What does it mean to be conformed to the truth?

Paul wrote that the Lord has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29) – but just how is God going to accomplish such a job?

Answer: by revealing the truth of His likeness.

As the truth confronts us, we can do one of two things: Either we can refuse to be pushed into God’s mold; or we can, as Romans 12:2 instructs, “Be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind.” Therefore, we must yield to Him and so we can be fashioned into His likeness.

I once preached a series of sermons, “How the Truth Can Set You Free.” Week after week, people would say to me, “I want to tell you how the Lord has set me free. Last week’s message changed my life.” After they walked away, I would often think, God, what about me? I’m the one who told them. I knew I was not living as free as God wanted me to. After months of seeing other lives changed, God finally changed my own life in a remarkable way.

I learned that I had to listen in order to comprehend and to comprehend in order to be conformed to His truth. God never speaks in order to entertain us; God speaks that we may be made like Jesus. James says, “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was” (James 1:23, 24) Obedience must accompany understanding. We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped by His truth.

After spending several years with Paul, Timothy, the apostle’s protégé, began shepherding the work of the gospel in Ephesus and Asia Minor. As he labored there Paul wrote to him, “Let no one despise you your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).

In 2 Timothy, Paul penned these words, “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also” (2 Tim. 1:5).

Timothy didn’t just know the truth; he allowed its power to transform him in such a way that his life became a constant example of godliness. How? Through the unfolding ministry of God’s Word.

Taken from The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible