This will conclude our excerpt focusing on the need for us to value wisdom as much as Scripture does (“Are You Running the Wrong Race?,” “The Secret to Spiritual Success,” “To Effect Personal and Social Revival: Read More Than You Watch”). If you haven’t made lifelong learning a primary effort, or if you’ve allowed streaming and entertainment to increasingly creep in and inhibit your passion for learning, the good news is, you’ve got an exciting adventure ahead. God promises us that valuing wisdom will lead us to higher and more exalted places (see previous posts).
It is difficult for me to write a book without quoting Matthew 6:33 or Romans 12:2 (I can see my wife’s eyes rolling as I type this). But Romans 12:2 helps us understand why Paul thought reading is the preferred path to an abundant life when he wrote the famous words we’ve already quoted, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Every word in this sentence (and even the comma) is worthy of study. It’s a masterpiece. We don’t have time or space in this chapter to do a deep dive, but a few elements beg to be acknowledged as we pursue life in Christ. First, Paul warns we must actively fight against being “conformed” to the “pattern of this world.” Groupthink (popular consensus) is the enemy of life in Christ; it’s precisely what we need to unlearn.
Here’s the powerful takeaway: To do nothing is to be conformed. If we don’t fight against being conformed, we will be conformed. If you consume popular culture mindlessly—its blog posts and podcasts, television series, movies, music, news, and commercial novels—you’ll be conformed to popular culture. Remember: this age has an agenda, and that agenda is to run as fast as it can from God’s agenda. How many times have we seen historical dramas that impute sinful actions and relationships into historical characters, when we know those characters didn’t do what they are being portrayed as doing? Why is the entertainment industry so relentless in injecting today’s sins into yesterday’s society? Don’t you think it’s possible that there’s an agenda behind that? You think you’re simply being entertained; spiritual forces know you are being shaped by the “rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (c.f. Ephesians 6:12).
How do we protect ourselves from this spiritual warfare? With the “belt of truth” (Ephesian 6:14).
Our minds exist in a river of a society headed in one direction. If we don’t paddle in the opposite direction, we’ll be carried downstream. Living in a fallen world, you won’t “happen upon” divine wisdom. You must seek it out. You must evaluate the source. The books and lectures promoted by the world and exalted by the world may at times throw out a few nuggets of wisdom (I read plenty of “non-Christian” books), but we must realize worldly wisdom is like eating trout. There are many bones to spit out as we find the nourishing meat within.
In Paul’s view, the world is shaping us and trying to squeeze us into its mold. It may use shame (“How dare you disagree with us?”), it may use entertainment (“don’t worry about all that serious stuff; just escape for a while”) or it may use head-on attack (“if you don’t agree with us, we will ruin you.”). It won’t leave us alone.
How do we fight back against being “conformed to the pattern of this world?” Paul says we use our minds. In essence, he gives us an ultimatum: Either the world shapes you, or you shape you. If you’re not actively shaping your mind, you are passively allowing the world to shape your mind.
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