Romans 6:20
For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.
BSB
ASV
For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness.
KJV
For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Ye were free from righteousness - These two servitudes are incompatible; if we cannot serve God and Mammon, surely we cannot serve Christ and Satan. We must be either sinners or saints; God’s servants or the devil’s slaves. It cannot be as a good mistaken man has endeavored to sing: - “To good and evil equal bent, I’m both a devil and a saint.” I know not whether it be possible to paint the utter prevalence of sin in stronger colors than the apostle does here, by saying they were Free from righteousness.
When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness - In all reason, therefore, ye ought now to be free from unrighteousness; to be as uniform and zealous in serving God as ye were in serving the devil.
For when ye were the servants--"were servants" of Sin, ye were free from--rather, "in respect of" Righteousness--Difficulties have been made about this clause where none exist.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk5
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
John 8:34Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
leads to
Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to…
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the…
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
