I  thought it would be worth having a look at the following verse…

[Romans 12:2]

And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God is

One of the key words in this verse is “transformed” The Strong’s definition(G3339) of this is-to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure

 So it is reasonable to assume by that definition that in this verse paul asks us to sacrifice our bodies.  I do not think that means to suggest that we should give up merely our skin and bones but the implication is more pointing to the entirety of what we are.

Perhaps it is difficult to comprehend for some but what he is meaning is our entire beings including our minds with all of their character, energy, knowledge, experiences, skills, perspectives, and attitudes with nothing held back.

Paul says that we must be transformed by the renewing of our “minds.” The mind is the key to the Saints life. The reason why non-Christians do not respond to Christian truth is that they cannot discern spiritual truth as we can see from the following.

[1 Corinthians 2:14].

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of  God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It is only natural that we would try to hold a portion of our life in reserve just for ourselves as our place of security for when we face tough trials but Paul asks us to dedicate our entire lives to God not just the parts we find convenient. When we look at the words used we can clearly see that this is not considered an extreme or unreasonable request but a reasonable one.

And why does God ask this of us? Consider the reward for obedience to the request of the Lord; Eternal Life. Is that not worth some sacrifice in our daily temporal life?

We must be changed (transformed) from old, ungodly ways of thinking into new, Godly ways of thinking.

What we know in our hearts also lives in our minds and it is these thoughts that lead to action

The only way to replace the error of the world’s way of thinking is to replace it with God’s truth, and the only infallible source of God’s truth is His revealed Word, the Bible.