The Dictator and the Beggar There is a story of a communist dictator addressing a crowd in a city square. He pointed to a beggar staggering down the street, dressed in rags and drunk. The dictator proclaimed, “Communism will put a new suit on that man.” A Christian in the crowd called back, “Christ can put a new man in that suit.”[^3]

We don’t need a new exterior; we need a new interior. We need to be new creatures. But to live out this new identity, we have to stop trying to fit into the old world.

The Reasonable Service

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world…” — Romans 12:1-2a

Paul tells us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. For the Romans coming from pagan backgrounds, they understood sacrifice to dead idols. Paul flips the script: give yourself to the living God. It is only reasonable.

Conformed vs. Renewed The text gives a strict command: “Be not conformed.”

The word conformed means to assimilate; to become behaviorally or socially similar to; to be shaped or molded to a certain pattern.[^4] The world wants to put you in a box. It wants you to think like someone who is against God.

Imagine a fast-moving car approaching a sharp loop in the road. What must you do before you turn? You have to hit the brakes. To renew your mind, you first have to brake the momentum of the world. You have to break the mold.

There is a story of a young boy whose mother told him to sit down. He refused. Finally, she physically sat him down in the chair. Fuming, the boy said, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing on the inside.” That is conformity without inward change.

Watch Your Influences Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists.”[^5]

To break the mold, you must guard your influences. Birds of a feather flock together. Who are your teachers? What media are you consuming? What music fills your ears? If your input glorifies evil, it will conform your mind to the world. Jesus was the ultimate non-conformist; He broke the mold of religious tradition and societal expectation. We must do the same.

---

[^3]: Illustration contrasting political philosophy with the transformative power of the Gospel. [^4]: Definition of “Conformed” (Greek: suschematizo). [^5]: Quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. regarding nonconformity.