Teniel writes in to ask this, quote, 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.

Pastor John, what does it mean when it says by testing?

That is a really, really good question.

I love it because it means she's really paying attention, she's looking at the book.

And she cares about the words and, oh, I love people who care about the words of Scripture.

And that phrase, she's obviously reading from the ESV, I think, because it's translated

differently in different ways.

Let me just give it again so that the listeners can get before their mind.

Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that

by testing, you may discern the will of God.

Now that phrase, by testing, you may discern is the translation of one Greek word,

document, though, the standard lexical definition goes like this, to make a critical examination

of something to determine genuineness, such as metals by fire.

And interestingly, it's used in 1 Corinthians 3, 13, where it says, fire will test

and that's the word, document, though, will test what sort of work each one has done.

So our works at the last day are going to be tested by fire.

So the idea is that the genuineness of something, in this case, the will of God in Romans 12

2, the genuineness of something is found out by an appropriate test.

For metals, it is often fire.

For genuine ripeness in fruit, it would be like tasting.

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