Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? … if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?” Romans 3:5;7 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “That thinking is ridiculous”   In Romans 3:5-8 Paul continues to illustrate how absurd people can get as they attempt to rationalize their behavior. Over the decades of his long and difficult ministry, Paul had made repeated attempts to reason with his own people, but with mixed results. There were times when his listeners were convicted, repented, and came to faith in Christ. But more often, the Jews reacted negatively to his message and they opposed him, sometimes to the point of violence.   The reason that happens is because when you challenge someone’s deeply held beliefs, or when you question their ungodly behavior, their reaction is often driven by emotion and anger. The stronger the position is held, the deeper the emotion associated with it. Often their reasoning is so illogical it becomes silly. That was the case in Romans 3:5-8. The person Paul referred to claimed that since God’s favor upon the Jewish people was a great gift and a tremendous act of grace on God’s part, and since he had favor with God simply as a matter of his Jewish heritage (even if he sinned), then his sinful conduct actually served to highlight God’s grace and therefore it was a good thing not a bad thing.   The longer the debate went on the more argumentative and ridiculous the person was getting. I think we can paraphrase his challenge to Paul like this: “How can you say on the one hand that the Jews have failed in their faithfulness to God, and then turn around and insist that they are still the people of God? (Which is what Paul did in verses 1-3). If we are as bad as you say we are, then surely God has abandoned us; but if God has not abandoned us, then we must not be as bad as you say we are and He still blesses us anyway. So, which is it?”   That would be the equivalent of someone saying today: “You Christians claim that America is special and blessed by God because we were founded on Biblical principles. Well, if it is true that we were founded on Biblical principles and God has blessed us because of it, He should still be blessing us now because even if our culture and conduct have changed, we are still a nation founded on Biblical principles and therefore we should still have His blessings regardless of how we act.”   That kind of thinking is especially prevalent among the liberal segments of the Christian world who claim to be doctrinally sound, but who endorse the sexual ethics of the culture rather than Biblical sexual ethics. It is that kind of convoluted reasoning that allows them to engage in unbiblical conduct and yet believe they are still receiving God’s blessings.   We will continue this discussion tomorrow. For today, I challenge each of us to prayerfully consider if we ourselves are guilty of engaging in silly and illogical rationalizations about our own conduct, which lead us away from God’s will, and consequently away from His blessings.   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

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar.” Romans 3:1-4 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Do you appreciate what we have?”   As we discussed in the previous devotional, a Godly heritage can be an asset, but it can also be a liability. I think we can all see how a good godly heritage can be a blessing; we can see it in the history of the Jews and in the history of the USA. So, we probably don’t need to spend a lot of time thinking about that. But what about heritage being a potential liability or problem? In what ways can the heritage become a problem or a hindrance? There are two, one of which I will address today, and the other tomorrow.   First, there is the problem of what is sometimes called privilege without perception. As Paul already established, physical circumcision was to be nothing more than a physical symbol of an inner reality. True circumcision is circumcision of the heart. It is the cutting out of our lives any thought or behavior that does not honor God. The circumcised heart then results in a life that honors God. Jews who lived that way were honoring their true heritage.   The same is true of our heritage here in the USA. If we recognize God’s hand upon the founding of this nation; and we see how our adherence to Biblical principles of morality and ethics have shaped our society in a good way; and if we then conduct our lives according to those Biblical principles which have brought us such great blessings; then our godly heritage is indeed a glorious thing and of great advantage to us. That’s the point Paul was making about the Jews here in these verses, and it applies to us here in the USA as well.   But then in verses 3-4 Paul brings us to one of the potential problems often associated with such a heritage – it’s when the people of that heritage begin to take it for granted. They lose sight of it, and they begin to drift from it. Many within that society, with its rich heritage from God, had drifted progressively further-and-further from their godly heritage.    How did that happen? How did the people get so muddled in their thinking and how did they drift so far from God and His ways? They became so entangled with the affairs of life that they lost sight of the big picture. They were so emmeshed in their cultural rituals and routines of their Jewish culture, and it became so routine to them that they lost sight of the core values of their culture.   That happened to the Jews in Paul’s day, and it is happening to many Christians in America in our day. We have a strong godly heritage – a nation that is founded on Biblical principles and the Judea/Christian ethic, but we must treasure it, nurture it, cling to it, and protect it. Otherwise, we are expecting to enjoy the privileges of the heritage, but we are doing so without the perception or the conscious awareness of where that heritage comes from and what difference it should make in how we live our lives. When that starts happening it won’t be long before we lose the blessings of that heritage.   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, TN38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?” Romans 3:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Is it an asset, a liability, or both?”   As we continue to think about developing sound doctrine on which to build a strong faith, our discussion now turns to the subject of our Christian heritage as a nation. Heritage is the subject Paul addresses now in his letter to the Roman Christians regarding the heritage of the Jews. Specifically, he discusses the pros and cons of Jewish heritage. Did the Jews have an advantage over others because of their heritage? Well, yes and no. And while we’re thinking about them, I think the question should also cause us to consider whether we, as Christians in the USA, have an advantage because of our Godly heritage. And the answer again is both yes and no.   There can be no question that the Jews had a Godly, Biblical heritage. In a previous devotional in this series, we looked at Genesis chapter seventeen where God instituted physical circumcision as a sign of the covenant that He was making with the Israelites that He would be their God, and they would be His people. Then the entire Old Testament records the history of the Jews with God.   So, there can be no question about their heritage, and the Jews themselves certainly thought there was huge advantage to it. So much so that they believed their Godly heritage made them special and above every other society and culture. They were sure they were blessed by God simply because of their heritage.  That was a big part of their problem – many of them had become just cultural Jews rather than spiritual Jews.   Likewise, we here in America can point to a solid Biblical heritage. I have preached, taught, and written about this many times before. We have our Judeo/Christian Ethic upon which this nation was founded and which has been the underpinning of our values and our culture for most of our history. Sadly, liberal historians are working overtime trying to rewrite our history and trying to write our Biblical heritage out of the historical narrative, but that is intellectual dishonesty. Any fair reading of the historical facts reveals the truth that at our founding and at our core, we are a nation that has a strong Biblical heritage.   But just like with the Jews, we need to see that just because we are citizens of a nation with a Biblical foundation and a Christian heritage, that by itself would only make us cultural Christians. Being people who have a deep and strong relationship with Jesus Christ is something else entirely.   We will think more about this tomorrow. For today, I encourage each of us to prayerfully consider how deep, real, and genuine is your faith? Is it more cultural than spiritual? Cultural faith can be deceptive and misleading. It can give people a false sense of assurance with respect to their relationship with God. And when that happens, their heritage becomes a liability rather than an asset. That was true of many in ancient Israel, and it’s true in the USA today as well.   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

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart – by the Spirit, not the letter.” Romans 2:28-29 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Are you wearing costume jewelry?”   Today we will conclude our examination of Paul’s use of the illustration of the physical act of circumcision to describe the spiritual act of cutting out of our lives anything that does not honor God. True circumcision takes place internally not externally – it is spiritual circumcision of the heart rather than physical circumcision of that male body part.   In Matthew 23:27-28 Jesus condemned the Pharisees for missing this important distinction: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”   One Bible commentator called such phony outward religious shows “costume jewelry.” Another said that such people are living double lives, they’re one person outwardly and another person inwardly. With respect to the Jews who thought they were somebody because they had the outward symbol of physical circumcision, Paul was essentially saying it was costume jewelry. There’s was a physical symbol of a spiritual reality that wasn’t real in their case.   So, shame on those hypocritical Jews, right? Paul even went on to quote Isaiah 52:5, “The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.” The hypocrisy of the religious poseurs was so ridiculous to the unbelieving world that it was a cause of mockery, and it kept people away from God rather than drawing them to Him. Shame on them!   But wait, how about shame on us? Are we guilty of this too? Consider what the late, great theologian Francis Schaeffer had to say about the contemporary application of this passage for us: “This is surely how God looks at much of Christendom today. Claiming to be under the umbrella of Christendom, claiming to have some sort of special blessing because the bells ring in the cathedrals, because in the United States great numbers of people go to church, and yet we commit blasphemy against God as we turn from the clear teaching of His Word. It is a sober truth and we must face it: if we have the Bible, if we enjoy all the blessings it brings, and yet our lives bring shame upon God’s name, we are guilty of the greatest irreverence … When the man with the Bible treats it as an external thing only, it causes the man without the Bible to dishonor the God of the Bible. Surely, then, the man with the Bible is justifiably under God’s wrath.”   Many of the Jews of that day thought they were special to God because they had the outward symbol of the covenant carved into that sensitive part of their body. They thought the outward symbol made them special. But that was a terrible misunderstanding of the true meaning of circumcision. Likewise, many Christians today think they are special and holier than the unbelieving world around them because they maintain the outward symbols and rituals of a faith that in truth, often isn’t very real, isn’t very deep, and doesn’t make much of a difference in their own lives. It is a physical symbol that is not backed up by a spiritual reality in their lives. It is costume jewelry.   Are you wearing any spiritual costume jewelry? It’s a question worth considering.   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, TN38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.” Romans 2:28 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Does God want you to be circumcised?”   This section of Romans chapter two is a continuation of Paul’s teaching in the previous passage about righteous judgment. Paul urges his readers to avoid becoming a religious hypocrite who puts on a religious show by doing and saying one thing publicly but then is a secret sinner in private. In both cases he was using Jewish heritage, the Jewish mindset, and common Jewish practice as an illustration. It’s in that way that he is now going to us the subject of circumcision to teach an important spiritual lesson, and it is a key element of sound doctrine that leads to strong faith.   In the previous passage, Paul created a fictious Jewish man who was fastidious about observing every jot and tittle of the law. He prides himself on being a rule-keeper and he is that proverbial religious poseur, the hypocrite putting on the big outward religious show. This is the guy Paul described in Romans 2:17-24 and it was an obvious reference to the scribes and Pharisees that all his early readers would have been so familiar with. But it also applies to modern-day Pharisees who are self-righteous religious hypocrites who pride themselves on being “holier than thou”.   Now, in fairness, it is understandable (while not excusable), that the Jews could be tempted to see themselves as being better than the rest of humanity. Remember the covenant that God made with them and which we read in Genesis 17:10-14 in yesterday’s devotional. He was their God, they were His people, and they bore the physical mark of circumcision in their flesh to prove it.   So, they were special, they knew it, they could prove it, and they were proud of it, so… it went to their heads. They had forgotten an important part of the covenant – they had forgotten what circumcision was supposed to symbolize. The covenant was never supposed to be about mindless ritual. It was never supposed to be about outward shows of religious piety that weren’t real. Circumcision was never supposed to be some kind of Boy Scout merit badge to wear on your uniform. Physical circumcision was supposed to be an outward symbol of an inner reality. Listen to King David in Psalm 51:16-17: “You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”   We will continue thinking about this tomorrow. For this morning, I encourage you to ask God to show you if the practice of your own faith has in any way devolved into little more than a religious show. Then ask Him to forgive you and to help you correct it.   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

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” Romans 2:25 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “This might hurt a little”   I want to give you fair warning before I proceed with these next couple of devotionals – I am going to be writing about a delicate and somewhat painful procedure that is performed on one of the most vulnerable parts of the male body. And if you’re squeamish or prudish you might want to skip these devotionals altogether. I’m going to talk about circumcision.   Awkward. An uncomfortable subject. And talk about painful – yikes!   Just kidding. I’m just messing with you. I’m going to be talking about circumcision of the heart not that other body part, and it’s a spiritual circumcision not the physical kind. Now, it can still be awkward and uncomfortable to talk about, and it can still be very painful – just in a different way. We will be thinking about circumcision of the heart, but the illustration is based on the physical circumcision of that other body part.   God first instituted physical circumcision in Genesis 17:10-14 for the Jewish people as a sign of the covenant that God was making with them. Here’s what He said: “This is my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, which you are to keep: Every one of your males must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations, every male among you is to be circumcised at eight days old – every male born in your household or purchased from any foreigner and not your offspring. Whether born in your household or purchased, he must be circumcised. My covenant will be marked in your flesh as a permanent covenant. If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”   So, the physical act of circumcision had a spiritual meaning. The physical cutting away of the foreskin was to be a symbol of a spiritual reality, and a reminder of a covenant God had established with the Jews that He would be their God, and they would be His people. It was intended to be a physical reminder of a spiritual reality. True circumcision is spiritual not physical, and it is done to the heart, not to that other body part.   But it can still be very painful because it involves cutting out of our lives anything that does not honor God. In the days to come, we will see what Paul means by this. For today, I encourage all of us to spend some time quietly before God and let the Holy Spirit show us if there are things in our lives that need to be cut out.     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, TN38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on truth. Do you really think – anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same – that you will escape God’s judgment?” Romans 2:2-3 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “But what does the Bible say?”   As the Apostle Paul continues to lay the foundation for our instruction in sound doctrine that leads to strong faith, in chapter two he is requiring us to consider our own sinful ways. In chapter one the focus was on the sins of those who don’t know God or His Son Jesus. In chapter two, Paul shifts the focus from them to us, and he says that we have even less excuse for our sinful ways than do unbelievers. They don’t have the Holy Spirit living in their hearts and serving as a source of conviction and guidance.   In Romans 2:2-3 Paul challenges us to consider where we obtained the knowledge to know that someone else is sinning? More important, where did we get the knowledge to know if our own conduct is sinful or not? We got it from the Bible. That’s the “truth” he was referring to. The Bible is where our knowledge about God and His ways comes from. That’s where we learn what God’s standards are and it’s how we know what’s sin and what is not. God’s Word, as given to us in the Bible, is the standard for truth. This is the standard that God uses to judge, and therefore it’s the standard that we must use to judge.    If God says in the Bible that homosexual conduct is wrong, then it is wrong whether we want it to be wrong or not. If God says in the Bible that adultery and lying and hypocrisy are wrong, then they are wrong whether we believe we had a good reason for doing it or not.   Our personal opinions and biases are not to be part of the calculus. We do not have the freedom to disregard God’s standards simply because we don’t like them and we also cannot add to them. We are we not free to take away from the Bible, we’re also not free to add to it. This is an important point because religious moralists love to pass judgment on others and when they do, they often add things to their judgments that go beyond what God Himself has said in the Bible.   The truth of God’s Word is the standard that must guide any judgments we make (judgments about other people and about our own conduct). We must judge according to the truth of God’s Word, and we must do it accurately. The question must always be, “What does the Bible say?”     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, TN38571

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: “What’s your sin of choice?”   What’s your favorite sin? Come on, you know you have one. Mine is gluttony. I love food. Especially sweets. I can eat a half gallon of ice cream in a single sitting. I don’t just eat one donut, I eat three (or maybe four). Cookies, cake, bread, pasta – those are some of my favorite things. Fortunately, I do have a little self-discipline that enables me to control those cravings a bit, and I’m also compulsive about exercise (I work-out every day), otherwise, I would be in terrible shape.   If you have been following along with our study of Romans, then you may remember when we looked at Romans 1:18 and we learned the difference between general revelation and special revelation. In that verse Paul was talking about general revelation and how it is that God has revealed Himself to all humans simply through creation itself. But we also learned that God reveals Himself to a much greater degree through special revelation to His people. For us as Christians, He does that by means of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, and through His written Word in the Bible.   In chapter one Paul made it clear that all people are without excuse for rejecting God simply because of general revelation. But now in chapter two he shifts the focus from those who have only general revelation to those of us who have special revelation. If those with only general revelation are without excuse, then how much more must that be true for those with special revelation of God?   In the previous section Paul presented his case against the inexcusable sinfulness of the immoral pagan, the non-Christian. Now he shifts the discussion to that of the religious moralist – those who know the One True God, but who have become religious hypocrites.   Religious moralists tend to think of themselves as holy, pure, forgiven by Christ, and therefore somehow above reproach. But those people out there? The pagans? The homosexuals? The adulterers and murderers? They’re on a high-speed train to hell and they’d better change their ways!   When Paul writes in Romans 2:1 that “every one of you who judges is without excuse,” he isn’t telling us not to judge the adulterers and murderers and all the others. Those actions are contrary to the Word of God, they are an offense to God, and we are to say so. So, what does Paul mean when he writes that by judging them, we are without excuse? He explains in the rest of the verse: “For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.”   What he’s saying is that if you have the knowledge needed to know that they are sinning, then you also have the knowledge to know that you are sinning too. How dare you judge them and then excuse yourself? You may not be a homosexual but are you a glutton?  You may not be a murderer, but are you a gossiper? Maybe you aren’t an adulterer, but are you greedy? Then you are without excuse too and you should know it. If you know enough to recognize their sin, then you also know enough to recognize your own sin.   The first principle for judging rightly is not that you have the knowledge to recognize the sins of others, but more importantly that you recognize your own sin and you do something about it.   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

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

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “… they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.” Romans 1:32 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t go along just to get along”   We have already spent several days considering Paul’s strong teaching about sexual ethics here at the beginning of his letter regarding the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith (Romans). The reason Paul placed this upfront and addressed it in such strong terms is because misguided sexual passion is so bad and so tempting. Even God’s own people often give in to sexual activity that is outside of what He allows, and which then therefore breaks their fellowship with Him.   The reason I have stayed with this topic for three days now is because so many Christians in our society today are going along with, or agreeing to, the sexual norms promoted by our culture, rather than standing firm on God’s clearly articulated standards as given to us in the Bible. We are not to just go along so we can get along. Instead, it is possible to get along without going along. We can stand our Biblical ground while still being kind and respectful towards those who have strayed in this area (That this the premise of my book, “Getting Along without Going Along”.)   There are two underlying principles about this topic which we must bear in mind. The first is that God’s Word is truth. It is the only truth that ultimately matters and as Christians we must develop and maintain a Biblical worldview. Everything we see, hear, and experience in the world must be evaluated against what God tells us in the Bible. The legitimacy of any truth-claim made by the culture is determined by and measured against the Bible.   The second underlying principle, which is directly related to the first, is that as we take our stand for Biblical truth, we must do so in the way Peter instructed in 1 Peter 3:15-16, “Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect …”   The better we understand our own position of what the Bible actually teaches and how that applies to the issues of our day, and the better we understand why people on the other side are taking a position that is so contrary to Scripture, the better able we will be to engage with them on it. Know what you believe and why you believe it. Also know what they believe and why they believe that. The better prepared we are to have such discussions, the more confident we will be and the more likely we are to have that encounter in a calm, reasoned and respectful manner. It’s when people are unsure of themselves that they resort to overheated rhetoric and to shouting down the other side.   That’s what Paul was teaching us in Romans 12:11-21 when he wrote, “Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer …Bless those who persecute you; bless do not curse … Do not repay anyone evil for evil … If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”   Don’t go along just so you can get along. Instead, get along without going along.   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, TN38571