The document discusses how Christians should live in the world but not be defined by it. It provides examples from the Letter to Diognetus of how early Christians lived counter-culturally by conforming to social customs but not adopting worldly values or behaviors. Christians married, had families and jobs like others but did not kill children and maintained separate sleeping arrangements. They obeyed laws but surpassed them through holy living. The letter encourages Christians to transform by renewing their minds, not conforming to the world.

2. Romans 12:1–8 (ESV)
12 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.

3. Romans 12:1–8 (ESV)
12 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.

4. Romans 12:1
12 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.

5. Romans 12:1
12 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.

6. Romans 12:1
12 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.

7. Romans 6:11–13
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to
make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your
members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those who have
been brought from death to life, and your members
to God as instruments for righteousness.

8. Romans 12:1
12 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.

9. Romans 12:1
12 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.

10. Romans 12:1
12 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.

11. Romans 12:1
12 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.

12. Romans 12:1
12 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.

13. 2 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.

14. What should the Christian
Community Look Like?

15. Letter to Diognetus (2nd Cent.)
Christians are not distinguished from other men
by country, language, nor by the customs which
they observe. They do not inhabit cities of their
own, use a particular way of speaking, nor lead a
life marked out by any curiosity.

16. The course of conduct they follow has not been
devised by the speculation and deliberation of
inquisitive men. They do not, like some,
proclaim themselves the advocates of merely
human doctrines.

17. Instead, they inhabit both Greek and barbarian
cities, however things have fallen to each of
them. And it is while following the customs of
the natives in clothing, food, and the rest of
ordinary life that they display to us their
wonderful and admittedly striking way of life.

18. They live in their own countries, but they do so
as those who are just passing through. As
citizens they participate in everything with
others, yet they endure everything as if they
were foreigners. Every foreign land is like their
homeland to them, and every land of their birth
is like a land of strangers.

19. They marry, like everyone else, and they have
children, but they do not kill their offspring.
They share a common table, but not a common
bed.

20. They exist in the flesh, but they do not live by
the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but
they are citizens of heaven. They obey the
prescribed laws, all the while surpassing the
laws by their lives.

21. They love all men and are persecuted by all.
They are unknown and condemned. They are
put to death and restored to life.
They are poor, yet make many rich. They lack
everything, yet they overflow in everything.

22. They are dishonored, and yet in their very
dishonor they are glorified; they are spoken ill of
and yet are justified; they are reviled but bless;
they are insulted and repay the insult with
honor; they do good, yet are punished as
evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if
raised from the dead.

23. They are assailed by the Jews as barbarians;
they are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those
who hate them are unable to give any reason for
their hatred.

24. Conforming or Transforming?

25. Conforming or Transforming?
Which is it for you?