Be being transformed

Romans 12:2 says,*

And do not be being conformed to this world, but be being transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may be testing and finding out what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

The two phrases I underlined are commands (linguistic jargon: imperatives).

In Greek, commands come in two types:

• Snapshot command (linguistic jargon: aorist imperative)
  An example would be when a parent is driver training with a teen and yells, "Help us, Lord!" Help us doesn't tell you anything about the action the parent wants God to take except that it be helpful (and quick, preferably). It could just be a single moment of God's help, or it could be however many more hours the teen needs on their log sheet to get a driver's license.
• Video command (linguistic jargon: present imperative)
  An example would be when someone prays at a board meeting, "Be guiding our plans and discussion, Lord."
  Be guiding does tell you something about the action the board member want God to take. It tells you that he or she wants the guiding to go on for some time, though it's not clear exactly how long.

The two phrases in Romans 12:2 that I underlined are video commands (present imperatives). This means that they have an ongoing element to them. 

That's why I translated them with the "be being" phrase: as far as I can tell, Paul intends that people shape their lives around these commands rather than just obeying once.

These video commands come after Romans 12:1, where Paul exhorts people to present their bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

That tells me that even after someone has made a full surrender to God, they still have to work with God on transforming their lives. That must mean there are some things that don't automatically change when you fully surrender to God.

What might those things be?

If you're fully surrendered to God, those things can't be things you already know need to change. You can't be fully surrendered and still disobeying God on purpose. Paul is not saying, "Good try on surrendering yourself to God. Now just do your best to work on stopping sinning on purpose." No, fully surrendering to God means choosing to keep in step with Him.

But there can be (and I think there are, for every single believer) ways in which you're not in step with God that you don't know about. It might just be that you don't know better yet on some topics. 

"Some transformation
required"

"Be being transformed by the renewal of your mind" means that you will need to seek out the renovation of your mind. If you just don't know better on some topics, the solution is to learn, right?

If you were renovating a house, you might want to hire an expert to help you envision what the house should look like when you're done, especially if you've never remodeled before. You'd want to get quality materials. You'd want to familiarize yourself with the structure of the house so you wouldn't take out a load-bearing wall. You'd want to familiarize yourself with the relevant building code.

If you are renovating a person's mind (your own mind), you'll probably want to consult some experts--God, certainly, and His Word, which reveals quite a bit about how to renovate your mind, but also people who have made it their pursuit to drill down on different elements of how people work to be helpful resources to others. Christian counselors are one category of people like that. Another category would be Christian philosophers, like Dallas Willard, William Lane Craig, or J. P. Moreland. Of course, there are other categories of people that could be included here.

In theological terms, Romans 12:2 is about progressive sanctification. To be clear, though, progressive sanctification (working on renovating your mind) is not opposed to entire sanctification (surrendering yourself to God as a living sacrifice so that He can influence you however He wishes). 

Full surrender means (1) you're all in for the renovation, and (2) the General Contractor is on the job.

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If you want to dig deeper on this topic, I've found these resources helpful:

• Allan Brown, Entire Sanctification: Cleansing and On-Going Obedience (free article)
• Dallas Willard, Spiritual Formation in Christ:A Perspective on What it is and How it Might be Done (free article)
• Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today (book)
• Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (book)

*The translation of Romans 12:2 above is mine, so if there are errors, they're on me.