Transformed Life

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 

Years ago, I spent a considerable amount of time in a large bookstore taking note of the titles. Most of them promised some kind of transformation: how to transform your love life, finances, business, or conversational skills. 

If you spend time talking with people and take note of what they want, everyone wants transformation because we all know that we need transforming. We all know there is something missing this side of heaven. It’s as if we know we were made for perfection, and we want to be, and do, better.   

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with having the desire to transform your cooking or conversational skills but when it comes to internal transformation, it’s God and His love that transforms. 

Going to church and doing the right things cannot do the work of inner transformation because simply knowing what’s right cannot transform. Only being in right relationship with the Lord transforms. And then (good news!) good actions will flow from a love relationship with Him.  

In Romans 12:2, the Scripture says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

If this is true that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, how can it be that true transformation cannot be absent of love, or a love relationship with Christ? Because, it’s love working together with truth that transforms the human heart but truth minus love is just legalism. 

The Pharisees knew all the answers, but they didn’t love Jesus. They were not in a love relationship with Him, therefore their hearts remained unchanged, and they did not receive eternal life. 

1 Corinthians 13:2 says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

None of us can transform our own hearts, but if you are in relationship with Christ, you will know Him and as a result you will seek Him and experience transformation. Knowing how to do what is right is not equal to being in a love relationship with Christ. But in knowing Him, you will want to obey. 

I cannot think of anything more beautiful. This means that Jesus isn’t a hard task master. He is a loving God who wants us to know Him and be in an intimate relationship with Him. He wants to know you and me. Wow. And, through knowing Him, our inner man can be transformed. What a magnificent gift. 

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).