ACC ~ Romans 12 v2

BE TRANSFORMED. ORIGEN: By this Paul shows that there is one form of this world and another of the world to come. If there are those who love this present life and the things which are in the world, they are taken up with the form of the present age and pay no attention to what is not seen. But the things which are not seen are eternal, and they are being transformed and re-newed in the form of the age to come. For this reason the world does not acknowledge them but hates them and persecutes them.But the angels of God, who belong to the age to come, see that form.

“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” tells us what form is guilty, for every soul once had the form of wickedness. But the apostle’s words urge us to cast that off and to be reformed in the likeness of the individual virtues, so that once the face of our heart is revealed we may be transformed by God’s image and contemplate his glory. … Our mind is renewed by the practice of wisdom and reflection on the Word of God and the spiritual understanding of his law. The more one reads the Scriptures daily and the greater one’s understanding is, the more one is renewed always and every day. I doubt whether a mind which is lazy toward the holy Scriptures and the exercise of spiritual knowledge can be renewed at all.

Many people think they know what God’s will is, and they are mistaken. Those who do not have a renewed mind err and go wrong. It is not every mind but only one which is renewed and conformed (as I say) to the image of God which can tell whether what we think, say and do in particular instances is the will of God or not.

“What is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” If we read this according to the Latin manuscripts, the meaning is as follows: Because the will of God is something good and acceptable and perfect, there is no doubt that it is pleasing to God. For God cannot will anything which is not good, and if something is good and perfect, then it must be pleasing to God. But if we read this according to the Greek manuscripts, i.e., “that you may prove that the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect,” it can also be interpreted in the same sense. Yet something else may be felt in these words, viz., that God’s will is always good but that we do not always deserve to receive what is good by his will, nor what is acceptable and perfect. For example, when Saul was anointed king it was according to God’s will, but it was not acceptable or perfect. For God was angry at the people because they refused to have him as their king, and he ordered a man to be set over them as king. … Thus from time to time God’s will gives us what we want and desire, but the man who is renewed in his mind must ask whether this will of God is good and acceptable and perfect, and not more likely to indulge our lusts than to serve our needs. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: This is what the prophet Jeremiah meant when he talked about writing the law of God on the heart.For in the pursuit of God the spiritually minded heart will know what is good and acceptable and perfect, and it will only like the things which are pleasing to God. Filled with the goodness of the good Father it will want to do his will and will try to encourage everyone to do good.

However, it is not enough merely to do good; one must resist evil as well. For it is the rejection of evil which represents true progress toward the good. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

GREGORY OF NYSSA: The perfect will of God is that the soul be changed by reverence, having been brought to the full flower of its beauty by the grace of the Spirit, which attends to the sufferings of the person who undergoes the change. ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE.

THAT YOU MAY PROVE WHAT IS THE WILL OF GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: The fashion of this world is groveling and worthless, and temporal as well. It has nothing noble or uplifting about it but is wholly perverted. The second part [of the verse] may mean either that we should be renewed, in order to learn what is expedient for us, or that if we learn what is expedient for us we shall be renewed. Either way, God wills what is expedient for us, and whatever he wills is by definition expedient for us. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 20.

HOW DEFORMITY DESIRES CONFORMITY. AUGUSTINE: Those who are moved … to turn again to the Lord out of that state of deformity wherein worldly desires conformed them to this world must receive from the Lord their reformation. THE TRINITY 14.22.

THE RENEWED MIND. PELAGIUS: Do not be like the children of the world, you who have been made children of God, but renew your mind, by which the body is governed and all the members are directed. Thus even the movements of the body will be renewed, so that you may be able to recognize the will of God and his mind, for these are revealed only to a renewed mind. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THE FORM OF THIS WORLD. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul calls the things of this present life “forms,” e.g., wealth, power and every other splendor. But reality is what is yet to come, which will be stable and eternal. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

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