God’s word and study who He is so we can learn more about what He wants for our lives. We know that we can use the Bible to study and show ourselves as approved workers who need not be ashamed in front of God (2 Timothy 2:15). God’s word offers absolute truth that sharpens us and sometimes admonishes us, but it always serves to make us better (Hebrews 4:12). And God’s word can shed light to show us the path we need to take (Psalm 119:105). Romans tells us that God’s word was written with a purpose—to teach us and to give us encouragement (Romans 15:4), and the Bible provides instruction in truth and righteousness so that we can be equipped for good works.

Allowing ourselves to be transformed is one way to keep us from conforming to the world and its ways. Rooting ourselves in truth opens our hearts and minds to the transformation that can only come through God, and we have to prepare our hearts daily to receive God’s wisdom and submit to Him. Transformation only comes from God, and true transformation produces undeniable fruit that can only come from God and that glorifies Him.