Conforming to God’s Values Instead of the World’s Ways

Summary

Imitation reveals our values and ultimately shapes our destiny. Believers must choose whether to conform to God’s will or the world’s values, which often emphasize money, popularity, and cultural pressure. Scripture warns against imitating ungodly examples and instead calls Christians to follow mature believers and the teachings of God’s Word. Regular prayer and Scripture renew the mind and help believers realign their lives with God’s purposes.

Whomever we imitate reveals our values and shapes destiny. I pay no attention to celebrities’ lives because I do not desire to be like them in any way.

Imitation Reveals What We Value

I have imitated the behavior of some professional fishermen I have seen on televised fishing competitions. Several years ago, I noticed that some of them wore protective covering on their hands, necks, and faces to protect their skin from sun damage. I decided to do the same.

Choosing Wisdom Over Social Pressure

Where I fish, I have not seen any other fishermen do this. Not one. Maybe none of them have a history of a melanoma diagnosis, as I have. I value protection from the sun’s harmful rays more than conforming to the behavior of all the other fishermen.

Conforming to God's Values

So, are we conforming to God’s values and will or the ways of the world? Let me suggest a key indicator. Perhaps we remember that the Bible says we cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24). Serving money is the world’s way.

God tolerates no rivals for our loyalty. We must stand against the pressure to fit in and do what most people do. It is wise to be suspicious of whatever is popular.

The Need for Spiritual Realignment

We cannot follow both God’s values and the world’s values simultaneously. Like cars traveling on pot-holed roads, we need frequent realignment to conform to God’s will and ways rather than the world’s, because the latter always influences us and surrounds us as fully as the air we breathe. God’s word, prayer, His Spirit, and other believers are His tools for realignment.

Lessons From Israel’s Drift Toward the Nations

Let’s explore what the Bible says about conformity. Israel naturally drifted towards the standards of other nations, away from God’s standards expressed in His word (Ezekiel 11:12). For example, the Israelites were not content to have God as their king but wanted Samuel to appoint a king so that they could be like all the other nations (1 Samuel 8:5, 1 Samuel 8:20).

They did what the nations around them did (2 Kings 17:15). They imitated what was evil instead of what was good ( 3 John 1:11). It is easy to march to the beat of the world’s values because they blare so loudly in our ears, and most people are in step with them.

Imitating Faithful Believers Instead of the World

We can find ourselves imitating celebrities and those without a moral compass when God wants us to imitate mature believers who follow Him. Paul commanded the Corinthian Christians to imitate him because he was their father in the faith (1 Corinthians 4:16). Aligning ourselves with those more mature in the faith than we are equips us to fulfill God’s purpose and to become the mature believers that others can follow.

Renewing the Mind Through God’s Word

We must beware of aligning with the superficial dos and don’ts of empty religious systems and rituals, thinking that makes us right with God. The Apostle Paul conformed to the ways of the Pharisees (Acts 26:5), but not the ways of God or the image of His Son, which is God’s will for all Christians (Romans 8:29).

Instead, we align with the sound doctrine of the gospel (1 Timothy 1:11) and do not conform to the evil desires that piloted us when we lived in ignorance (1 Peter 1:14) before we became God’s children by grace through faith in Jesus.

 Regularly reading God’s word and prayer renew our minds and enable us to identify and root out worldly thinking (Romans 12:2), the pattern unbelievers follow as unthinkingly as breathing.

What does the key indicator, money, report about your values, conformity, and destiny?

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