Here comes the New Year, and change is on the menu.  Get ready for all the ads about healthy foods delivered right to your door, gym memberships, weight loss programs, ukulele lessons, and trying to learn Spanish…again.   But change is more than a seasonal cliché.  In fact, change lies right in the developmental center of the Christian life.  Romans 12:2 says, 

“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.” 

Although we come to Christ just as we are, the Bible tells us dozens of times not only to expect change, but to desire it.  Actually, resistance to godly change can hurt you more than you think. 

Romans 12:2 uses the word “transform,” which comes from the Greek metamorphoo.  We’re all familiar with the metamorphosis that takes place when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  But suppose for a minute what would happen if a caterpillar actually refused the process.  What if it simply didn’t want to go into a cramped cocoon?  Maybe it liked the view at the top of the maple tree, and preferred the taste of leaf salad.  If that were the case, the caterpillar in question would run into some serious problems, the same kind a Christian will experience when resisting inward change.

  1.  Without change the caterpillar remains earthbound. A Christian will also find that non-change means staying anchored to the ground.  We won’t “get” spiritual things.  We’ll find them too far above us.  Even our questions about Christian life will sound earthly, such as, “If I pray, will God help me lose weight / make me a better dancer / get rich?  If not, then why pray?” Such earthbound believers seek things at ground level, and cannot understand the admonition to “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).  To them such advice sounds impractical, and therefore, irrelevant.  It is more reasonable for them to navigate life according to mortal understanding and standards.  James said “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15).
  2. Without change the caterpillar remains vulnerable. Caterpillars are basically on the menu for every bird, spider, and wasp.  They’re easy pickings because they’re fat and slow—just like us when we remain spiritually immature for an abnormally long period of time.  The prophet Micah spoke in metaphor of predators who “eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron” (Micah 3:3).   Resist the Holy Spirit’s work of transformation, and you’ll become such easy prey.  Anything will hurt us.  Even the slightest irritation can ruin our entire day.
  3. Without change, the caterpillar remains dangerous. The Saddleback caterpillar comes with a formidable array of stinging equipment.  A casual encounter with one of them is so excruciating that a person can actually pass out from the pain.  One man described it as “being stung by fifty wasps at once.”  This concern of being dangerous, may seem to contradict the former point that stressed vulnerability.  And yet, when we fail to walk in Christ, not only are we easily hurt by everything, but we easily hurt others.  Sometimes terribly.  This can happen without our even trying.  I’ve been there.  Someone pulls me aside and says, “You hurt my feelings when you said that.”  Huh?  Hadn’t even noticed.  Frequently a believer’s bad behavior can grow yet darker.  Fleshly Christians fall into malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander (1 Pet. 2:1).  Peter even wrote to Christians, saying, “let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.”  Wow.  Talk about fifty wasps at once!

You’re right for wanting positive change.  Caterpillar life isn’t good for you.  Transformation is better–

”And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

That’s a lot better than to remain a spiked bag of jelly that eats leaves.