"What '-Form'?"

 

“What ‘-Form’?”

 

In a high school English class the teacher led us in a study of suffixes, which are endings of compound words to give clarification or added meaning. Examples were cited (too many to list here) but one which has stood out to me in recent years is “-form”, which has the basic sense of acting in a particular way. The Scrabble Word Finder lists 98 words with this ending which are acceptable in the game—familiar ones such as deform, inform, perform and uniform plus many others I’d never seen. But for the purposes of this article let me zero in on three.

Reform is defined as “improvement by correction of error, giving up irresponsible or immoral practices”. The Hebrew word means “do better” and is translated in many ways but only by “reform” four times in Jeremiah, all pointing towards human effort. Because “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” (Jeremiah 17:9) is it any wonder that such an approach is rarely effective over the long haul? Conform means “to comply with rules or customs”. Since these practices vary greatly there’s no real standard by which to measure it. Transform comes from a Greek word from which we get metamorphosis, a biological process by which an animal changes its form (as a caterpillar to a butterfly or a tadpole to a frog). So reform and conform involve outward modifications while transform deals with inward activity.

The latter two words are combined in Paul’s message to the church at Rome: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2, emphasis added). He commands us not to let our surroundings shape us so we become like the society God’s called us to influence (Phillips renders it, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold….”). Rather we’re to allow God to change us from the inside out so we think and act like Jesus. Until we surrender our minds to Him our actions won’t be impacted. Solomon wrote, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it effects everything you do.” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT), a theme echoed by Jesus Himself: “…Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34).

So what is and will be my “-form”? Reform again and again? Conform to culture’s pressures? Or be transformed by God’s working where only He can: in my heart?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan