We don’t have to fit in. In fact we are called not to do so.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world …” (Romans 12 v 2)
I love the Message’s take on this: Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
The pattern of this world is the world of Paul’s generation but it is also our world of 2022.
‘World’ is not the cosmos but ‘age’, the pattern, the thoughts, the opinions, the agenda in the lives of rulers and the ruled in 2022 or whatever year it is. It is the spiritual atmosphere. Do we know the age we live in?
I see 3 dangers in this age.
There is a war for voice of truth. What is truth amidst all the fake news that is given to people to believe? What is truth amidst man’s rhetoric, boasting and lies?
There is a war for the foothold of politics. I see enemies of anger, judgment and bitterness camped on our lives. I see destructive arguments in social media posts even from within God’s church. Love is swamped by hate.
There is a war over entitlement. Everyone is grabbing what is supposedly theirs. Demands are rising. I don’t see self-sacrifice. I don’t see generosity.
This is the age. Paul says do not conform to this pattern. Be different.
Where there is falsehood speak truth.
Where there is hate show love.
Where there is selfishness give generously.
Be different.
Missions Paul 