read them in other translations, and Romans 12:2 is one such passage: “Do not con-form any longer to the pattern of this world.” This sentence has two key words: “world,” which is actually “age” (aion, meaning, “this present age” in contrast to “the age to come”); and “do not conform,” which is a compound having at its root the word “scheme.” So the verse means, “Do not let the age in which you live force you into its scheme of thinking and behaving.”
