| Good morning, everyone, Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith” Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.” Romans 2:1 (CSB) Our thought for today: “It’s not just them, but us too” This morning, as we continue our study of sound doctrine that contributes to strong faith, we need to remember that in Romans Paul is leading us systematically and sequentially through a study of the basic and essential doctrines upon which the Christian faith is based. The way he constructs this letter is essentially with the building block theory of one lesson being built upon and growing out of the previous one. In chapter one the primary focus was on sin. There he made it clear that all humans are without excuse for our sins and for not honoring God with our lives. He told us that God has made Himself known to all – even through the creation itself, and therefore, we are all without excuse. Then he presented us with a series of very graphic descriptions of how sinful we humans can get when we reject God and pursue our own passions and desires. Paul took us through an awful downward spiral into the depths of human depravity which included things like gross sexual immorality, all sorts of evil, greed, wickedness, slander, arrogance, murder, a total lack of compassion and mercy, and much more. Those passages illustrated how bad things can get when people reject God and indulge in sin, and most of his readers would have been nodding their heads in agreement up to that point. This letter was being written to the Christians in Rome, who would all have considered themselves to be the people of God. And so, as they read Paul’s long and painful list describing the deepest depths of the depravity sin leads too, they would have been thinking about those sinners out there in the world. But here in chapter two Paul begins to turn the tables. Having painted in broad brushstrokes a picture of humankind without God, Paul abruptly shifts the focus to a new audience. He begins to turn our attention inward, upon ourselves, and in doing so he helps us to see the truth of the old saying, “In God’s eyes a sin, is a sin, is a sin …” In other words, to God one sin is as bad as any other and although you may not be guilty of the sin of homosexuality, or adultery, or murder, you are certainly guilty of other sins. Perhaps yours is gluttony or drunkenness or greed or hypocrisy. Paul’s point is that we too have no excuse. Sin doesn’t just effect “them out there”, it effects “us in here.” Sin isn’t just their problem it’s our problem too. And part of our sin problem is that we are much too focused on their sins and not focused enough on our own sins. Therefore, we are prone to becoming religious hypocrites as we quickly judge others for their sins while conveniently overlooking our own. The subject of judging others is precisely where Paul is going to take us next, and we will begin to consider it in depth tomorrow. For now, I encourage all of us to spend some extra time in prayer today asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the depths of our own sin. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
| Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571 |
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
