Most Christians are aware that when it comes to serving God, we need to take our cues from His word rather than from the world.  However, the dangers here are broader than we often realize.  It is not only conformity to the world that poses a problem.  A rejection of worldliness that is so emphatic that it pushes us to the other, equally ungodly, extreme is equally problematic.

Consider, for instance, the reaction of the Lord’s church to the denominational practice of clerical celibacy.  We correctly note that nothing in the Bible requires vows of chastity from religious leaders, and we correctly identify the many temptations and problems that such vows create.

However, in our zeal to oppose such error, we end up denying that singlehood can have spiritual value at all and exalting marriage as the truest way to live a godly life.  Married brethren may not be able to sense it, but any Christian who has been unmarried for a while will tell you that there is a caste system in the church that puts couples and families at the top with single Christians as second-class citizens. 

To detect signs of this caste system, we need look no further than the subjects of our sermons.  Marriage and family is probably the single most common subject for a gospel meeting.  How often do we hear of gospel meetings directed exclusively at the unmarried?

If the Scriptures supported this bias, that would be one thing, but instead, they have as much to say about the spiritual value of the unmarried as of the married.  Yes, the qualifications of elders and deacons involve marriage, but we also must reckon with Paul’s words about the usefulness of being unmarried in 1 Corinthians 7.  In vs. 32-35, he points out that unmarried Christians can devote themselves entirely to God, whereas married Christians are inevitably torn between pleasing God and pleasing their spouses.

Brethren commonly dismiss the implications of this discussion by saying that it relates only to “the present distress”, and it is true that some of what Paul says here in praise of singleness (especially vs. 29-31) is limited to a context of great upheaval.  However, vs. 32-35 is not context-specific.  I love my wife and family, and I would not surrender them for anything, yet I spend as much time and energy on pleasing my wife as godly husbands did 2000 years ago.  If I didn’t have a family, I could use all those resources in the Lord’s service instead.

Single Christians, then, are not second-class spiritual citizens.  Even if they do not currently experience many of the joys that married Christians know, they have been presented with unique opportunities to glorify their Master.  Rather than mourning what they do not have, they ought instead to rejoice in all that they can do.  Even the best marriage only will last a lifetime, but good works are an eternal memorial before God.  When single Christians give their time, talents, and money to Him, they are storing up a treasure for themselves that will last forever.

In our consideration of the original languages of the Bible, we’re fairly used to the idea that koiné Greek has elements that modern English doesn’t.  Most Christians have heard that there are four Greek words equivalent to the English “love”.   However, the opposite also is true.  There are things that modern English does that Greek doesn’t.

In particular, the Greek manuscripts of the Bible don’t use capitalization, along with punctuation and spaces between words.  However, we do use capitalization.  In a religious context, we use it to refer to deity.  God is our Creator, not our creator.  Jesus is Lord, not lord. 

This often makes a difference in comprehension.  If I say that my daughter has a generous spirit, readers understand that I am discussing her attitude and demeanor, not claiming that she is inhabited by a heavenly being.  However, when I say that the apostles were baptized with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, I clearly am talking about the heavenly being.

In Greek, those cues are absent.  All the capitalized references to God in our Bibles were capitalized by the translators.  In this, they did not apply some sort of esoteric knowledge.  Rather, they considered the context and determined whether the word in context appeared to be talking about deity or not.

Sometimes, there is little question.  “Spirit” in 2 Corinthians 13:14 obviously is about the Godhead; “spirit” in 1 Corinthians 5:5 obviously is not.  However, there are many verses in which the correct choice is less obvious, and in those situations, our translations tend to employ the capital S.   

In my ever-so-humble opinion, all the capital S’s can introduce a level of mystical confusion into texts that would be straightforward if translated in lowercase.  Romans 8:1-11 is perhaps the most obvious example of this.  With capital S’s, throughout the context, Paul is paralleling a being (the Spirit) with a non-being (the flesh).  Additionally, he appears to be claiming that Christians are simultaneously indwelt by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead.  Great is the mystery, indeed!

However, the mystery vanishes in lowercase.  Now, Paul is discussing the difference between those who walk according to the flesh (by following their fleshly impulses) and those who walk according to the spirit (by following their spiritual impulses).  So too, having the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, and the spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead doesn’t mean that we have a multitude of supernatural entities sharing our headspace.  Instead, it means that we share God’s motivations and perspectives. 

A little Greek is a dangerous thing, but so too is unquestioningly accepting translators’ decisions in areas where thoughtful Christians are competent to decide for themselves.  I may well be wrong about Romans 8.  Certainly, others are free to disagree with me!  However, all of us ought to be aware of the issue and address it thoughtfully, as befits those with a Berean spirit.

The book of James has the reputation of being the most practical book of the New Testament, but Paul’s epistle to Titus surely must be considered in the same light.  Titus is only three chapters long, but all three chapters are light on abstraction and heavy on concrete application.  Especially in the second chapter, Paul aims these applications at specific groups, but often they apply equally well to all of us.

This is true of Paul’s words to Titus himself in Titus 2:7-8.  Paul is aware that when Titus travels to Crete, he’s going to run into all sorts of opponents of the gospel.  If these people can discredit Titus’ preaching through criticism of the preacher, that’s exactly what they’ll do. 

As a result, Paul counsels Titus on how to deprive these critics of the personal attacks they love.  Today, all Christians need to listen to his advice because there are plenty of people who want to attack us for the same reason.  According to Paul, if we want to put these opponents to shame, we must excel in these four areas:

1. Good Deeds.  Christ-haters rejoice whenever they find religious hypocrites.  If they can prove that we don’t obey the truth we proclaim, they don’t have to obey it either.  We defeat this attack by living godly, blameless lives.  When everybody knows that we practice what we preach, charges of hypocrisy have no force.  What’s more, our example often proves to be as powerfully influential as our words.
    
2. Purity of Doctrine.  It’s easy to dismiss somebody who doesn’t know why he believes what he believes.  Christians claim to be the people of the Book; if five minutes of religious conversation with us reveals that the Bible is unknown territory to us, that makes us another kind of religious hypocrite.  If we clearly don’t study the Scriptures, why should anyone else?  By contrast, when the time we have spent with the Bible is evident in the way we talk about it, we show that we deserve to be taken seriously.
    
3. Dignity.  Sad to say, dignity is out of fashion these days.  Politicians, celebrities, and talking heads behave deplorably far too often, and far too many Christians take their cue from them, especially on social media.  They gleefully share demeaning memes, sneer at anyone who disagrees with them, and engage in endless slanging matches with their opponents.  Anyone with a good and honest heart will be repelled by such behavior.  On the other hand, when we refuse to engage in such behavior, we will stand out, and God-seekers will be drawn to us.
    
4. Soundness of Speech.  This is the opposite of the unwholesome speech of Ephesians 4:29:  speech that undermines, speech that tears down, speech that leaves its hearers worse off than they were.  When we see a patron dress down a fast-food worker for getting their order wrong, that’s unwholesome speech on display.  We, however, should use our words to make days brighter, lives better, and to lead others toward Christ.  Just like we would only use sound timbers to build a house, we should only use sound words to build God’s temple.

Obviously, conduct like this guarantees nothing.  If people could reject Jesus despite His sinless perfection, we cannot expect to overcome a hard heart no matter how we behave.  However, when our behavior leaves others with nothing to object to, we make it as likely as possible that they will listen to us.

In the end of Romans 3 and the beginning of Romans 4, we encounter the most famous of Paul’s teachings:  justification by faith in Jesus.  Throughout the context, he contrasts it with justification by works.  Abraham was not justified by works, nor was David, nor can we be.

From this magnificent spiritual truth a host of false doctrines have sprung.  In particular, many have argued that justification by works means doing anything, but justification by faith means doing nothing.  Thus, the argument continues, baptism cannot save us because it’s a work.  Instead, we should seek salvation by praying to Jesus and acknowledging our need to Him.

There are several Scriptural problems with this claim, but one of the most prominent is its misunderstanding of works in the context of Romans.  Paul doesn’t use “works” to mean doing anything right.  He uses it to mean doing everything right. 

This, indeed, is the point of the first three chapters of Romans.  The Gentiles can’t justify themselves by works because they are sinners.  The Jews, even though they have the Law and seek to follow it, are sinners too.  They can’t justify themselves by works either.  Thus, Paul concludes in Romans 3:20 that no one can be justified in God’s sight by the works of the Law. 

In all of human history, there only has been one man who was baptized as part of justifying himself by works.  That one was Jesus.  In Matthew 3:13-15, John at first refuses to baptize Jesus because he recognizes that the Holy One is more righteous than he is.  Jesus replies, however, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  God’s prophet commanded baptism, so Jesus obeyed the command even though He had no need of forgiveness.

Jesus was justified by His obedience, but this only happened because He lived a life of unbroken obedience.  Should anyone have the temerity to call Him to account, He could assert His right to spend eternity with God because of His moral perfection.  That’s justification by works.

However, none of the rest of us seek baptism because we are fulfilling all righteousness.  We seek it because we haven’t fulfilled all righteousness.  We aren’t spiritual successes like Jesus.  We are failures, and we know it.  Our only hope lies in His power to cleanse and redeem, and through baptism, we call on His name, appealing to Him to wash away our sins.

Our baptism isn’t part of justification by works.  It’s not asking for what we deserve.  God forbid that I should ever get what I deserve!  Instead, we seek justification by faith apart from works through baptism. 

Baptism actually does what sinner’s-prayer advocates think the sinner’s prayer does.  In baptism, we don’t proudly stand before God and present our spiritual credentials.  Instead, we humble ourselves before Him and plead for His mercy, the mercy that we so desperately need and that our loving God is so eager to extend.

Most Christians struggle with self-righteousness.  In our heart of hearts, we want to be justified on our own merits instead of relying on the grace of God.  The former would allow us to believe that we are good; the latter forces us to acknowledge that we are not.

Consequently, even as we deplore the sins of others, part of us wants to savor them.  We compare the sinner to the perfection of God’s law and inevitably find them wanting.  However, rather than doing the same for ourselves, we use the sinner for our new standard of comparison. 

They cheated on their spouse.  I’ve always been faithful to mine.  They got drunk.  I’ve spent my life stone-cold sober.  They dress like a tramp.  My attire wins smiles of approval from the church dragons.  And so forth.

Looks like I’m a pretty good person after all, doesn’t it?

This self-righteous perspective is a deadly spiritual problem.  Jesus spent His ministry skewering the Pharisees for trusting in themselves that they were righteous.  However, perhaps the most devastating exposé of self-righteousness in the entire Bible appears in the first two chapters of the book of Romans.  There, Paul baits a trap for the self-righteous and clobbers them when they walk into it.

The trap works so well in part because the bait itself is powerfully reasoned and true.  It is nothing less than Paul’s description of the degradation of the Gentiles in Romans 1:18-32.  Their moral failure began with a refusal to honor the God so evident in creation.  From there it led to sexual immorality, generalized wickedness, and endorsement of the wickedness of others.

This argument would have been red meat to a pious Jew living in the godless city of Rome.  For that matter, it is still red meat to us.  We see the same symptoms of moral decay in the people around us.  They don’t honor God.  They practice sexual sin and lead reprehensible lives.  They praise the lawlessness they practice.  How frequently do we shake our heads at those who call evil good?

Then, in 2:1, Paul springs the trap.  He already has observed in 1:20 that the ungodly are without excuse.  Now, though, he says the same thing to their judges.  All of us are without excuse too.  When we condemn others because of their sin, we condemn ourselves too--because we do the same things that they do.

Maybe I’m not adulterous, drunk, or immodestly dressed, but on my own merits I’m still a sinner.  All of us are.  Just as I can justly condemn them for violating God’s law, so too can someone justly condemn me for violating different parts of the same law.  Do I really want the lies I’ve told to come up on the day of judgment?  How about my outbursts of anger at my spouse?  How about my love of judging others while overlooking my own sin?

Self-righteousness is alluring, but it’s a luxury that none of us can afford.  Puffing ourselves up when we consider the sins of others turns us into a target for the wrath of God.  Only acknowledging our own failures and entrusting ourselves to the mercy of Jesus will lead us to inherit eternal life.