“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).
There are several words translated “servants” in the New Testament, but the most common is doulos, as in our text, and its actual meaning is “bondservants,” or “slaves.” Its root meaning is to tie or bind and was commonly applied to the slaves in the Roman empire at the time of Christ.
The apostle Paul had reminded the Roman Christians that they “were the slaves of sin” (Romans 6:17) before they had been saved, having “yielded your members slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity” (v.19). In Christ, however, “being then made free from sin, ye became the slaves of righteousness” (v.18). Those who are slaves to sin will ultimately receive the wages of sin, which is death (v.23), but the wages (or “fruit”) of righteousness is holiness and everlasting life, as Paul answers us in our text.
Thus it is not a burden, but a high privilege to “become slaves to God.” Paul even called himself, though an apostle, a “slave of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1; etc.), and so did James, Peter, Jude, and John (James 1:1; II Peter 1:1; Jude 1; Revelation 1:1). We are certainly no better than they, to say the least, so we also need to recognize that if we are genuine Christians, we are slaves of Christ. Since “ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men” (I Corinthians 7:23), much less “slaves of sin,” but of Christ.
This means, of course, that we belong to Him, and He has the right to do as He wills with His own. We have been “bought with a price” (I Corinthians 6:20), and we owe Him full obedience. As a slave is expected to respond to the voice of his lord, so we must hear and obey His word, without equivocation. “So now yield your members slaves to righteousness unto holiness” (Romans 6:19). HMM
