In 1906, American author Muriel Strode wrote My Little Book of Prayer. On page 11, she said, “I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.”1
In our present world, I see a genuine desire among my Christian brothers and sisters to be relevant and accessible to the world around them. That desire is both admirable and required since Jesus’ final command to our spiritual forefathers was, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” in Matthew 28:19.
Since taking the Gospel into the world is nonnegotiable, an important question must be asked of those who evangelize. Can we engage the world around us without conforming to it? Can we influence it without it influencing us? Of course we can’t. We are influenced, but can we keep it from overwhelming our influence? Can we consider Strode’s line from the book and forge a path forward that is different, without compromise, yet still effective?
For the sake of our discussion, we’ll call the desire to blend in cultural conformity. That term isn’t new to me. I remember vividly studying this problem under Dr. Ralph Gilmore and Dr. David Lipe at Freed-Hardeman University in the early 2000s. Nothing has changed. We just talk about it in new ways (hello, podcasts) and observe it in new places. If you want to see how the problem has evolved, yet remained fundamentally the same, just follow the footnote.2
Romans 12:1-2 is the Apostle Paul’s answer to the question of cultural conformity. That particular passage is one people of faith should have seared into their conscience. It says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect3
As a man who lived his life in the midst of an anti-Christian culture, Paul stands as an expert on this topic. So how do we take his command practically and engage the world around us without conforming to it? As we begin to consider it, I’ll caution you, it might be harder than just saying out loud, “I’m in the world, not of it.”
A Long Time Ago in a World Like Ours
The aforementioned text was written to a Roman house church navigating a dominant and seductive culture. The Letter to the Romans is a theologically-rich letter that reads more like an essay than a bit of friendly advice. That seems to stem from the Apostle’s deep concern for the division found among the Romans. His concern was so great he said in 14:20, “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.”
A little background might help us today. If Romans was written around 57-58 A.D., then it sits in a time period when the Roman Emperor Nero ruled. His predecessor, Claudius, expelled Jews (and Jewish Christians) from Rome in the late 40s A.D. and many of the local house churches lost their Jewish brethren (see Acts 18:2).4
In 54 A.D., when Claudius died and Nero became emperor, many Jewish Christians returned to Rome, rejoining their homes and congregations. During their absence, the Gentile Christians may have easily developed certain habits that were Rome-centric (eating food offered to idols, refraining from circumcision) that created problems as they tried to recalibrate to one another (see the aforementioned Romans 14).
Do those circumstances sound familiar? Because we have a lot in common with them.
In that letter, you see a church caught between two distinct cultures, trying to figure out which habits to keep and which to surrender. Ironically, that’s where the American church finds itself in 2026. We’re now caught between two cultures. One that is tearing itself apart, but no new letter or inspired apostle is coming to save us. We have to learn from their situation and fix this problem.
Let’s dig beyond the surface of the page and explore the meaning of the words in the passage. The first one to dissect is conformed. It is derived from the Greek syschēmatizō. and is defined “to conform one’s self (i.e., one’s mind and character) to another’s pattern, (fashion one’s self according to).” It’s only found twice in the NT (also 1 Peter 1:14), and neither use implies (or affords) any room for cultural conformity. In fact, the simplicity of the text argues against it in every way possible.
That Paul chose a word, syschēmatizō, which implies active, ongoing pressure, is not a coincidence. The term does not imply a one-time fall into conformity, but a slow, continuous reshaping. Like water across a rock. The world doesn’t usually ambush our thinking. It just keeps running over us until we take its shape.
If conforming to the world is going to be a common practice of modern Christianity and a respected way to teach the Gospel, then the command “do not be conformed” is something we cannot possibly hope to follow, and we might as well throw it out. If that is our only hope to reach out, then Christianity as intended is done, we might as well shape our faith in the image of our culture and throw the First-Century instruction (and example) into the garbage can.
On the contrary, the word “transformed” comes from the Greek word metamorphoō, which means “changed from within.” That transformation is organic, deep, and irreversible. A caterpillar doesn’t just cosplay as a butterfly. It becomes one, from the inside out. It’s different and doesn’t want to be a caterpillar anymore.
That certainly leads us to a thought we must wrestle with today. If the Apostle Paul didn’t call Christians out of the world, but to a different orientation within it, how can “looking like the world” be compatible with the words of Romans 12?
Simply put, it can’t.
Our transformation can’t be found on the neatly-typed handout of a program, because it’s more than a set of disciplines you work your way through like a checklist. It’s the natural overflow of a mind that is genuinely captivated by Yahweh.
A renewed mind doesn’t just think different thoughts. It wants different things.
It starts to find the world’s mold uncomfortable because it has tasted something better. This is why Paul framed it as a natural outcome of God’s mercy in your life. You don’t become different by trying harder to be different. You become different by living in awe of Yahweh and basking in the wonder of His otherness.
Therefore, your “worship” (i.e., homage, response) to Him is a renewed mind, a transformed life, and a soul that is fundamentally different from those who don’t know Him yet.
Practically Speaking
Let’s put this idea of transformation (the opposite of cultural conformity) into practice with three questions. These are not meant to create a one-stop come-to-Jesus moment, but rather a steady, simple reformation. We do this by undoing the influence of the world to remake ourselves in the image of Christ.
(1) Has prayer become a tool for getting the outcomes we want, or is it a practice of surrender to the will of God?
Returning to the model prayer of Matthew 6 is why that question must be considered. I’d implore you to notice the order in which Jesus arranged the elements of prayer in 6:10–11 when it says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.”
If we’re not careful, it is too easy to rearrange it and put “Give us this day our daily bread” before “Your will be done.” I’ll admit to that in my own life, along with a desire to mature beyond it. I’m motivated to transform my prayers because I have to answer this question honestly:
If God never answered another prayer the way I expected, would I still pray?
If my relationship with the Lord is what drives me to pray, then yes, I will continue to pray regardless of the blessing, the gift, or the outcome. But if I’m merely a requester of more and more, my prayer will eventually conform to the world. I’ll become nothing more than a consumer of blessings than a recipient of grace. I’ll discard perfectly good gifts in pursuit of something bigger and better. I’ll accumulate even when I have enough. I’ll consume without any awareness of enough. And I’ll pray only seeking more, never truly thanking my Heavenly Father for the enough that is already evident in my life.
If we forget how amazing Yahweh is, prayer becomes a transaction and a negotiation. May we all live in the awe of who He is, and never make that awe conditional on what He’s done.
(2) Can our devotion to Yahweh move beyond condition and obligation into something purely altruistic? Can we serve the Lord simply because He is holy, unique, and worthy? Unfortunately, too much of modern faith carries a quiet, negotiated undertone: “I’ll follow, but…” or “I believe, except…”
That demands another question: where have I drawn lines in my faith that I negotiated instead of surrendered? Is it the ball game? The job promotion? The lazy Sunday evening? The silent prayer at a public dinner table? Because devotion to Yahweh was never meant to be convenient, and living transformed means facing a tension, every action creates a reaction from us that bows to the Lord or anything else.
Here is a question I hope will draw out some honest reflection: when was the last time something you did made someone uncomfortable? I want to be clear. I’m not asking about the last time you raised your voice or backed someone into a corner with an argument. I’m asking about the last time your behavior made someone genuinely stop and wonder, “Why do they live that way?”
If it’s been a while, are you truly different? Or are you simply a more palatable version of the everyman who lives down your street?
(3) Can our worship cost us something? The language of “living sacrifice” implies that worship is not an event; it is a posture. It’s ongoing, and deeply uncomfortable at times.
That kind of worship gives until the giving is painful. It feels the weight of the Cross, not merely the comfort of it. It grieves missed opportunities, yet finds a way to glorify God in the mercy of a new day. It shows up when it is inconvenient, stays when it is costly, and remains when the emotion has long faded.
If worship becomes a moment to consume rather than an act of surrender, a moment when we leave asking what we received instead of what we offered, then something has quietly shifted. We have moved from the altar to the audience. We are no longer a sacrifice, we are something else entirely. I’m not sure I know exactly what we are, if not a sacrifice, but bystander or fan seems the best at the moment.
The question to ask is not whether we worship. The question is whether our worship has asked anything of us lately. Has it interrupted our comfort, rearranged our priorities, or made us look foolish in the eyes of someone watching? If not, are we transformed?
A living sacrifice, by definition, does not get to stay comfortable. It is alive, but not for long, because it is found on the altar, preparing to meet its Lord.
Putting it All Together
Full-scale transformation requires being undone first. In that unraveling of a person, the willingness to be questioned and reshaped must be embraced. Unfortunately, we just might have grown far too comfortable looking like the world.
I won’t condemn you for something I’m not guilty of myself. That’s why this troubles me so much, and I felt so compelled to write about it. My mind has conformed far too easily to the world around me. I’ve found myself with thoughts unworthy of a Child of God. I’ve found myself hopelessly mired in the muck of worldly ambition, jealousy, and pride. I’ve been conformed and in need of transformation. And through it all, Yahweh has been faithful to me.
I’m not writing this from the outside looking in. Paul’s words in Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am,” aren’t a detour in his argument. They’re the admission that makes the argument honest. As mentioned earlier, I know what it is to negotiate with the world. To draw the lines Dr. Gilmore and Dr. Lipe warned me about, and then redraw them a little further out when the cost got too high. That’s precisely why this matters to me. That’s why writing this seems hard to do, but even harder to ignore.
Now I’m left to ask this question:
What might Yahweh be trying to remake in me?
My hope is a transformed person. One who’s no longer willing to conform to win a single soul, but determined to be transformed and win all of them.
I’m left to believe Romans 12:2 is more than a command; it is a promise because the renewal of a mind is something God does in us, not around us. Paul’s words to my spiritual forefathers demonstrate it plainly when 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Sit with that phrase, “And such were some of you…”
Then ask one honest question. What would it look like if I stopped negotiating with the world around me and started surrendering to the Lord who created me?
Would it change my prayers? My devotion? My worship? Would it change me? Would that change become the most powerful message I have for the world around me?
The people who turned the world upside down in Acts didn’t do it by blending in. They left the culture behind. They became new creations with a new purpose.
Romans 12 is simple: Christ has undone you and remade you. Now be different. The world may be watching (and waiting) for exactly that. Stop compromising to win them, start transforming to convince them that Yahweh is right and the world is wrong. What you do and who you are matter, so be undone and see how it helps remake others.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
Notes + Further Reading
- Find a digital copy by following this link at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn33cu&seq=15 ↩︎
- Peter J. Gomes wrote about the danger of cultural conformity in 2008 for Yale University. Follow this link to read the article in its entirety. ↩︎
- Scripture quotations are from The ESV (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright (c) 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ↩︎
- Follow the link to read more. ↩︎
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