Romans 12:2

And be not fashioned according to this world [or, literally, "age"]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. [Here the apostle shows in general terms by what manner of life the demanded sacrifice is rendered or accomplished. To each soul there was presented then, as now, two models for character building, the standards of the world-life and the Christ-life, the first represented by the imperative suschematizesthai, which means to imitate the pose or attitude of any one, to conform to the outward appearance or fashion of any one. The demands of the world require no more than an outward, superficial conformity to its ways and customs. As these ways and customs are the natural actions and methods of the unregenerate life, the sacrifice-resenting, fleshly nature of the Christian has no difficulty in conforming to them, if given rein and permission. Attainment to the Christ-life is, however, represented by the imperative metamorphousthai, which demands that complete and fundamental inner change which fulfills and accomplishes regeneration, and which, in turn, is accomplished by the renewing of the mind. The natural mind, weakened, trammeled, confused and darkened by sin and Satan, can neither fully discern nor adequately appreciate the Christ model, so as to metamorphose the life to its standards. But in the regenerated man the mind once fleshly (Colossians 2:18; Romans 7:23), but now renewed by Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:21-24) and the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), and strengthened to apprehend by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-19), is able to so discern and love the Christ model as to be gradually metamorphosed into his image (Phil 3:8-16). With this recovered capacity to discern and appreciate the life which God wills us to live, as exemplified in the incarnation of his Son, we are exhorted by the apostle to set about exploring, investigating, proving or testing the excellence of the will of God in selecting such a pattern for us, that we may have experimental knowledge that his will was devised in goodness toward us, that its choice for us is really well pleasing and acceptable to us; as our minds have become enlightened to truly understand it, and that considered in all ways its purposes and ends for us are the perfection of grace and benevolence, leaving nothing more to be asked or even dreamed of by us. Thus the renewed mind tests by experience the will of God, and knows it to be indeed the will of the Holy One of Israel (John 7:17), to be admired, followed and reduced to life. It remains to be shown how the word "age" comes to be translated "world." The Jews divided time into two divisions; viz., before the Messiah, and after the advent of the Messiah. The former they called "this age"; the latter, "the age to come." Thus the term "this age" became associated with those evils, vanities and Satanic workings which the Christian now calls "this world." Both terms are used by Jesus (Matthew 12:32. Comp. Hebrews 6:5), and the expression "this age" is commonly used after the advent of Jesus to describe the moral and spiritual conditions which then and still oppose Christ and the age which he is developing-- Matthew 13:22; Luke 16:8; Matthew 20:34; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12].