Our “peers” are those around us who are of equal standing with us on the basis of age, grade, or status. When it comes to lifestyles, there is a great deal of pressure on us to conform to our peers. The problem is too many times the lifestyle of our peers is not acceptable to God. The pressure comes when we begin to want to be accepted by our peers more than by God. Paul knew that this was a problem. He wrote, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). The word “conform” means “to act in agreement or harmony with, or to act in accordance with prevailing practices or customs.” This is what Paul said we must not do. Yes, the pressure will sometimes be there because Satan is always at work. He wants us to concede to the way of the world in the areas of dress, speech, and attitude. He wants us to give in to the lust of the flesh and involve ourselves in drinking, drugs, and immoral practices such as fornication. And one way he does it is by holding before us all the people in the world who do those things. All of your friends are doing it. If you want to “fit in,” you better do it too. But we must not give in. We must fight against the devil and peer pressure. Let’s look at a few things that can help in this area.

We Must Determine to Please God

For us to overcome the world and the pressure to conform to our peers, we must have the fixed purpose in our hearts to please God. This was the attitude of Christ (John 8:26), and our responsibility as Christians is to imitate Him (Philippians 2:5; 1 Peter 2:21). Paul was also a man who strongly wanted to please God. He was more interested in pleasing God than in pleasing or impressing his fellowman. “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10). If one really wants to please God, he will assess every situation with that in view and will be far less likely to give in to peer pressure.

We Must Recognize Who We Are

Many Christians conform to the world because if they do not, the world makes them feel inferior. To be on equal ground with their peers, they conform. But we can refrain from making that mistake if we remember who we are. We are God’s elect! Those in darkness may not like us. Those engulfed in the wisdom of this world may think us unwise. Those who are lovers of pleasure may consider us boring. But,as Christians, we are God’s chosen people. All who are not chosen by God will someday perish, but those elected by God and found faithful in the end will spend eternity in a blissful heaven. As God’s elect, we are being prepared right now to spend eternity with God as His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18). Imagine that! We are God’s inheritance. Doesn’t that make us special? We do not have to view ourselves as second class citizens in our society. I have often said, “Everybody is somebody in Christ’s body.” Let’s recognize who we are and what we have as a result. It seems to me that the better we feel about ourselves and what we have in Christ the less likely it is that we will give in to peer pressure. We don’t have to worry about being like the world. Giving in will only cause us to lose our inheritance of heaven.

We Must Not Be Ashamed of Christ

Some Christians conform to the world because they are ashamed of Christ. We live in a soci-ety that stands opposed to the cause of Christ and the ways of God. Christ says “deny yourself,” while the world says “put self before all others.” Christ says “lay your treasures in heaven,” while the world says “go for the gusto and accumulate all the earthly goods you can.” Christ says “love thy enemies,” while the world says “kill thy enemies.” So, the message of Christ and the message of the world are very much different. If we preach the message of Christ, we will stand out. We will be viewed as being a little strange and even be ridiculed at times. Some in Christ are not willing to go through that. They are ashamed of being different. But listen to Paul: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). We have nothing of which to be ashamed. Christ’s ways are always best for they lead to fellowship with God and eternal life. Don’t sacrifice that by worrying what man thinks or what he might do.

Let’s make sure we do not conform to the world by giving in to peer pressure. Instead let’s conform to the image of Christ and help others find their way out of darkness into the glorious light of the gospel.