Do Not Conform

I recently found a poster at an online store. The poster displayed a barcode running horizontally through the center. Below the barcode were the words: "Do Not Conform".

The poster resonated with me, but I wasn't sure why. Eventually I remembered the passage in Romans 12.

"Do not conform any longer 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."

A lingering theme of both the Old and the New Testament is the message that God wants His people to be set apart.

"Be holy, because I am holy."

Holiness is a measure of how 'set apart' a thing is.

Certainly there are a number of ways a person can be set apart. In one way of looking at it a person could stand out by doing evil deeds. People throughout history have taken this position, the most noteworthy is probably Niechtze who said in order to stand out one must in effect become a criminal.

On the same side with a different message, Charles Dickens' novels often critiqued those who were set apart because he considered it unusual to see a truly evil person such as Ebeneezer Scrooge. C.S. Lewis' ethics in Mere Christianity follow a similar pattern.

Sometimes I wonder about the world Lewis, Niechtze, and Dickens discribe. It sounds in many ways like an almost-heaven: where most people are angels, think good thoughts about each other, where people give themselves and others the benefit of the doubt, where they do not merely conceptualize standards but actually live them. It sounds like quite a place!

But the Scriptures teach that everyone has sinned -that no one is righteous -that if anyone says he is without sin he is a liar.

To glimpse of just how set apart God wants His servants to be, consider the fact that Christ commanded his disciples to be perfect. When I reflect on my attitudes, my ingratitude, my double-mindedness and recall that Christ has called me to be literally perfect, my obligations seem to be very set apart.

In one sense the command to be "set apart" means to not behave as the world behaves with its lusts and boasts and cravings. In another sense it means to not base our priorities on the choices of the people around us.

If a person is to truly have a relationship with God, he must not seek that relationship because his parents were Christians or because he wants to win the approval of others or because it seems to be what "everyone is doing".

And this is precisely what God is looking for when he searches the hearts of men: mere devotion. Devotion comes from the word "devoted". The more devoted a person is in regard to something, the more his interest in the pursuit becomes independent of everything else going on around him.

For example Shadrach, Meshach, and Abindigo's devotion meant their love for God was independent of what the King of Persia decreed. In this way Christ commands his followers to be independent in regard to obeying God. When the crowds bowed before Nebaudchunezzar they were the only ones standing and they were set apart.

Often in periods of trial and during the good times it becomes desirable to have a companion. To this extent Christ has given believers his body, the Church. But this is not to say our obligation to be set apart grows and shrinks on the basis of the people who claim to be in the Church.

Certainly Shadrach was glad and proud of his God that his companions did not bow to the Persian leader, but this is not to say he was only willing to obey God as long as his companions obeyed. And it doesn't mean that if they bowed he was excused from the task given to him by heaven ... the task to remain set apart.