“Do not conform 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” (Rom. 12:2-3, TNIV).
“Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down” (Mark 7:13a, TNIV).
Biblical egalitarians are often accused of “conforming to the world,” of importing worldly patterns into the church, and of attempting to take the church away from biblical truth. The passages above, and others like them, provide a strong basis to answer this accusation. Conforming to the world or holding to religious tradition can both be ways to escape the search light of God’s Word as it reveals the untidy nooks of our “comfort zone.”
Consider Mark 7, where the Pharisees question Jesus because his disciples do not wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees were so serious about observing God’s law that they had evolved all sorts of rules to make sure they didn’t violate any of them. Washing hands in a certain way before meals is not in the Old Testament, but was a tradition arising perhaps from some purity laws in Leviticus. While washing hands did not stand against the law, it was an addition to it, and Jesus observed that more than piety was lurking behind the Pharisees’ criticisms of Jesus’ neglect of this tradition. He told them, “You have let go of the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions” (Mark 7:8). Jesus saw that the Pharisees were emphasizing the “right doing” to separate themselves from the world, and they believed that as long as they were observing the sum of interpretations of the law handed to them by respected teachers and traditions, they were doing what was right in God’s eyes and were “safe” from the Supreme Judge. Furthermore, these traditions had blinded them to what the Bible was actually saying and to what was at the core of the law.
Rom 12:1-3 does not say “Do not get carried away with what the world does, but observe Christian morals as tradition has taught you.” No. It says “Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed…” It does not provide the safety of not changing and just sticking with a “tradition default”—even an evangelical tradition. Resisting change is a very human tendency. We prefer the ruts we know, as bumpy as they may be, rather than launch into the unknown. Change can be scary, especially inside change. So what “patterns of this world” is Paul denouncing, and how are we called to be transformed? I believe that among Paul’s targets is the worldly pattern of wanting to “be the leader, be in control.” In verse 1, Paul calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the awesome God he sings about in the preceding verses: “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).
God is not someone we can control. Our only possible response is the complete giving of ourselves to become part of the body of Christ according to our gifts, without thinking highly of ourselves (Rom. 12: 3-8). The call to not conform to the patterns of this world does not mean using a cultural tradition against a cultural change that is perceived as threatening. It is, just as Christ’s rebuke of the Pharisees, a call to surrender to God and follow him humbly wherever he may lead. Let us then serve him and our neighbor with all the gifts he has granted us “no matter what it looks like.”
