Romans 12:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Whether you point to wealth, glory, bodily beauty, pleasures, or all else that men consider great, all this is only a form, not a real thing. It is an appearance, a mask, and not any abiding substance. But you, he says, do not be conformed to this. Rather, be transformed by the renewal of the mind. He did not say, "be transformed outwardly," but "be transformed in essence." By this he shows that the world has only an outward form, while virtue possesses not an outward form, but a true and essential form. It has natural beauty and needs no external adornment or shapes that appear and vanish at the same time. All such things disappear before they have appeared. Therefore, if you cast away the outward appearance, you will at once attain the true form. For nothing is weaker than vice, and nothing grows old so quickly. Then, because it is characteristic of men to sin daily, the Apostle comforts the hearer by telling him to be renewed daily. As we do with houses, constantly repairing those that have grown old, so do with yourself. Have you sinned today, and has your soul grown old? Do not despair and do not lose heart. Renew it by repentance, tears, confession, and good works, and never cease doing this. But how can we do this? "That you may test what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." This means: be renewed so that you may know what is useful for yourselves and what the will of God is. Or: you can be renewed when you know what is useful for yourselves and what God wants. If you have known this and learned to discern the properties of things, then you have understood the whole path of virtue. You ask: who does not know what is useful for himself and what the will of God consists in? All those who strive for present things. They consider wealth enviable and despise poverty. They seek authority, strive after outward glory, and consider themselves great when they build magnificent houses. They buy splendid tombs, have a crowd of servants, and lead around a multitude of eunuchs. Such men do not know what is useful for them or what the will of God consists in. For the two are one and the same. What is useful for us is what God wills, and what God wills is useful for us. What, then, does God will? He wills that we live in poverty, humble-mindedness, contempt for glory, and self-restraint, not in luxury. He wills that we live in affliction, not softness, in sorrow, not merriment and laughter. He wills that we live in all the rest that God has commanded us. But many turn away from this. So far are they from recognizing it as useful and as the will of God. Therefore they can never even draw near to the contests of virtue. Such men do not even know what virtue is. Instead of virtue they admire vice. Instead of a chaste wife, they enter into union with a harlot. How can they detach themselves from the present age? Therefore, before everything else, we must have correct judgment about things. If we do not yet follow virtue, let us at least learn to praise it. If we do not yet flee vice, let us at least become accustomed to condemning evil. Thus for the time being our judgments will be unbribed. Having entered upon this path, we will then be able to take up deeds as well. Therefore Paul commands us to be renewed, "that you may test what the will of God is." Here, as it seems to me, he also reproaches the Jews who held to the law. The will of God was indeed also directed toward life under the Old Testament. But it was not the preeminent will. It was adapted to the weakness of the Jews. The perfect and well-pleasing will is revealed in life under the New Testament. When the Apostle called New Testament life rational service, he named it thus in contrast to life under the Old Testament.

Notice that he called the world an outward form, σχήμα, thereby indicating its easy dissolution and temporariness. He called virtue an essential form, μορφ", because it has natural beauty and needs no outward masks or adornments. The world has an outward form in order to deceive us, but virtue shows its essential form without masks. Therefore we must always be transformed according to virtue, renewing ourselves from evil to good and from lesser virtue to greater. "That you may know what is the will of God, good and acceptable and perfect." Having said that we should always be renewed and become new, he shows the benefit of this renewal of the mind. It is useful, he says, so "that you may know what is the will of God." The one whose mind has grown old does not know what the will of God consists in. He does not know that God wants us to live in humble-mindedness, to love poverty, to weep, and to fulfill all else commanded us by God. By contrast, the one renewed in spirit knows what the will of God consists in. He knows it in the same precise way as the Jews who hold to the law. The law too was the will of God, but not the well-pleasing and perfect will. It was given not as the principal will, but as one adapted to the weakness of the Jews. The perfect and well-pleasing will of God is the New Testament. Still, according to Basil the Great, you may understand it in this way also. There is much that God wills. One thing He wills for beneficence toward us. This is called good, as full of goodness. Another thing He wills as One angered by our sins. This is called evil, as something that grieves us, though its aim too is good. Therefore what God wills for beneficence toward us, we too must imitate. But what arouses the feeling of grief, we must not do. For we are not ministers of evil, but the evil spirits are. Therefore, first discern the will of God, whether it is good. Then, when you know this, see whether this will is acceptable to God. For much that is good is not well-pleasing to God, because it is done either at the wrong time or by the wrong person. For example, it is good to burn incense to God. But when Uzziah did this, he did not please God; 2 Chr 26:16. Again, it was good for the disciples to know the mysteries. But for them to know them before the proper time was not well-pleasing. He says: "You cannot bear them now"; Jn 16:12. When something proves to be good and well-pleasing, then strive that it be performed perfectly and without deficiencies, exactly as required, without deviation. For example, one should give in simplicity; Rom 12:8. That is, with generosity. But if this is done with stinginess, the giving does not precisely accord with what is required of it.

For He says: "Be merciful, as your Father is merciful"; Lk 6:36. And the Apostle says: "Therefore imitate God as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us"; Eph 5:1-2. But what He sends according to wrath for our sins, and what, as I have said, is called evil because it arouses the feeling of grief, we certainly must not do. When it is God's will that men often perish from hunger, plague, war, or something similar, we have no need to serve this will. For in such cases God also uses ministers of evil, according to what is said: "He sent upon them the flame of His wrath, indignation, anger, and trouble, a mission of evil angels"; Ps 77:49. Therefore one must first seek what the good will of God is. Then, when we know the good will, we must examine whether this good will is acceptable to God. For there is a will of God, and a good will, for something taken in itself. Yet when it is done by the wrong person or at the wrong time, it is no longer well-pleasing to God. For example, it was God's will and a good will that incense be offered to God. But it was not well-pleasing to God that Dathan and Abiram do this. Again, it is God's will and a good will that alms be given. But if this is done for glory from men, it is no longer well-pleasing to God. Again, it was God's will and a good will that what the disciples heard "in the ear" they should preach "on the housetops"; Mt 10:27. But for them to speak of something before the proper time was not well-pleasing to God. For He says: "Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is risen from the dead"; Mt 17:9. In general, every good will of God is also well-pleasing when the Apostle's words are fulfilled in it: "Do all to the glory of God"; 1 Cor 10:31. And again: "Let all things be done decently and in order"; 1 Cor 14:40. Yet again, if there is a will of God for something, and the will is good and acceptable, even in this case we must not give ourselves to carelessness. We must struggle and take care that it be perfect and without deficiency. This applies both to the measure of the deed itself, whether it is exactly according to what was commanded, and to the strength of the one performing the deed. For it is said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself"; Lk 10:27. So also the Lord taught in the Gospel according to John; Jn 13:34. Love every commandment as it is written; Deut 6:6. For it is said: "Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing"; Mt 24:46.

David, speaking by the Spirit, teaches those who desire to philosophize rightly to follow the path of true philosophy. By this path one must go toward the perfect goal, asking from the Giver what the Spirit teaches through David’s lips: “Let my heart be blameless in Thy statutes, that I may not be ashamed” (Ps 118:80).

He commands us to fear shameful deeds and cast them away like a defiled garment, which dishonors those clothed in it by vices. Again he says: “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I look upon all Thy commandments.” For the Spirit places boldness in the keeping of the commandments.

Again he says: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” and: “Establish me with Thy governing Spirit” (Ps 50:12, 14). In another place he asks: Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Then he answers: “He who is innocent in his hands and pure in heart” (Ps 23:3-4).

He leads up “to the mountain” of God the man who is pure in all things. Such a man has not ultimately defiled his soul by thought, knowledge, or deeds, nor grown hardened in evil. Rather, by good deeds and thoughts he has acquired the “governing Spirit” (Ps 50:14), and has created anew his heart, which had been damaged by vice.

Concerning the goal of life according to God, and concerning true ascetic struggle. III, 2

[...] it is necessary to know what the will of God is. The man who zealously struggles and earnestly presses toward the blessed life must look to it. He must order his life here according to his striving for that future life.

The perfect will of God is this: to cleanse the soul by grace from every defilement, making it higher than bodily pleasures, and to bring it pure to God. It thirsts for, and is able to behold, that intelligible and ineffable Light.

On the theme of the will of God, in connection with his interpretation of Rom 12:1-2, St. Gregory also turns in his work On Perfection. There he says: “For in the flesh, while it is alive, the good will of God cannot be manifested, unless that flesh is offered in sacrifice according to the spiritual law (μ χατά τον πνευματιχόν ίερουργηθεί᾿σης νόμον). [...] (Rom 8:7), while the flesh is alive. But if, through the sacred action of the life-giving sacrifice, the earthly members (Col 3:5) are put to death, through which the passions act, then the noble and perfect will of God will be fulfilled in the life of believers.”

As for the expression “ineffable, indescribable, invisible, incomprehensible Light” (άφραστον φως), the term άφραστον belongs to St. Gregory’s favored apophatic language, along with similar terms such as άρρητος and ακατάληπτος. Thus, in the treatise On Virginity, he speaks of the “intelligible and true Light” (τοΰ νοητοΰ χα άλη ίνοΰ φωτός), whose beauty every Christian must behold.

“And he who has seen it, by some divine gift and inexpressible inspiration, preserves his wonder in the ineffability of conscience (εν τω άπορρητω τ % συνείδ σεως). But he who has not contemplated this beauty does not know the loss he has suffered. For how can one present the Good that has escaped him? How can one bring the Ineffable before sight (πως άν τίς άπ᾿ οψίν άγάγοί το άφραστον)?”

The term άφραστος, used before St. Gregory chiefly by St. Methodius of Olympus among the Fathers of the Church, after St. Gregory entered firmly into the vocabulary of patristic mystical theology. It occurs very often, for example, in St. Symeon the New Theologian. He speaks of “participation in the ineffable Light,” of the “ineffable God,” and so forth.

It is noteworthy that St. Macarius also uses this term. For example, when he speaks of the soul receiving the “Light of the Godhead” through communion with the Holy Spirit, he exclaims: “O ineffable good pleasure, O inexpressible love for mankind, O incomprehensible love and ineffable mercy (τ ς αφράστου εύσπλαγχνίας) of God!”

Moreover, speaking of the “manifold” (πολυπο χίλος) Wisdom of God, St. Macarius calls it “ineffable and incomprehensible.” He also speaks of the “unutterable glory and ineffable beauty” (τήν όλάλητον δόξαν χα αφραστον εύπρεπείαν) of the heavenly Kingdom of Christ, of the “ineffable mystery of the Wisdom of God,” and so forth.

Thus, largely through St. Macarius and St. Gregory, this term enriched patristic terminology.

Concerning the goal of life according to God, and concerning true ascetic struggle.

“But be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Here he exhorts even those who have inclined toward evil to return to what is better. For this is expressed by the word “be transformed.” He also shows how great the difference is between virtue and what is present. He calls the present simply a form, schema, but virtue an essential form, morphe. Essential form signifies a real thing, while simple form is something easily dissolved. The Apostle also showed the freedom of the soul by commanding it to renew its thought and distinguish the better from the worse. This, the Apostle said, means serving God. He teaches what this is. Before everything else, he forbids conceit and ordains humble-mindedness. For he says: “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone among you not to think more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly” (Rom 12:3).

Again, to the one who asks, “Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?” the answer is given: “He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart” (Ps 23:3-4). By this is signified the perfect destruction of sin, both in deed and in thought.

For example, as I said, the permissive will of God may be that a city be destroyed. Yet God does not want us, because it is His will that the city be destroyed, to set fire to it and burn it ourselves. Nor does He want us to take axes and begin demolishing it. Likewise God permits someone to be in sorrow or illness. Yet, although God’s will is that he should suffer sorrow, God does not want us to grieve him. Nor should we say, “Since it is God’s will that he be ill, we shall not pity him.” God does not want this. He does not want us to serve such a will of His. On the contrary, He desires to see us so good that we do not want what He does by permission. But what does He want? He wants us to desire His good will, which occurs, as I said, according to His good pleasure. This means everything done according to His commandment: to love one another, to be compassionate, to give alms, and the like. This is the good will of God. What does “acceptable” mean? Not everyone who does something good does it acceptably to God. I will tell you how this happens. Someone may find a poor orphan girl who is beautiful. She pleases him because of her beauty, and he takes her in and raises her as a poor orphan, but also as beautiful. This is the good will of God, but not the acceptable. The acceptable will is when someone gives alms not from some human motive, but for the good itself, from compassion alone. This is acceptable to God. The perfect will of God is when someone gives alms not stingily, not lazily, not under compulsion, but with all his strength and all his free will. He gives as though he himself were receiving. He benefits another as though he himself were receiving benefits. Then the perfect will of God is fulfilled. Thus a person fulfills the will of God, as the Apostle says: the good, acceptable, and perfect will. This means fulfilling it with understanding.

You will not be offended, good hearers, if with a weak hand I open a little the veil that hides the ugliness of the world from our eyes. Let us glance briefly over its surface, without penetrating into its inward parts.

The prince of darkness, using human weakness, employs it as an instrument for the overthrow of the truth of the Gospel. With momentary pleasures, as with sleeping potions, he makes man forget himself. Thus he prepares various attacks to tear the seed of Christ from human hearts, and he does not miss a single moment favorable for accomplishing his designs.

At the very birth of an infant into the world, he suggests to careless parents the thought of raising the child by the hands of strangers. They need a person of taste, agile, cunning, perceptive, in a word, a person capable of living in society. They teach everything that serves this.

Where then is Christianity? Where is the faith of the Gospel? My God! This, they say, is not so necessary for the present age.

Those little enlightened in the upbringing of children care for nothing but their belly. They think that the whole of education consists only in food and drink. Instead of Christian teaching, they furnish children with ravings and absurd inventions, wholly contrary to the truth of the Gospel.

These prejudices inherited from grandfathers usually end in the grandchildren no sooner than life itself ends. In the same delusion walk many of the "wise" of this age. They have abandoned the true light and been captivated by dreams of refined and brilliant reasoning.

After this eminent crowd of "philosophers" rushes a countless multitude of the frivolous, not knowing where they go and with their eyes bound. They know only one thing: the importance of those who go before them is their guidance. Their custom is their law. Their teaching, whatever it may be, is divine to them.

Where then is the faith of the Gospel? Rarely, like a spark from beneath ashes, does a heart truly receiving the teaching of its God shine forth in the crowd of ordinary people.

"Be not conformed to this age." Can the eyes of the mind turn toward the true light when they are so darkened by prejudices that, apart from their own knowledge, they consider everything else false? Those whose eyes are diseased withdraw from light.

People are carried by prejudices into two extremes concerning worship of God. Some cling excessively to the outward. Others cling excessively to the inward. The former wish to render true honor to God only by strict fulfillment of rites. The latter wish suddenly to become bodiless, to pray, speak, and worship by spirit alone, considering the outward, though also sacred, almost superfluous.

The Lord plainly rejects the worship of the former, like that of the Jews led by outwardness, through the mouth of the Prophet: "Your new moons and your feasts My soul hates" Is 1:14. "Your sacrifice is an abomination to Me." The Apostle calls the latter anathema: "Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you other than what we preached to you, let him be anathema" Gal 1:8.

A sufficient sign of the spirit and teaching of demons is that it hides under something impenetrable. Truth is always open. Falsehood is always covered.

Yet he who seeks to devour the whole world is not satisfied with these spoils. He also blinds the human mind, adapting himself to the inclinations of each. To many he presents the meek and righteous God as excessively strict, and they tremble before Him in despair, not as children but as stubborn slaves. To others he presents Him as immeasurably merciful, and they think that the abyss of mercy will exceed their iniquities. Therefore they continue in them.

What more? Idolaters are hidden in the world. They are those who turn everything in the universe toward themselves. The passions ruling over them are their idols. To please them even the most miserly offer rich sacrifices.

Finally, do not be offended, right-minded ones. If the Knower of hearts came into this temple, as once into the temple of Jerusalem, perhaps at this very moment He would find among us those who sell and buy. He would find those who turn this sacred shelter into a den of thieves.

These too are walking under the power of the prince of this world, according to the customs of the age. How then can I fail to beseech you in the words of the Apostle: "Brethren, be not conformed to this age"?

When piety weakens, when truth is clothed in the garments of phantoms, and when human hearts are filled with the spirit of resistance, then morality can only be corrupted. The less the customs of this age are founded on the truth of the Gospel, the more repulsive, terrible, and destructive they are.

Where only whims act, raging passions rule, and self-love reigns, what conformity to the Gospel can there be? Consider the general rules accepted and affirmed in the world, on which countless others are founded. Here they are:

"The first love is love for oneself. The years of youth are years of pleasure. It is permissible to spend time as one sees fit. We are not obliged to be more pious than others. One may live as everyone lives. Sharp words spoken at another's expense are the salt of conversation. It is not fitting for an honorable man to endure insults. Revenge is fitting for prudent souls. Ambition is the sign of a great spirit. The cunning are intelligent, and the simple-hearted deserve mockery. Flattery and deception are not forbidden, but are even needed in many cases. For one's own advantage, provided only that one is cautious, one may permit oneself anything."

Which of these rules does not destroy the foundations of Christ's teaching? They will say: we live as everyone else lives. If we abandon the customs of this age, what will become of us?

Why ask such a question of a Christian? Long ago our Mediator, God, foretold this and at the same time encouraged us: "Blessed are you when they revile you for My sake" Mt 5:11. Rejoice. You are Mine if the world hates you.

"But," someone thinks, "then I will remain alone in the world. Can one resolve upon this?" Remember that even when the prophets had been slain and the altars dug up, when Elijah cried, "I alone am left" 3 Kgs 19:14-19, even then there still remained seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

You will say again that weakness, infirmity of the flesh, and the multitude of iniquities are reins holding back the impetuous spirit. But who is without weaknesses? Who is not a man?

Who would have thought that the thief would be counted worthy of the heavenly reward: "Today you will be with Me in Paradise" Lk 23:43? Who would have dared to think that Saul, breathing malice and threats against the Church of God, would fall before the gates of Damascus, crying: "Lord, what will You have me do?" Acts 9:6.

Let us also be transformed by the renewal of our mind, and the heavenly light will illumine us as well.

"But is it possible," some think, "that this should happen to me, that I should be counted worthy of this, I who scarcely understand myself?" O faithless generation! By what can it be persuaded when it does not believe the words of God?

Saint Cyprian came to know this by experience. "When I was in darkness and the deep night of ignorance," he says, "when, sailing on the stormy ocean of this age and wavering in indecision, I wandered far from light and truth, then, according to my morals, I considered it completely impossible that anyone should change his spirit and thoughts without breaking the bonds of the body.

"How can this be, that one should cast off from himself everything that has been implanted almost by nature and grown old from long habit? For I," the saint continues, "was subject to so many delusions that I did not expect to be delivered from them. I was enslaved to so many vices rooted in me that, despairing of virtue, I favored evil as my own property.

"But when I dedicated my whole self to God, placing on Him all hope, every thought, and every desire, and when I partook of the heavenly gift, the word of God, then a clear and pure light was poured into my heart. Then, suddenly and wonderfully, I felt that everything doubtful was resolved, what was hidden was opened, what was dark had light, what was difficult seemed easy, and what was impossible seemed possible."

Here is a man like us in all things, illumined from above. "Be not conformed to this age," knowing how much it assists the will of the serpent. But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Be conformed to the Gospel, to true worship of God, and to piety.

“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The renewal of the mind, or of concepts, thoughts, and even the very faculty of reasoning, is the transformation toward which a Christian must strive. More fully, it is the renewal of the whole structure of the inner, spiritual life. “That you may prove what is the will of God.” Before rebirth, the whole former life of the Christian consisted in making his own will the center of all his activity and of his neighbors’ activity. Now, with the transformation of the person, this activity also finds its center in the will of God.

Such a spirit is born when the grace of God awakens the fear of God and brings a person to repentance. It leads him to the resolve to live not according to the earthly, but according to the heavenly, spiritual, and divine. After this, one who is not baptized is baptized. One who is baptized receives the Mystery of Repentance and begins to live not according to the spirit of the age. But the inner life of a person in whom this spirit awakens is not at once entirely rebuilt according to it. The power for this has been received, but the transformation itself requires time and labor. This is what the Apostle instills when he says: ‘Be transformed by the renewal of your mind’” (Rom 12:2). Concerning the renewal of the mind, Chrysostom remarks: “Since Paul’s hearers, being human, were prone to sin every day, the Apostle comforts them by advising them to be renewed daily. As you act with a house, continually repairing everything in it that has grown old, so act with yourself. Have you sinned today? Has your soul grown old? Do not despair or grow despondent. Renew it by repentance, tears, confession, and good works, and never abandon this work. Before all else, we must have a right judgment about things. If we do not yet follow virtue, let us at least learn to praise it. If we do not yet flee vice, let us at least become accustomed to condemn evil. Holding to this, we can also take up good works. For this purpose Paul commands us to be renewed, ‘that you may know what is the will of God’” (Rom 12:2).