“The simplistic way of not conforming is to see what is in style in our culture and then do the opposite. If short hair is in vogue, the nonconformist wears long hair. If going to the movies is popular, then Christians avoid movies as “worldly.” The extreme case of this may be seen in groups that refuse to wear buttons or use electricity because such things, too, are worldly.

A superficial style of nonconformity is the classical pharisaical trap. The kingdom of God is not about buttons, movies, or dancing. The concern of God is not focused on what we eat or what we drink. The call of nonconformity is a call to a deeper level of righteousness, that goes beyond externals. When piety is defined exclusively in terms of externals, the whole point of the apostle’s teaching has been lost. Somehow we have failed to hear Jesus’ words that it is not what goes into a person’s mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of that mouth. We still want to make the kingdom a matter of eating and drinking.” — R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

None of us really knows what it means to live in non-conformity to the world. We swim in the fish bowl of a degraded AND degrading culture. Our culture is moving at such a speed away from Christianity that we must take drastic measures to follow Christ. We must swim upstream. It will be uncomfortable, but we were never promised ease and luxury in following Christ. We must stop choosing the easy route of non-conformity in regards to externals and live out internal non-conformity.