Romans Chapter 6 Vs. 19

 

Slaves to Righteousness

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Rom 6:19

manner of men... Greek: anthropinos. Here; 1Cor. 2:4, 2:13; 4:3; 10:13; Jas. 3:7; 1Pet. 2:13. Greek writers often used it to signify what was easy to understand. It means the opposite of the loftiness of poets and the sublime obscurity of philosophers.

infirmity of your... Because of the weakness of your flesh. As you have yielded your physical members to sin and uncleanness, you must now do likewise to righteousness and holiness (Rom. 6:19-20).

your members servants... As was explained (in verse 13), are the parts of our physical body, the headquarters from which sin operates in the believer.

iniquity unto iniquity... Or like a vicious animal, sin’s appetite only grows when it is fed.

righteousness unto holiness... Greek: hagiasmos. Here; Rom. 6:22; 1Cor. 1:30; 1Thes. 4:3, 4:4, 4:7; 2Thes. 2:13; 1Tim. 2:15; Heb, 12:14; 1Pet. 1:2.

The NKJV begins this scripture thus: “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh”. Paul use of the master/slave analogy was an accommodation to their humanness and their difficulty in grasping divine truth.

To talk of being “enslaved” to righteousness and to God is not correct in one sense, Paul wrote, because God does not hold His children in bondage. But the word “slavery” appropriately describes an unregenerate person’s relationship to sin and to Satan. So Paul used “slavery” for contrasting the relationship of the believer as well. Before developing this idea further, the apostle in effect apologized for its use — I put this in human terms (lit., “I am speaking in human fashion”) — because you are weak in your natural selves (lit., “your flesh”). Apparently Paul felt that his readers’ spiritual perception was feeble so he used this terminology from human experience. Then he basically repeated the ideas of Rom. 6:16-17. Unsaved Romans had offered their bodies to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness (lit., “lawlessness”; cf. Rom. 1:24-27; 6:13). They had voluntarily become enslaved! But Paul exhorted believers now to offer themselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness (perfect holiness, as the end of the process [cf. v. 22]) in contrast with their former impurity.