When the apostle Paul was writing to the Romans, he instructed them, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”54 This may be one of the most commonly referred to passages in the Bible, yet we rarely know how to apply it. What does it mean to “conform to the pattern of this world”? Far too often this was denigrated to moralizing over a person’s actions, but that’s not at all that Paul was talking about. When the apostle speaks of not conforming
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