The Butterfly Effect Nature gives us the perfect illustration of what happens to a Christian. Consider the caterpillar. It is green and black, crawling on many legs, eating leaves. Then, it enters a chrysalis. When it emerges as a monarch butterfly, it is orange and black, it has wings, and it flies.

Here is the amazing part: It is the same creature. It has the same DNA. It has the same carbon molecules. But it has morphed. It is the same, yet completely different.

The Transformation

“…but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” — Romans 12:2b

The word Paul uses for transformed is metamorphoo—it is where we get our word metamorphosis. It means to change into another form, to transfigure. It is the same word used in Matthew 17 when Jesus was transfigured and began to glow from the inside out.[^6]

God wants to do this in your mind. You are the same person—same name, same history—but you are being changed into a Christ-like form.

Renewing the Mind This transformation happens through renewing.

• Renewing: A renovation or a complete change for the better.

Notice the grammar again. It does not say “be renewed” as if it is done. It implies a continuous, daily process. We are being renewed.

The “mind” here refers to your faculty of perceiving, understanding, feeling, and judging.[^7] Because Christ is in you, the capacity to think like Him is already there. It is already in you to be gentle. It is already in you to be generous. It is already in you to overcome addiction. The DNA of the “butterfly” is in you; you just need to stop crawling like the caterpillar.

The Mind of Christ

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…” — Philippians 2:5

We have the capacity to think thoughts that are sober, calm, and impartial. We don’t have to live in the fog of the world’s philosophy. We can have the mind of Christ.

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[^6]: Definition of Metamorphoo and reference to the Transfiguration. [^7]: Definition of “Mind” (Greek: nous) as the seat of understanding and judgment.