Slaves of the one you obey.

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? What the apostle Paul reasons in this verse he thinks should be common knowledge. “Do you not know?” Basically we should know that whoever we obey, we are their slaves. He had just told them to present the members of their bodies to Jesus for His use. In this verse, we learn what he understood that presentation of our bodies to mean. It means obedience. We specifically and intentionally say to Jesus that we will obey whatever He says. In Paul’s view, we are Jesus’ slaves and the result will be righteousness or love for others. In essence, if we take what has been written before, Jesus set us free from enslavement to sin so we could freely submit ourselves to Him. He’s going to unpack this even more in the following verses. But for today, we can take great encouragement to settle it in our hearts that we were bought with a price and we are not our own. We belong to Jesus. He lives in us, and we are His bondservants. We consider it a privilege and a joy to do His will as we live to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com