English translation of Nasıl Bir Değişim?, from the author’s Miras archive. From Miras issue 24. Scripture passages are paraphrased from the Turkish text supplied by the author. Scripture passages are rendered from the Turkish source.
When we look at the Bible, what kinds of writing do we encounter most often? We find poetry, prose, letters, and other forms. Yet the most frequent form is story. Beginning with creation, the Bible as a whole gives us the story we need in order to know God. This is its overarching narrative: a story stretching from creation’s mystery and humanity’s beginnings to Christ’s saving cross, and then to our eternal hope.
Imagine placing this story before you as a single picture and looking at the whole. Suppose you wanted to give it a name. Each of us would choose according to our understanding and needs. Every name would be precious and unique. Yet whenever I look at the Bible, one name keeps echoing in my mind: change.
Just as in the story of a person’s own life and relationship with God, the Bible continually presents us with stories of change. The prophets’ lives are full of sharp and striking transformations. Israel’s relationship with God is a story of change moving in continually different directions. We do not encounter static stories untouched by change. We witness changes in people, nature, and every part of creation, and learn from them.
Change is neither exclusively positive nor exclusively negative. In the Bible, it arises from humanity’s responses to God. Judas Iscariot’s change is a negative example. His initial step toward a healthy relationship with Christ did not continue; he became a traitor and a thief. On the other side stands Paul: a fierce enemy of God’s people and a cruel religious man who became an apostle counting everything as nothing for Christ’s sake. David, an ordinary and insignificant boy, became Israel’s king. Matthew, an important and powerful man, lost much for Christ. As a human life is renewed through continual and turbulent change, the Bible shows us something essential: change is unavoidable.
God himself calls us to change. Romans 12:2 urges us not to conform to the course of this age, but to be transformed through the renewal of our minds, so that we can discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Ephesians 4:22–24 reminds us that this change is already taking place during our spiritual journey. We have learned to put off the old self belonging to our former life, corrupted by deceptive desires; to be renewed in mind and spirit; and to put on the new self, created in God’s likeness in true righteousness and holiness.
According to this passage, the knowledge we have received contains what is needed for renewal. The examples I mentioned, and the stories within Scripture, contain that knowledge. How did we learn to put off the old self, be renewed in spirit, and put on the new self? Have any of you been given a course with those headings? Have you attended a class called “Putting Off the Old Self Corrupted by Deceptive Desires”?
Perhaps you have studied similar subjects. But the primary source here is understanding the transformation Scripture describes. Change begins with discovery. People who are already changing naturally must understand their own stories, identify harmful turns and deviations, and reflect on biblical examples in order to change rightly.
There is something else I must tell you: this change is difficult and painful.
We need to understand the difficulty and pain within the changes I just called positive. Consider Paul. He was a devout Jew, a fortunate man with the prestige of Roman citizenship. His responsibilities suggest that Jewish leaders considered him important. He was passionate about changing his people’s situation and did not doubt his own faith. His life had a particular course—until Christ Jesus appeared in Jerusalem and its surroundings and disturbed everything.
Paul’s change begins here. Previously concerned with ordinary religious matters, he now faced what he believed was a major problem threatening his people’s future. After Christ, his followers had grown considerably and spread among the people. Paul began pursuing them and punishing some. He describes himself in Philippians 3:5–6 as circumcised on the eighth day, of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in relation to the law, a Pharisee; in zeal, a persecutor of the church; and in righteousness under the law, blameless.
But Paul encountered Christ a second time on the road to Damascus—an encounter that blinded him to the life he had known. There was no longer any possibility of remaining the old Paul. As a man changed in everything, even his name, he endured years of waiting and preparation and was chosen to bear witness to Christ on a journey that continued until his death. Along the way, he experienced things nobody would wish upon themselves.
What were those things? In 2 Corinthians 11:22–30, Paul speaks almost as though he has lost his mind. Are they Hebrews? So is he. Israelites? So is he. Descendants of Abraham? So is he. Servants of Christ? He has worked harder, been imprisoned more often, suffered countless beatings, and repeatedly faced death.
Five times he received thirty-nine lashes from the Jews. Three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned; three times he was shipwrecked. He spent a night and a day at sea. He traveled frequently, facing danger from rivers, robbers, his own people, and other nations; in cities, in the wilderness, at sea, and among false brothers.
He labored and suffered, often going without sleep. He experienced hunger and thirst, frequently lacked food, and endured cold and nakedness. Beyond all of this, he carried the daily pressure of concern for all the churches. When someone was weak, he shared that weakness. When someone was led into sin, he burned with distress. If he had to boast, he would boast in what revealed his weakness.
How many of us have encountered this wave of persecution in which Paul—yes, Paul—boasted? How many have faced difficulties on such a scale? Some of us have indeed experienced similar pain, even if not identical. We have endured hardship and, sadly, share some experiences from Paul’s list.
The things in that list were steps in Paul’s transformation. The change Christ promises is, in part, the good news of passing through such a process. Good news!
No illustration I offer here will be entirely adequate. This is the story of a human being. Iron may sharpen iron; wood may need bending before it takes shape; stone may need striking before it acquires form. But we are human. Being sharpened like iron, finding our way through bending, or receiving our shape through blows is not part of our nature. Yet change in Christ is that difficult. Our dark, disordered, and unclean lives, so unlike God’s nature, find their way toward his orbit only through difficult and painful transformation.
Like Paul, I will speak almost as though I have lost my mind: this is also something we should desire. If we desire the standards to which Christ calls us and aim to become like him, we must desire this change. We cannot say, “Please leave out the pain and difficulty; let me simply gather the fruit.” The process differs according to our own life stories, but it has difficulties and cannot be painless.
It does not happen without sacrificing something we regard as our own: comfort, money, possessions, time, relationships, health, or something similar. Change is a process of giving, passing away, and being born anew. The testimonies of the apostles and prophets we honor today contain such stories.
I therefore want to encourage you to see the suffering you experience as more than a story of pain. Let us also see it as renewal taking place through transformation. Let us desire to remain far from temptation as we pass through these sufferings, and may God preserve our faithfulness.