Romans 6:16, commentary and pictures

Whom a person obeys is the master that person serves, with only two possible services and no neutral ground, yielding to sin leading to death and yielding to obedience leading to righteousness. Profession does not decide this allegiance, for claiming to belong to Christ while obeying another master and working against Him is self-deception unto destruction and is of no value without corresponding faith and works. Yielding to sin makes a person the servant of sin and of Satan, the rebel against God's law, and that bondage deepens by exercise until even one cherished or willful sin silences the Spirit, separates the soul from God, and fastens bewitching slavery that is difficult to overcome. Yielding to Christ in obedience to His commandments and law gives liberty from the thralldom of sin and passion, loosing the bands of wickedness and breaking every yoke unto salvation and righteousness. This allegiance is decided day by day in small duties, where character for eternity is formed by continual growth in grace and ruling every appetite, and the choice reaches beyond self, since disobedience gives evil angels access to draw others toward death while trusting obedience gives holy angels greater power to work toward righteousness.

Master Decided by Obedience

The master a person serves is decided by obedience, not by profession. Many who profess to be servants and children of Christ are none of His, because while claiming His will they obey another master. By yielding to sin and to the devil and his works they become servants of sin with death as the end, and by obeying another master they work daily against the Master they claim to serve, deceiving their own souls to destruction. To yield soul, mind and strength to earthly and selfish interests is to be a servant of sin unto death and a servant of mammon, while a profession of Christianity without corresponding faith and works is of no value and does not make a person God's servant until those works are renounced. Only obedience makes one righteous, and those who obey God's commandments and live by sacred truth are set apart from worldly, pleasure-loving people who reject the cross and violate the Sabbath.

There are only two masters and two services, with no neutrality, middle ground, or serving both at once: sin and Satan unto death, or obedience and God unto righteousness. Every person is and will continue to be either a servant of Jesus Christ or a servant of the devil, becoming the servant of whatever power is chosen to be obeyed, and must decidedly choose without delay. Sin must not be allowed to rule in the mortal body and its lusts, but self must be given to God as one alive from the dead, with every member yielded as a tool for right doing. Yielding to the enemy who rebelled against God's law in heaven and fell by disloyalty fastens the shackles of oppression and the bands of wickedness, while yielding to Christ in obedience to His requirements, commandments and law gives freedom, liberty and salvation, loosing the bands of wickedness, letting the oppressed go free and breaking every yoke. As saints of the Most High and citizens of heaven with the rights and privileges of subjects of the kingdom of heaven, God's people must depend on the power revealed in the love of Christ, do nothing to disgrace that citizenship, stand fast in the faith while striving against temptation, guard against strife, vainglory, selfishness and dishonesty, and serve the Lord in sincerity of mind by faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and no worker in God's appointed institutions can remain neutral but must be consecrated soul, body and spirit with mind under the Holy Spirit.

The verse calls for careful study and for comparing the life record with the instruction in Matthew 25:14-46. It calls people to examine their lives rather than boast or trust in themselves. Yielding to self makes self-sufficiency, boasting, self-trust, pride and self-exaltation a fearfully dangerous servitude that makes the words of Christ of no effect, so all boasting, self-sufficiency, self-trust and pride must be put away. Christ's followers must humbly deny self, take up the cross and obey Him, walking humbly before God in the footsteps of Christ in true faith. This requires committing to the Saviour day by day and hour by hour to constantly receive and impart His grace.

Bondage of Serving Sin

To yield to sin is to become its servant and Satan's servant unto death, for obedience decides mastership. Satan is the prince of the powers of darkness who rebelled against God's law in heaven and fell by disloyalty, and to work in his lines and yield to him fastens the shackles of oppression and the bands of wickedness. Yielding to obey that prince is sin unto death, set against obedience unto righteousness, and mere profession of Christianity without corresponding faith and works does not make one God's servant. Those who yield themselves to the devil and his works remain his servants until they renounce them.

Serving sin means indulging anger, lust, covetousness, hatred, selfishness, envy, pride, jealousy, idleness, impatience, bitterness, worldly gain and customs, intemperance, impurity, self-indulgence of appetite, lustful passion, ambition, and craving for tobacco and stimulating drinks. Choosing any practice forbidden in God's word, yielding to impatience, or yielding to worldly gain rather than God is yielding to Satan. To cherish selfishness, envy, pride, jealousy, idleness, or any other sin in the heart is to yield to that sin as its servant, and that servitude excludes from the blessedness of heaven.

Bondage deepens by exercise, for holding even one cherished sin leaves a person under temptation's power and at risk of losing faith, and true conversion requires giving up every cherished sin and not merely correcting other wrongs. A willful, known sin makes a person a servant of sin, silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, separates the soul from God, and drives Jesus from the heart that disregards the divine law, whatever religious feeling is claimed. Repeated pampering of natural appetite and corrupt passion strengthens the animal propensities until they gain the ascendancy over the higher powers, take the reins, and turn what should be the governing power into the servant of passion, leaving the soul held in lowest bondage with the power of self-government seemingly gone. Such sensuality quenches the desire for holiness and withers spiritual prosperity, and to acknowledge the evil yet excuse it by saying the passions cannot be overcome is a terrible admission for one who names Christ, who must depart from iniquity. A ruling master-passion of selfish, lustful indulgence holds undisputed lordship and dominion until broken through faith by placing the will on the Lord's side to control the acquired unnatural appetite, while hearing the Word with satisfaction yet refusing to fully exercise moral power to heed God's warning leaves the will on the enemy's side as a co-worker with Satan to one's own ruin and the ruin of others. Yielding to self-serving puts a person in servitude to Satan as slaves of impulses and passions under the wicked one's control, a bondage growing out of unrestrained selfishness and self-indulgence, and first indulgence in the wine cup or cards, continued habit, and yielding to the body's unreasonable demands give Satan a hold on the will that grows into bewitching slavery difficult to overcome.

This choice takes concrete form in choosing one's own way as Edson did by not yielding himself to Christ to learn and do His will, thereby becoming a servant of the adversary. Following selfish desires whenever duty conflicts with personal wishes is serving self rather than God, even when appearing to serve God when convenient, and warns of a fall and loss of faith. Conformity to the world that banishes Christ from the heart and affections and leaves little inclination for prayer and searching of the heart is yielding to that prince and becoming his servant, and devotion to worldly customs is captivity to the god of this world. Ranging with transgressors of God's law and staying in objectionable company are the same yielding. Physicians and other professed workers in health institutions who profess godliness while practicing selfishness, dishonesty, partiality, hypocrisy, impurity and vice are servants of sin unto death and not servants of obedience unto righteousness, and under cover of their calling they ruin souls for time and eternity. By feeling under no obligation to attend religious services and to place themselves in the channel of light they give Satan entrance to the soul, and by following his suggestions rather than the Lord's way to do justice and judgment they yield themselves to obey him as his servants, though under the same obligation to follow Christ with strict honesty and fidelity as workers in colleges and publishing houses, for those who follow selfish, worldly aims while claiming to serve God are in bondage to Satan with no living connection with God, having chosen that slavery.

Freedom of Obeying God

To yield to Christ in obedience to His requirements, commandments and law is to enter freedom, liberty, salvation and righteousness. This obedience looses the bands of wickedness, lets the oppressed go free, and breaks every yoke, because He came to make people free. He is the propitiation for sins, not for His own only but for all who believe on His name, and those on His side are made free in Him. Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin and deliverance from human passion and impulse, the opposite of the servitude to Satan that grows out of unrestrained selfishness and self-indulgence and enslaves people to their own impulses. Obeying God brings mastery over sin, deliverance from bondage, and health and life and peace through physical, mental and spiritual restoration, which comes only through the grace of Christ and a revelation of Christ to hearts crying out for power and for the divine presence.

True servants of obedience unto righteousness surrender heart, soul, body and mind and live as responsible to the Saviour with ready and willing obedience and true love. Bought with His own precious blood, they are accountable stewards who must give an account for privileges, means, thoughts, words, time and actions, no longer living to do their own will or serve themselves but faithfully serving the Master to whom they have yielded themselves. They are crucified to the world with Christ living in them, let their light shine with holy brightness, and gather with Christ by representing Him in character. They do His will even when it costs honor, position or daily bread, for no one can serve God while keeping his own way and will and doing as he pleases. A life shaped by obedience through the Spirit, who struggles against the flesh and cleanses the soul to make it a dwelling place for Christ, shows love for God's commandments, a pure holy life and a perfected character ready for heaven, where sin will not enter.

Christians still feel sin's promptings because the flesh lusts against the Spirit while the Spirit strives against the flesh in constant warfare, so they must wage constant war against sin and not remain enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency to wrong or in bondage to the lower nature. They are therefore to rule every appetite and passion, for indulging anger, lust, covetousness, hatred, selfishness or any other sin is serving sin, and no one can serve both sin and Christ. A willful, known sin makes a person a servant of sin, silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, separates the soul from God, and drives Jesus from the heart that disregards the divine law, whatever religious feeling is claimed. Victory comes only through Christ's help and the power He is ready to impart, with human weakness united to divine strength by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, placing the will on the Lord's side, abiding in union with Christ, and knowing and practicing the truth so Satan cannot lead away by sophistry and error.

This choice of allegiance is followed by change from slavery to sin to obeying the teaching from the heart unto righteousness and living as subjects of God's kingdom. Sin still pervades the whole earth and the kingdoms of this world have not yet become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ, with only a portion of the human family seeking knowledge of God and consenting to come under the rule of Jesus Christ. Through the plan of salvation people can be brought back into harmony with God and obey His law, and humanity and the earth will finally be freed from the wicked one's power. Obedience to God's law wins eternal life, while disobedience puts man on Satan's side unto death, and with the Lord at the door as in Noah's day those disloyal to God must repent and render obedience to His commands. Man was created in the image of God, but sin has sadly disfigured that image and nearly obliterated God's love from the soul because men have chosen darkness rather than light and a low earthly level of frivolity and cheapness, yet God has done everything possible for His name's glory by giving His own life to purify and cleanse man from earthly defilement, restore His moral image in man, and reveal the power of Bible religion upon human character.

Living the Daily Choice

Those bought by Christ with His own precious blood belong to God and are not their own, and are accountable to Him as stewards for all privileges and means passing through their hands, with an account to give for thoughts, words, time and actions. Seeking own pleasure and selfish gratification at the expense of conscience and God's approval is serving sin, while acting as His servants means living as responsible to the Saviour with ready and willing obedience, and doing as one pleases and keeping one's own way and will cannot stand with serving God. A husband must not yield to a controlling influence acting under Satan, for his powers belong to God who bought him, and he must decide whether to serve God or give way to that influence. Faithfulness in daily work matters because each hour and opportunity is recorded and will be considered in judgment, and God's blessings are tied to faithful obedience rather than convenient service or neglect of sacred things.

Character for time and eternity is decided day by day by one's course in cultivating the mental and moral faculties, making what is bad by nature worse or what is good better. Sanctification is a daily work of obedience in which the master obeyed becomes the master served, and obedience unto righteousness means ever moving upward with continual growth in grace even in the smaller duties of common life, supplied with high and holy motives from Christ who gave His life to furnish incentive for wholly successful Christian character. One demoralizing trait revealed in words or actions leaves influence for evil, and if not overcome will subvert every virtue, so sharp rough traits, bitterness, impatience and indulged sin must be repressed, controlled, rooted out and cleansed by training and by the Spirit striving against the flesh. As with Judas in whom evil gained the ascendancy, willful known sin makes a servant of sin, silences the Spirit's witness, separates the soul from God and drives Jesus from the heart, while evil purged and good predominating forms a character more precious than the gold of Ophir and a life ready for heaven where sin will not enter. This requires keeping the body and carnal mind under firm control and not remaining in objectionable company that forfeits right relation to God, for choosing such society places one in temptation and yielding to the body's unreasonable demands makes one its servant.

No worker in God's appointed institutions can remain neutral, but all must be consecrated soul, body and spirit with mind under control of the Holy Spirit, for there are only two services with no middle ground: serving the Lord wholly or being servants of sin. One who feels under no obligation to surrender to God serves sin and is used by the enemy to hurt, hinder and cause great loss, and unbelievers who after opportunity to know truth remain unconverted must not handle sacred work but be quietly dismissed without irritation. Physicians and others in health institutions who profess godliness while practicing selfishness, dishonesty, partiality, hypocrisy, impurity and vice are servants of sin unto death, giving Satan entrance by neglecting religious services and the channel of light and by following his suggestions to do injustice instead of the Lord's way of justice and judgment, and they stand under the same obligation to strict honesty and fidelity as workers in colleges and publishing houses. Carrying out plans the Lord never gave and following crooked devising contrary to His Word and works is yielding to sin as master, and when due warning is despised and men determine not to leave their own way, God leaves them to themselves in the service they have chosen.

Yielding to disobedience makes a person a channel through whom Satan and evil angels work, gaining access to the mind and using conscious and unconscious influence to draw others into the same disobedience unto death, while yielding in trust in Jesus Christ in obedience unto righteousness gives holy angels still greater power over those striving to be obedient, working in the heart unto righteousness and guarding from apostasy. This calls for binding self and family in solemn covenant with God to obedience and for returning to Christ as center in complete dependence on His grace, so that those who depend on Him draw others to the Redeemer rather than to Satan's service, who seeks to sever connection with God and bind them as slaves. God has done everything possible for His glory to purify man from earthly defilement, restore His moral image, and reveal the power of Bible religion upon character, showing the value He places on man by giving His own life for salvation, while to choose sin is to choose a low earthly level of frivolity and cheapness that dishonors the Creator. Christ left His riches and glory and became poor so that through His poverty fallen people might become rich and win heaven, and they should avail themselves of that opportunity instead of insisting on their own way, for unwillingness to give heart and mind to Jesus places one under the prince of darkness unto an eternity not of life but of death.