Over the last two weeks I have been talking about Proverbs 29.18 “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” (ESV). During week one I ended my commentary on Proverbs 28.19 with the conclusion that the overall thrust of the passage taught that the people of God need divine instruction (i.e. the Word of God) to keep in step with God and the community of faith, and that without God’s instruction, vis-à-vis the Bible, preaching, parental and pedagogic instruction (i.e. Christian education) the people lose their way, and their joy, and they are destroyed. In week two I pointed out that the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans as if he was addressing Proverbs 28.19 with an entire letter. He’s not, but it is clear that his address, especially to the Jews, that Paul has in mind the difference between authentic righteousness rather than nationalistic righteousness. With that dichotomy in mind, I turned to Romans 12.2, which instructs the community of faith to avoid outward conformity (more specifically to the world) and to pursue internal transformation. I said in my commentary on Romans 12.2 that it is clear that Paul expected us to make an effort to change rather than waiting for it to happen miraculously, and I pointed to the kind of change as being in contrast to the worldly behavior Paul rejects in Romans 1. Today we pick up in Romans 12.2 with the idea of testing to discern what is good and pleasing.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12.2
In the last part of this verse the ESV uses the word testing for the Greek word, dokîmázeîn, which can be translated as test, examine, prove, or approve.[1] This word contains the idea that once someone has been transformed by the renewing of their mind then this person will know the will of God. But it does not tell us how that transformation of the mind take place? How does Paul expect the readers to stop conforming to the ways of this world? Stepping back to the larger context of Romans, as we did last week, there is a thematic value placed on the Jews and their experience of covenant righteousness, their way of life, as instruction (torah) and that this trust they have been endowed with, is of great value. Keeping this in mind, it seems that the trust that the Jews have been given, and the instruction that these Gentile Christians are in need of, is about to understand covenant righteousness (i.e. How does one behave as a member of the covenant?). The advatage of the Jews is that they already know, probably better than they are actully behaving, and the loss of the Gentile, is that they do not know, and they need to be transformed even as the Jews need to be renewed.
While Paul is certainly constructing a way of life that is less ethnic, and more inclusive, his methodology and intent are still essentially the same. In the words of Dr. James D.G. Dunn:
Here too, then, Paul spells out the equivalent obligation of the redefined people of God. In particular the echo of [Romans] 2.18 is hard to ignore. Paul had characterized “the Jew” as confident that he knew God’s will and could discern the right order of priorities by virtue of his being instructed in the law. Here, no doubt deliberately, he uses the same language: the objective is still discerning the will of God. But no longer is that a matter of observing all the statutes of the law. For the eschatological people of God it is rather a matter of recognizing the eschatological tension of living between the two ages: on the one hand, resisting the danger of adapting too much to the norms and values of this age, and on the other, of submitting to the power of the risen one to renew from within.[2]
What is compelling about Dunn’s quote is that it holds several of the previously expressed ideas I introduced last week via Barth, Calvin, and Würthwein, as well as his own view, held altogether in tension. It is not simply ethical change, like Barth suggests, but it is that also. It is not wholly the change from depraved mind to sanctified mind like Calvin suggests, but it is that as well. It is not all new patterns of thought, brought on by the Spirit of God as Würthwein suggests, but it is that too. Succinctly, it is all of these things because of the eschatological tension of living between the two ages. This is what the Jewish socio-religious culture seemed to address. It created space in life for God to reclaim the heart and mind of the follower. In a similar manner, the Apostle Paul, as an heir of torah and as an author of this new Way, says that for the person of faith to know and do God’s will, they must be transformed, which he concludes, takes place through an intentional process of renewing the mind (and spirit) of the person. Thus, throughout the biblical witness, the concept of covenant righteousness is not merely subscribing to a set of shared philosophical ideas or values. Neither is it external submission to a religious practice or a codex of behaviors. Instead, it is the whole person being changed, beginning with the mind, to affect the whole person.
In overview, Proverbs 29.18 is not a passage about obeying the desires of the “Big Man of God,” but about living in step with the Law and the Prophets. Secondly, for those of us in Christ this is accomplished by turning our hearts and minds toward Christ, to be discipled by him. Those who do this will be blessed. Conversely, those who conform to the world (cast off restraint) rather than being discipled by Christ (according to the Prophets and the Apostles) are still on a path of destruction. If you want to know the joy and blessedness of God its found in giving yourself wholly to Christ to learn his way of life. And that way of life is not found through quick fixes or Sunday morning religion but through intentional Spirit empowered transformation that begins inside and works its way out.
[1]Walter Bauer, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 4th ed., rev. William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1952), 201.
[2]James D.G. Dunn. Romans 9-16, WBC, vol. 38b. (Dallas: Word, 1988), 717.
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