The Cancer of Conformity

I don't mean to take light the tragedy of cancer or make light of it.  Sadly, my family has had many experiences with this monster called cancer.  That is why I choose to compare conformity to cancer.  I was working on a lesson for our student ministry.  We knew that we were going to talk about the danger of conformity and using the obvious verse of Romans 12:2.  But it was the day before I was to speak to our students that God showed me something that I had never paid attention to before.

Conformity has been a weapon that Satan has used to try to rob God of His glory since at least the Garden of Eden.  It was in the Garden of Eden that Satan tempted humans with being "like" God.  Just blend in with the surroundings.  Israel was to be a different nation from all others upon the earth.  They were constantly tempted into being just like everyone else.  The New Testament church is also called to be "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" (1 Peter 2:9).  I don't use the King James Version much due to the difference in language from modern English, but it's translation of this verse is awesome.  Instead of saying "a people belonging to God" it says "a peculiar people."

We were created not to conform to the things around us, but to be transformed by the Holy Spirit and display the glory of God.  God created humans in a completely different way from everything in creation.  He used His hands and breath to bring us to life when only words worked with everything else.  From the beginning, we were to be different.  We are confronted from all sides with temptations to just blend in with the surroundings.  Let's not fade into the background of our sinful surroundings, but rather let us be a "city on a hill" and let the light of Christ shine through us like never before.