Do not be conformed (4964) (suschematizo from sun = together with + schêma = external form, appearance) means to form according to a pattern or mold, to fashion alike, to conform to the same pattern outwardly. The meaning is to form or mold one’s behavior in accordance with a particular pattern or set of standards. The preposition "sun" in this compound verb denotes a personal assimilation to or conformity with the pattern indicated. Suschematizo is used only here and in (Ro 12:2-note) and denotes the practice of adopting for oneself a pattern or mold (schema , our English word "scheme") of life that is changeable and unstable rather than enduring. In the present context with the negative ("me"), Peter gives a prohibition against continuing in their former evil practices. They are not to be fashioned alike or conformed to the same evil pattern outwardly. And so the child of God is not to be assuming as an outward expression the habits, mannerisms, dress, speech expressions (off color jokes, etc), and behavior of the world out of which God saved them for this would not give a true expression of the true inner character (holy, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, possessing the mind of Christ, holy temples to the Lord, etc). In other words believers are not to "masquerade" as it were "in the costume of the world". As sojourners in this world we must each (daily) make the conscious volitional choice to refuse to let an alien society squeeze us into its wicked corrupting mold which is futile and passing away. Suschematizo implies that men who live in sensual lusts take up the likeness of those lusts into themselves, and are made, not as man was at first, after the likeness of God, but after the likeness of those lusts of the flesh which are not of the Father, but are of the world. Encouraged by the assurance of the hope to come, saints were to be holy in all their behavior, not being conformed to their former lusts. The verb "conformed" is present tense and with the negative particle ("me") conveys the idea to cease an action already in progress...stop allowing your behavior to be continually molded or conformed to the pattern you had before God caused you to be born again. John Lillie writes that because of their new nature, there must be an absolute and perpetual divorce from what they most loved and practiced of old. Paul in the other NT use of suschematizo has a similar exhortation in (Ro 12:2-note) where J B Phillips translates it Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within. In this passage, Paul is saying that the pattern to be rejected is that of "this world", the present evil age in its estrangement from God. An expanded rendering of (Ro 12:2-note) reads Stop being molded by the external and fleeting fashions of this age, but undergo a deep inner change [metamorphoo = transfigure, change one’s form] by the qualitative renewing [anakainósis = a renewing or a renovation which makes a person different than in the past] of your mind.” In both NT uses of suschematizo the verb is passive voice, which indicates that the effect of the molding or squeezing is being exerted by an outside force (the world, the flesh and the devil) J Vernon McGee writes that children of obedience are to live lives which reveal that we have been transformed from the inside. We are not to walk around with an artificial smile on our face like a floorwalker at Macy’s who acts as if he is delighted to serve you when in reality his corns are killing him and he wishes you would go home and stay home. We are not to be artificial. We are to so yield to God that we will be genuinely transformed. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos) A. Maclaren writes that There was a time when self-will shaped their lives. They molded themselves according to their own desires, but all that must be at an end now. A new pattern is set before them. They are now to fashion themselves, not after the ideal framed by their own tastes or inclinations, but, as we might read the words, “according to the Holy One who hath called you." (The Pulpit Commentary) Although we are now the children of God, the adage holds for us too, that children are very susceptible to ''peer pressure''. The world has its own lifestyle to which believers often are drawn. As obedient children we need to stop being poured into the mold of the world (Ro 12:2) on one hand and on the other to obey our Father by living set apart (holy) lives, in the power of the sanctifying work of the Spirit (2Cor 3:18, cp 2Th 2:13). Fronmuller on obedient children or children of obedience... The exhortation to holiness is now more clearly defined by reference to their ante-Christian state. As Christians, you dare not pursue a course that is in unison with your former walk in sinful lusts. Suschematizo (from schema, the form of a thing, the fashion and mode of life, the manner in which one appears) to form or fashion one’s self after something, to conform to it, Ro. 12:2-note; to make oneself like to, cf. 1Th. 5:22-note. Lusts are not sensual impulses and wants only, but desires of what is different from what God allows, desires of evil comprehensively described by John (1Jn 2:16-note) as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life; cf. Gal 5:19-note etc. They include, also, the proud aims of ambition, of the lust of power and of the desire of knowledge. The lusts are more clearly defined by ‘in your ignorance.’ Sin darkens the understanding by the cloud of prejudices and false notions, cf. Ro 1:21-note; Ep 4:18-note; and ignorance on the other hand, is the mother of many sins. A hint might be found in the circumstance that the Epistle is addressed to former heathens, who were devoid of all clear moral consciousness, of all definite discrimination between good and evil, between right and wrong; but the Jews also are charged with ignorance as the reason of their rejecting Christ, Ac 3:17, etc., and the degree to which their moral consciousness had been confused and clouded by the tenets of the Sanhedrim, is well known. This passage therefore is not decisive. In the case of believers, lusts belong to the past, inasmuch as their power is virtually broken and the spirit has the supremacy, although it must ever contend with the law in their members. (1 Peter 1:13 Commentary Lange's Commentary - Online) ><>><>><> Holwick's Illustrations- In the spring of 1993, Lakewood, California, a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles, made national news. It wasn't the kind you want. News sources revealed that a number of Lakewood's most popular high-school boys had formed a group called the "Spur Posse." Members of the Posse earned a point every time they had a conquest of a girl. What disgusted observers was not merely that these young men competed with each other in this way, or that their scores ranged into the 50s and 60s, or that some of their victims were as young as ten...The worst thing was that they were proud of their exploits. And a number of their fathers defended them - ("Nothing my boy did was anything any red-blooded American boy wouldn't do at his age"). And several of their mothers blamed the victims - ("Those girls are trash"). Some Lakewood girls felt pressured into being intimate with 20 or 25 members of the posse. If you wanted to be accepted in Lakewood High School, you had to give in to it. After several of the boys had been arrested on various felony charges and then released, they returned to their high-school classes, where class members cheered them. (cp Ro 1:32-note) Obeying and conforming are two different issues. People obey superiors, but conform to peers. Standards are falling all around us. The English Christian writer C. S. Lewis said we are in a time in history when "minimum decency passes for heroic virtue and utter corruption for forgivable imperfection." Christians need to buck that trend. Instead of being conformed to the world, we need to be transformed by God (cp Ro 12:2-note). ><>><>><> TO THE FORMER LUSTS WHICH WERE YOURS IN YOUR IGNORANCE: tais proteron en te agnoia humon epithumiais: (Acts 17:30; 1Th 4:5; Titus 3:3, 4, 5) to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel]" (Amplified) Former (4387) (proteros from pro = before) means prior or previous and here defines those lusts as part of the old life, not the new. Proteros means a period of time (when they were unregenerate, not born again) preceding another period of time (the "now time", now that they are regenerate, born again, new creations in Christ, 2Cor 5:17). Now that the former times have past, live like you should live as a new creation in Christ Jesus. Proteros - 10x in 10v - John 6:62; 7:50; 9:8; 2 Cor 1:15; Gal 4:13; 1 Tim 1:13; Heb 4:6; 7:27; 10:32; 1 Pet 1:14. NAS = before(2), first(2), first time(1), former(3), formerly(2), one(1), previously(1). Paul uses proteros in a similar instruction to the Ephesian saints "that, in reference to your former (proteros) manner of life, you lay aside (figure taken from the putting off of garments) the old self (literally "old man" the unsaved person dominated by the totally depraved nature), which is being corrupted (the progressive condition of corruption which characterized the old man = unsaved are subject to a continuous process of corruption which grows worse as time goes on) in accordance with the lusts (epithumia) of deceit (that spring from delusion)." (Ep 4:22-note) This process of corruption is dominated or controlled by the passionate desires of deceit, deceit being personified.