The issue of such a life is, to put it into plain English, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely, what it is God's will that we should do. And the man that has it needs but little more. (Dean Stanley. )The world, danger ofAs you love your souls, beware of the world: it has slain its thousands and ten thousands. Do you also lay aside your usurped position of seeking to be equal with God. And so in this. Not surely by leaving him to fight it out with them, but by creating within him a taste for higher pleasures, and the society of the good. Beveridge. This world cannot satisfy you (Ecclesiastes 1:8).3. Beveridge. WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM THE INWARD CHANGE — a life "transfigured," the same word as is employed in the account of our Lord's transfiguration. Maclaren, D.D.In the preceding verse the apostle gathers the whole sum of Christian duty into one word. But for all that it is the world still, and we have to shake our hands free of it.3. It may be very hard sometimes to believe that the will of God concerning you is "good, and acceptable," etc. S. Candlish, D.D.)TransformationI. Just as truly as the physical life moulds the infant's limbs, and as every periwinkle shell on the beach is shaped into the convolutions that will fit the inhabitant, by the power of the life that lies within, so the renewed mind will make a fit dwelling for itself. WHAT IS IT TO BE TRANSFORMED? It is only a little seed that is sown in our hearts; we have to cherish and cultivate it, to water it by our prayers, and to watch over it, lest either the fowls of the air with light wings should carry it away, or the heavy wains of the world's business and pleasures should crush it to death, or the thorns of earthly desires should spring up and choke it.II. It is profoundly true that "as a man thinketh, so is he." Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of us in our own cases, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that the power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Beveridge.I. Maclaren, D.D.)TransfigurationA. )Nonconformity to the worldBp. (2) And there are a great many things in which not to be "conformed to the world" means to have nothing to do with certain acts and people. There is nothing in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked individuality which each of us receives by nature. It is profoundly true that "as a man thinketh, so is he." And, further, what is the world to one person is not the world to another. Wills (Lamentations 3:24).5. If you want to change your characters — and God knows they all need it — change the deep convictions of your mind; and get hold, as living realities, of the great truths of Christ's gospel. Not ceremonial.2. Maclaren, D.D.)TransfigurationA. II. (5)Anger and meekness (Matthew 11:29).6. (2) That you may be thus transformed into the image of your Lord — appropriate as available for you your Lord's transformation into your image. But in that formal aspect of it as the assertion of the authority of God, let His will be put to the test of actual trial, and then will its real character as the expression of His nature come out; for while neither God Himself nor His will can be grasped in the speculative understanding, both He and it can be grasped in the obedient and loving heart. (4)In your practices.II. Christians are often perplexed when asked — Why do you not join in this or that amusement? The beginning of all transformation is the revolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of the gospel.II. Yet it remains the same, not only in the consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and drift of the character. (1) Well, of course there are large tracts of life where the saint and the sinner have to do the same things, feel the same anxieties, weep the same tears, and smile the same smiles. But there is a transfiguration in the life that now is (2 Corinthians 3:18) also into the image of the Lord; and therefore it is a transformation into glory, but not into the glory that was seen on the Mount, but what was seen in the manger, in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, and on the Cross. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. The working out of the new motives, the working in of the new power, is no mere work of a moment. The man will be renewed according to the image of his Creator and Father, because the Spirit of his Creator and Father is working in him. Then the question to be decided shall be, not how far may I go in my enjoyment of the world, or where must I fix a limit to my pleasures, for the world can be enjoyed no longer, and death is fixing the last limits to its pleasures, and there remains but one act more of conformity to the world — that last act in which all flesh conforms itself to the law of dissolution; but this shall be the great question: — Am I fitted for that world which I am about to enter? But the nature of God far transcends the comprehension of finite minds; and therefore His will may well be expected to be incomprehensible too. To tinker at the outside with a host of red-tape restrictions, and prescriptions, is all waste time and effort. Maclaren, D.D.)TransfigurationA. (3) Rather "be ye transfigured," and then you will find that when the inner mind is changed, many of the things that attracted tempt no more, and many of the people that wanted to have you do not care to have you, for you are a wet blanket to their enjoyments. The best thing accomplished by it is adjustment to the world. It was a new thing for Him to have the mind of a servant, and to say, "I come to do Thy will, O God." The Second Adam will not, like the first, accept Satan's representation; He will prove it for Himself; and so He "learns obedience by the things which He suffers." How complete the transformation must be if, instead of being conformed to this world, you are to "prove," etc. Meditate upon it.4. (2) The card table. (1)Not hypocritically but sincerely (2 Corinthians 1:12). The great means of becoming unlike the world is becoming like Him, and the great means of becoming like Him is living near Him and drinking in His life and Spirit.4. God gets our attention when we disobey Him by allowing the negative consequences of sin to make life miserable. Have not there been other faces besides Moses' that shone as men came down from the Mount of Communion with God? (2)A desire to please Him (1 Thessalonians 4:1; Hebrews 11:5).2. )The world an atmosphereCanon Liddon.It is like the dense atmosphere which on a November day hangs over your vast metropolis, the product of its countless homes and the proof of its vast industrial efforts; and yet the veil which shuts out from it the light of heaven, destroys the colour on its works of art — the dark unwholesome vapour which clogs vitality and undermines health, and from which a Londoner escapes at intervals with a light heart, that he may see the sun, and the trees, and the face of nature as God made them, and feel for a few months what it is to live. Well, in such cases be turns to his chart — on that chart (his Bible) though he find not every rock and shoal and quicksand, marked down by name — he finds it laid down plainly and decisively that the whole coast is dangerous, i.e, he finds a general principle, "Be not conformed to this world" — "The friendship of the world is enmity with God." Christ in us, if we are true to Him, will make us mere ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus. From new principles. The Christian, too, should examine not only what is without, to see whether the place he is entering is the world, but also what is within himself, and whether he is not converting even what is the kingdom of God into the world by the worldly spirit which he brings with him. It is better to abstain from mistaken scrupulosity from a hundred lawful things than to run the risk of one unlawful act of conformity to the world, or of throwing one stumbling-block in the way of another. (2) That the essential character of our transfiguration is the moulding of us into the likeness of Christ. SIGNS OF OUR BEING TRANSFORMED. Truth professed has no transforming power; truth received and fed upon can revolutionise a man's whole character. The very word is a new creation of the gospel. Magee.1. To show this, we will take —(1) The theatre. Only one Christ presents itself, not as a mere republication of morality, not as merely a new stimulus and motive to do what is right, but as an actual communication to men of a new power to work in them. Is there any harm in the act of dancing? The life is to be transfigured. (1) If the transformation in you is thus like the transformation in Him — see to it that it be very complete. The one transformation is the cause of the other: not only as being that without which the other could not have been, but also as being the means of the other. Wear not the garb of time: live for eternity. (2) And there are a great many things in which not to be "conformed to the world" means to have nothing to do with certain acts and people. Christ in us, if we are true to Him, will make us mere ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus. (1) Well, of course there are large tracts of life where the saint and the sinner have to do the same things, feel the same anxieties, weep the same tears, and smile the same smiles. It may seem to you an unlikely mode of cure; but at any rate try it. He, being the Son, comes to do the will of God as a servant; you, being servants, come to do the will of God as sons.II. Our objection to the stage, then, is this: it sets up a false and worldly standard of morality; and he who desires to be transformed to the image of God will find here another image set before him. It is He alone who can make the Son partaker of your human nature, without making Him to be as fallen man; it is He alone who can make you partakers of the Son's Divine nature, without making you to be as God.2. Purity.4. We have to make our choice, That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution which underlies it may be instantaneous. Many draw for themselves a line within which they keep; but unfortunately each person draws it differently. Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of us in our own cases, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that the power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Maclaren, D.D.In the preceding verse the apostle gathers the whole sum of Christian duty into one word. Christ's life is in you if you are in Him. Wear not the garb of time: live for eternity. This, then, is the reward. The pain, shame, weariness, and blood awaiting Him, the tempter ingeniously contrasts with the shorter road to glory which he would have Him to take. Therefore the only way to be unworldly is to become converted and spiritual (Galatians 5:16, etc.). Certain weeds that lie at the bottom of the sea, when their flowering time comes, elongate their stalks and reach the light and float upon the top, and then, when they have flowered, they sink again into the depths. THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCE WHICH THE APOSTLE REGARDS AS CERTAIN, FROM THIS INWARD CHANGE; unlikeness to the world around. Doubtless, if they had kept it, they would have found by experience —(1) That it was in itself "good" as the seal of God's covenant of life, and as the preparation for the unfolding of His higher providence. And remember, this transformation is no magic change effected whilst men sleep. There has to be a radical change in the middle. By the adoption of other —(1)Principles.(2)Rules.(3)Ends.III. But the soldier who is more brave because of a higher than earthly courage; the judge who is more scrupulously just because he has before him a higher than earthly tribunal, the men of business who "ply their daily task with busier feet, because their souls a holy strain repeat," are instances of what the apostle means by being "transfigured through the renewal of our minds."II. (Of course, it also means watching our weight, which I never heard about in fundamentalist circles!) We may infect as well as be infected.(C. It is a commandment which we have to brace ourselves to perform. If I am to choose, let me have the extreme of being too scrupulous rather than too careless, ultra-conscientious rather than having a conscience that sees no harm in anything. WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM THE INWARD CHANGE — a life "transfigured," the same word as is employed in the account of our Lord's transfiguration. And just as every leaf that you take off some plants and stick into a flower-pot will in time become a little plant exactly like the parent from which it was taken, so the Christ-life that is in you will be growing into a copy of its source and origin. 2. There has to be a radical change in the middle. In one aspect, it is self-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. You will then see Him thus transfigured, and the result will be your own transfiguration (Philippians 3:21). And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the pattern of all perfection. Have not there been other faces besides Moses' that shone as men came down from the Mount of Communion with God? He becomes a servant, continuing still to be the Son; you become sons in Him, feeling yourselves now, for the first time really, to be servants. Good in itself.2. 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