“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves to obey him, you are slaves to the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? — Slavery (δουλεία, douleia) is unavoidable; the question is not freedom but whom you serve. The two masters are sin unto θάνατος (thanatos, "death") and obedience unto δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, "righteousness"). Paul's argument is stark: autonomy is illusory; all persons are servants to a power.
Church Fathers on Romans 6:16
Do you not know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? I do not, he would say, mention hell as yet, nor that great (manuscript Bodl. long) punishment, but the shame it is in this world, when you become slaves, and slaves of your own accord too, and sin's slaves, and when the wages are such as a second death. For if before baptism, it wrought death of the body,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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