I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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 12:1-2

Not conforming to this world is not easy and not possible in our own strength. As Christians, we are under constant pressure to behave and think differently from how the scriptures instruct us. The only way to successfully resist this pressure is to put on the whole armour of God (Eph 6:11) and do all things in the strength of the Lord and the power of his might (Eph 6:10).

The pressure to conform to this world is constant and administered by a cunning, intelligent and merciless attacker who is described as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8) and even as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). It does us well to know that this attacker has the ability and desire to make us conform and can deploy fierce and sublime strategies. Further, his experience in warfare dates back to the beginning of the world. Put simply, the devil is more powerful than us (even the angel Michael did not challenge him Jud 1:9) and the only way we can successfully withstand him (Eph 6:11) is to be in Christ who has already given us the victory (1 Cor 15:57).

Regardless of the form the attack takes, in Psalm 1 a set of four guiding principles to help us repel this pressure and be not conformed to the world is presented. The first three tell us what we need to avoid and the fourth tells us what are to do.