As I reflected this morning on the teachings of our Lord, the image of a square peg and a round hole came to mind. It’s a simple idea, one we’ve all heard before: you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. But in its simplicity, this saying holds a deeper spiritual truth.
The Gospel is clear. Christ’s teachings do not conform to the patterns of this world. His words, His commandments, His way of life—these are like the square peg. The world, with all its brokenness and distorted values, is the round hole. No matter how much we try, we cannot fit the two together. The teachings of Christ will never perfectly align with the ways of a world that has turned its back on God. This is something we must reckon with as Christians. Too often, people attempt to soften or reshape the Gospel to make it more palatable, more acceptable, more in tune with modern sensibilities. But this is like trying to shave off the edges of that square peg just to make it fit. In doing so, we lose the essence of what Christ has given us. His teachings are radical, countercultural, and unyielding. They challenge us to be transformed, not to conform.
The Gospel calls us to love our enemies, to forgive without limits, to lay down our lives for others, and to deny ourselves daily. The world, on the other hand, promotes self-indulgence, pride, vengeance, and the pursuit of material success at all costs. These two ways of life are incompatible. We cannot fit the holiness of Christ into the moulds that society has created. I know the tension between the teachings of Christ and the world’s values is nothing new. Our Lord Himself warned us that the world would hate us because it first hated Him (John 15:18). His message is not one that can be easily accepted by those who are entrenched in worldly thinking. When we embrace the Gospel, we are called to live differently, to embrace a new way of seeing and being, no matter how much it clashes with the world around us. But this is where the analogy of the square peg and the round hole becomes most important. Christ did not come to force His teachings into the world’s systems. Instead, He came to transform us, to reshape us so that we no longer fit into the world’s expectations but into God’s perfect plan. He wants to make us like Himself—to take the rough, jagged edges of our sinful nature and reshape them into the image of His holiness.
Keep in mind, this transformation is not something we can achieve by our own power. No, not at all. Just as we can’t force a square peg into a round hole, we cannot force ourselves to live Christ’s teachings without His grace. We need His help. We need His Spirit to change our hearts, to make us new, to enable us to live the life He calls us to.
What do we do? We stop trying to force things to fit where they don’t belong. We stop trying to fit Christ’s teachings into a worldly framework. Instead, we allow ourselves to be reshaped by Him. We surrender our lives to His transforming power, trusting that He knows best. And he does! We embrace His teachings, even when they seem at odds with the world, knowing that His way is the way of truth and life. As we walk this path, we may find ourselves out of step with the world, feeling like strangers in a foreign land. (1 Peter 2:11) But that is the Christian life. We are not meant to fit into the world’s moulds. We are meant to be transformed, to be conformed to the image of Christ, and to walk the narrow path that leads to eternal life.
Don’t be discouraged when the teachings of Christ seem to clash with everything around you. Instead, embrace the tension, knowing that His truth will always stand the test of time, no matter how much the world tries to squeeze it into its own shape. And let’s rejoice that, in Christ, we are being reshaped into something far more beautiful and glorious than anything the world could ever offer.
“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isa. 64:8)
“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways.” (Did. 1:1)
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Rom. 5:3-4)