Romans 6:18
in Romans 6You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.
KJV
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
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This verse in Romans 6
Commentary
14 notes on this verse"And being freed from sin, you have been made the servants of justice." In these words there is an exposition of the things he said above. For if you no longer serve sin, it is certain that, being freed from it, you have been made the servants of justice. But it is asked who it is that frees from sin. Without doubt, the knowledge of the truth. For thus Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him: "If you believe my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
This site's exposition
the form of teaching
on Romans 6:17-18
Thanks is given for a change that has already happened. Those who were slaves to sin obeyed the form of teaching handed to them, and the obedience came from the whole heart. Verse 18 states both halves of that change, set free from sin and made slaves to righteousness.
This site's exposition
set free from sin
Clarke notes that the verb for set free is the term for releasing a slave by manumission. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown draw the consequence. Every person serves a master, and the one freed from sin passes at once into the service of righteousness.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
There are two gifts of God which he here points out. The "freeing from sin," and also the "making them servants to righteousness," which is better than any freedom. For God hath done the same as if a person were to take an orphan, who had been carried away by savages into their own country, and were not only to free him from captivity, but were to set a kind father ever him, and bring him to very great dignity. And this has been done in our case. For it was not our old evils alone that He freed us from, since He even led us to the life of angels, and paved the way for us to the best conversation, handing us over to the safe keeping of righteousness, and killing our former evils, and deadening the old man, and leading us to an immortal life.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then when he says, but thanks be to God, he shows the folly of obeying sin and thereby returning to the slavery of sin: first, by considering the benefit we have received. For if someone, by another's graciousness is freed from slavery, it is unfitting …
Two, he says, benefits you received from God: you were both freed from such dishonor and became servants of righteousness, which constitutes great glory for you.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Nay, your having been so formerly tends much to the magnifying of divine mercy and grace in the happy change. God be thanked that the former sinfulness is such a foil and such a spur to your present holiness." [2.] You have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Bondage to sin chap. iii, 9 2. The knowledge of sin by the law; a sense of God's wrath; inward death chap. iii, 20 3. The Revelation of the righteousness of God in Christ through the gospel chap. iii, 21 4.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Being then made free from sin,....
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
Being then made free from sin - Ελευθερωθεντες is a term that refers to the manumission of a slave. They were redeemed from the slavery of sin, and became the servants of righteousness. Here is another prosopopoeia: both sin and righteousness are personified: sin can enjoin no good and profitable work; righteousness can require none that is unjust or injurious.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
There is no middle state of personal independence; for which we were never made, and to which we have no claim. When we would not that God should reign over us, we were in righteous judgment "sold under Sin"; now being through grace "made free from Sin," it is only to become "servants to Righteousness," which is our true freedom.
MAN was made to rule. In the Divine original he was intended for a king who should have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea. He was designed to be the lord-lieutenant of this part of creation and the form of his body and the dignity of his countenance indicated it. He walks erect among the animals, while they move upon all fours. He subjugates and tames them to perform his will and the fear and dread of him is upon all creatures, for they know their sovereign. Yet is it equally true that man was made to serve. At his beginning he was placed in the garden to keep it, to dress it and so to serve his Maker. His natural feebleness, his dependence upon rain, sun and dew—his instinctive awe of an unseen and Omnipotent Spirit indicate that he is not the chief of the universe, but a subordinate being whose lot it is to serve. We find within man various powers and propensities seeking to get dominion over him so that his mind is also capable of servitude. The appetites which are essential for the sustenance of his bodily frame, even such as eating and drinking, endeavor to master him—and if they can, they will do so—and reduce him below the level of the swine. Man is in part spirit, but he is also in part animal—and the animal strives to get dominion over the spiritual—and in many, many men it does so till they are utterly degraded. Nothing can be worse than a soul enslaved by such a body as that of man! The brute nature of man is the worst sort of brute. There is no beast in wolf, or lion, or serpent that is so brutish as the beast in man.
MAN was made to rule. In the Divine original he was intended for a king who should have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea. He was designed to be the lord-lieutenant of this part of creation and the form of his body and the dignity of his countenance indicated it. He walks erect among the animals, while they move upon all fours. He subjugates and tames them to perform his will and the fear and dread of him is upon all creatures, for they know their sovereign.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
“Being then made free from sin.” That is, as a master. You are not under its dominion; you are no longer its slaves. They were made free, as a servant is who is set at liberty, and who is, therefore, no longer under obligation to obey. Ye became the servants ... - You became voluntarily under the dominion of righteousness; you yielded yourselves to it; and are therefore bound to be holy; compare the note at Joh 8:32.
The words behind it
8 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ἐλευθερωθέντες | eleutherothentes | Having been set free | G1659 → | 7 times |
| δὲ | de | now | G1161 → | 2765 times |
| ἀπὸ | apo | from | G575 → | 640 times |
| τῆς | tes | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἁμαρτίας | hamartias | sin | G266 → | 173 times |
| ἐδουλώθητε | edoulothete | you have become slaves | G1402 → | |
| τῇ | tea | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| δικαιοσύνῃ.¶ | dikaiosune | to righteousness. | G1343 → | 92 times |
ἘλευθερωθέντεςHaving been set free
eleutherothentesG1659 →7 times
δὲnow
deG1161 →2765 times
ἀπὸfrom
apoG575 →640 times
τῆς<the>
tesG3588 →19766 times
ἁμαρτίαςsin
hamartiasG266 →173 times
ἐδουλώθητεyou have become slaves
edoulotheteG1402 →
τῇ<the>
teaG3588 →19766 times
δικαιοσύνῃ.¶to righteousness.
dikaiosuneG1343 →92 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Galatians 5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:16
Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Galatians 5:13
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
- John 8:32–36
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
- 1 Peter 2:16
Through
Romans 8:2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
it leads to
- Romans 6:14
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 6:14
Through
John 8:32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
it leads to
- Romans 8:2
For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
- Romans 8:2
Where this verse is studied
About Romans
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1482: “Our Change of Masters” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans 11; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Romans and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Romans.