A renewal, renovation, complete change for the better, is a Greek word that also gets translated often as transformation, as it is in my favorite verse of the Bible, Romans 12:2:
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.
Why is this my favorite verse of the Bible as a self-growth-obsessed Biohacker...
This verse calls us to think for ourselves, exercise our free will, defy the status quo of our time (as Christ did), and embrace the continual renewal and renovation - Anakainōsis - of our minds.
And the second sentence of the verse is where it gets really interesting. I looked at a bunch of different translations, and I believe it suggests that we find God's plan for our life not by listening to religious authorities, reading old books, or following dogma but by practicing our free will and thus reigniting that spark of divinity within us. It's one of the verses of the Bible that really sets the Christian faith apart, where we see God not demanding our acquiescence to a bunch of silly rules but asking us to discover His will by thinking for ourselves, and courageously charting our own course in life, while engaging in the renewal of our minds. It's a verse that challenges some of the dogmatic ideas of religion that should resound powerfully for those of us into personal growth!
