Whose Mold?

As I read again through 1 Peter, I stopped at the first verses of chapter 2 and reflected on the apostle’s counsel: Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

In 21^st century language, here’s what he said: “Hey, Christian, do you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus? Do you want to know Him better? Do you want to really reflect Him in your associations with others? Here’s how to do it: Like newborn babies, hunger for and then take in the spiritual milk of God’s word.

Then I remembered St. Paul’s instruction to those in the church at Rome. Here is how one translator rendered it: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within . . . .”  (Romans 12:2, JB Phillips)

At this point, the Holy Spirit connected the two texts.

A person has to be spiritually blind and deaf to not notice our culture's relentless efforts to squeeze Christians into conformity with its virulent anti-Christ philosophies. But such is not new. St. Paul dealt with the same spiritual wickedness in his century. 

But while the battle is not new, neither is the invincible bulwark new. How has God protected His own from being molded into the culture? And perhaps more important, how has He always re-molded His own into the image of Christ? Peter told us: Like newborns seeking nourishment, we must hunger for the spiritual milk of God’s word.

Peter could have just as easily said, “Continuously feed on God’s word, for that is the only way you can withstand the culture’s Satanic-led plan to make you after its own image.”

The devil is driving wave after wave of darkness across our families, our churches, and our nation. Will we let ourselves be carried along to destruction, or will we stand against that darkness with a firm foothold on God’s truths?

My 2+2=1+3 Bible reading plan might help. Read only 2 chapters of the Old Testament (OT) each day (on average this takes about 10-15 minutes), and only 2 chapters of the New Testament (NT) each day (on average another 10-15 minutes), and you will read the OT 1 time each year and the NT 3 times each year (2+2=1+3). In five years, you will read the OT five times and the NT 15 times. In ten years . . .  well, you can do the math.

Time is short and is shortening. Now is not the time to content ourselves with excuses to avoid starting a daily journey through God’s word.

Please, won’t you devote yourself to starting today?