For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
To be a servant of sin is to live ruled by wrong and untouched by the rule of right. That life bears fruit to be ashamed of and pays out in death, while being set free from sin to serve God bears fruit in holiness and receives everlasting life as God's gift through Jesus Christ. There are only two masters, so disobedience to God's law is service to sin on Satan's side that disfigures God's image and blots out His love from the soul, while obedience leads to life. In that slavery indulgence strengthens appetite until the will dies, moral obligation is dulled, and habit grows too strong for any human power to break without a new life from above. In the last days many who profess Christ remain in this state, free from righteousness in impurity and careless example that corrupts others, but those redeemed from sin's bondage must let its prejudices die and live holy under Christ's rule.
Meaning and Contrast
To serve sin is to be free from righteousness, for sin then rules the life. Such a life is not governed by what is right, and does not serve, yield to, or practice righteousness.
That former service bears fruit of which to be ashamed, bringing shame and ending in death, for the wages of sin is death. By contrast, to be freed from sin to serve God and righteousness bears fruit in holiness and ends in everlasting life. That everlasting life is God's gift through Jesus Christ, calling all to obey God and pursue the crown of life.
Nature of Sin's Bondage
There are only two conditions, serving the Lord wholly or being servants of sin, and those who sell themselves to the enemy accept his propositions and work directly contrary to God's Word and works. Disobedience to God's law is service to sin that places a person on Satan's side, free from righteousness, sadly disfiguring God's image in which humanity was created and nearly obliterating the traces of God's love in the soul by choosing darkness rather than light, while obedience wins eternal life. Under this slavery the will becomes dead, years of indulgence create and strengthen sinful appetite, all sense of moral obligation to God and others is deadened, and the whole person is transformed until bearing Satan's attributes, with habit too strong for any human power to break so that left alone the slave is doomed. This slavery presses souls deeper and deeper until moral power is gone and morals are corrupt, beginning with the first indulgence of the wine cup or handling of cards, including an inherited appetite for wine and stimulating drinks, and growing step by step by practice into gambling, drinking, and immorality with a bewitching power difficult to overcome, spreading to all who associate with those who practice it.
Satan keeps his servants busy carrying out a multitude of plans the Lord never intended, taking advantage of their zeal, energy, and every favorable opportunity to unfold plans against God's plans, and though the Lord gives due warning, if it is despised and people determine not to leave crooked devising for the Lord's way, He leaves them to themselves. There is no hope or awakening while remaining under the enslaving influence unless laying hold of a power out of and above self, becoming a Christian brought into touch with God and the power that works righteousness, with only a new life entering in and vitalizing the whole nature able to change the course. One born of God must not keep sinning by practice, but becomes a free soul in Christ Jesus, meaning not free to continue in sin but free to practice virtue and holiness, using that liberty under Christ's rule as God's servants not to oppress or speak bitterness. Therefore those disloyal to God must repent and render obedience now, because the Lord is at the door with the same message of warning as came to Noah.
Call to Holy Living
In the perils of the last days many professed followers of Christ do not stand clear from prevailing iniquity but partake in it, so that love to God waxes cold and zeal and fervor fail. Its special form is immorality and licentiousness, in which many men and women professing the religion of Christ are guilty. Even some professing to look for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan himself, because they are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. Having so long served lust, impure thoughts and corrupt imaginations become natural to them, and it becomes impossible for their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things.
To be servants of sin is to be free from righteousness even while professing godliness, as with those who act as though their calling as physicians excuses loose, dishonest, careless morals and influence when their calling requires them to be altogether different. Their trouble is an impure heart not garrisoned with the grace of Christ and not kept in the channel of light, giving Satan entrance to work his will so that they follow his suggestions rather than the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Under cover of their calling such servants of sin spread impurity, vice, and soul-destroying guilt and destroy many souls, and their deluded victims are ruined for time and for eternity. People who live carelessly and recklessly in sin likewise turn others away from Christ through words and example, corrupting those around them and making themselves unfit to represent Him.
When Christ redeems the soul from sin's bondage, prejudices belonging to that former sinful condition of being enslaved to sin and free from righteousness ought to die at once rather than continue to govern how people treat one another. Racial prejudice belongs to what should die in that redemption. The redeemed must not take God's place by prescribing the color line or strengthening prejudice between white and black, but must stand aside and let God work on white and black hearts in His own way.
To be a servant of sin is to live ruled by wrong and untouched by the rule of right. That life bears fruit to be ashamed of and pays out in death, while being set free from sin to serve God bears fruit in holiness and receives everlasting life as God's gift through Jesus Christ. There are only two masters, so disobedience to God's law is service to sin on Satan's side that disfigures God's image and blots out His love from the soul, while obedience leads to life. In that slavery indulgence strengthens appetite until the will dies, moral obligation is dulled, and habit grows too strong for any human power to break without a new life from above. In the last days many who profess Christ remain in this state, free from righteousness in impurity and careless example that corrupts others, but those redeemed from sin's bondage must let its prejudices die and live holy under Christ's rule.
Meaning and Contrast
To serve sin is to be free from righteousness, for sin then rules the life. Such a life is not governed by what is right, and does not serve, yield to, or practice righteousness.
That former service bears fruit of which to be ashamed, bringing shame and ending in death, for the wages of sin is death. By contrast, to be freed from sin to serve God and righteousness bears fruit in holiness and ends in everlasting life. That everlasting life is God's gift through Jesus Christ, calling all to obey God and pursue the crown of life.
Nature of Sin's Bondage
There are only two conditions, serving the Lord wholly or being servants of sin, and those who sell themselves to the enemy accept his propositions and work directly contrary to God's Word and works. Disobedience to God's law is service to sin that places a person on Satan's side, free from righteousness, sadly disfiguring God's image in which humanity was created and nearly obliterating the traces of God's love in the soul by choosing darkness rather than light, while obedience wins eternal life. Under this slavery the will becomes dead, years of indulgence create and strengthen sinful appetite, all sense of moral obligation to God and others is deadened, and the whole person is transformed until bearing Satan's attributes, with habit too strong for any human power to break so that left alone the slave is doomed. This slavery presses souls deeper and deeper until moral power is gone and morals are corrupt, beginning with the first indulgence of the wine cup or handling of cards, including an inherited appetite for wine and stimulating drinks, and growing step by step by practice into gambling, drinking, and immorality with a bewitching power difficult to overcome, spreading to all who associate with those who practice it.
Satan keeps his servants busy carrying out a multitude of plans the Lord never intended, taking advantage of their zeal, energy, and every favorable opportunity to unfold plans against God's plans, and though the Lord gives due warning, if it is despised and people determine not to leave crooked devising for the Lord's way, He leaves them to themselves. There is no hope or awakening while remaining under the enslaving influence unless laying hold of a power out of and above self, becoming a Christian brought into touch with God and the power that works righteousness, with only a new life entering in and vitalizing the whole nature able to change the course. One born of God must not keep sinning by practice, but becomes a free soul in Christ Jesus, meaning not free to continue in sin but free to practice virtue and holiness, using that liberty under Christ's rule as God's servants not to oppress or speak bitterness. Therefore those disloyal to God must repent and render obedience now, because the Lord is at the door with the same message of warning as came to Noah.
Call to Holy Living
In the perils of the last days many professed followers of Christ do not stand clear from prevailing iniquity but partake in it, so that love to God waxes cold and zeal and fervor fail. Its special form is immorality and licentiousness, in which many men and women professing the religion of Christ are guilty. Even some professing to look for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan himself, because they are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. Having so long served lust, impure thoughts and corrupt imaginations become natural to them, and it becomes impossible for their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things.
To be servants of sin is to be free from righteousness even while professing godliness, as with those who act as though their calling as physicians excuses loose, dishonest, careless morals and influence when their calling requires them to be altogether different. Their trouble is an impure heart not garrisoned with the grace of Christ and not kept in the channel of light, giving Satan entrance to work his will so that they follow his suggestions rather than the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Under cover of their calling such servants of sin spread impurity, vice, and soul-destroying guilt and destroy many souls, and their deluded victims are ruined for time and for eternity. People who live carelessly and recklessly in sin likewise turn others away from Christ through words and example, corrupting those around them and making themselves unfit to represent Him.
When Christ redeems the soul from sin's bondage, prejudices belonging to that former sinful condition of being enslaved to sin and free from righteousness ought to die at once rather than continue to govern how people treat one another. Racial prejudice belongs to what should die in that redemption. The redeemed must not take God's place by prescribing the color line or strengthening prejudice between white and black, but must stand aside and let God work on white and black hearts in His own way.