Jesus answered them: Amen, amen, I say unto you that whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
απεκριθη αυτοις ο ιησους αμην αμην λεγω υμιν οτι πας ο ποιων την αμαρτιαν δουλος εστιν της αμαρτιας
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
But He was striving to prove not that they were slaves of men, but that they were slaves of sin. This slavery is the most grievous. Only God can deliver from it, because no one else can forgive sins, as they themselves acknowledged. Since they acknowledged this to be the work of God, He leads them to this and says: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” He thereby shows that He is speaking of this freedom, freedom from precisely this slavery.
To remit sins is the work of God alone. Therefore He says, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin." Consequently you also, insofar as you are sinful, are slaves.
To this they could have said: Although we are subject to such slavery, we have sacrifices and priests who cleanse us from sins. He says that these too are slaves, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23.
Moreover, your priests, being themselves slaves, do not have authority to forgive sins to others. The Apostle Paul says this more clearly: the priest must offer sacrifice for himself as for the people, because he himself is beset with weaknesses, Heb 5:2-3.
He turns them away from their inherent ignorance as men of soul, who look only to the bodily. He directs them toward what is more spiritual and transfers them, as it were, to a path of instruction untrodden and wholly unusual.
He shows them a hidden slavery that had remained unknown for long ages. Wisely He omits the charge that they falsely say, "We have never been slaves to anyone," Jn 8:33.
Nor does He point out that they boast vainly in the nobility of their forefather. He does this so as not to give them another occasion for improper behavior, since they were already stirred up and very prone to anger.
Restricting Himself, as it were, to what was most necessary and what they had to learn, He says that whoever "commits" sin is a "slave" of sin.
He speaks as though saying: Man, who is on earth, as you know, is a composite living being, of soul and body. Slavery according to the flesh concerns the flesh. What concerns the soul and takes place in the soul has sin as its barbarous mother.
Therefore release from bodily slavery belongs to the authority of masters. But liberation from sin must be ascribed to God alone, and to no one else.
Thus He persuades them to think rightly and to desire true and actual freedom. He teaches them no longer to seek the nobility of ancestors, which is wholly useless for them in this matter, but God alone.
God rules over His own laws, whose transgression produces sin, which nourishes slavery of the soul.
Our Lord Jesus Christ seems also, still veiledly and very obscurely, to reprove them for being vainly high-minded about a man. They thought that blessed Abraham was altogether free.
By declaring generally that "everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin," He includes Abraham himself in the net, as one who had once been a slave of sin.
For he was justified not as one who was already righteous, but when he believed God, being called to freedom through justification. We say this, of course, not from envy of the righteous man's glory.
Rather, we say it because there is no one among men who has not experienced the arrows of sin. Even one considered great is subject to the yoke of sin, according to what is written: "There is none righteous," and, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Rom 3:10, 23.
The glory of God includes, among other things, having no possibility whatever of falling into sin. This truly belongs to Christ alone. For He alone became "free among the dead," Ps 87:6.
He committed no sin, although He was found among the dead, that is, as man He was among men. Over them sinful death had once ruled.
Therefore, to summarize the meaning of the words interpreted, the Lord somewhat veiledly indicates that blessed Abraham himself had once been enslaved to sin. He was freed from it through faith alone in Christ.
Thus Abraham is not able to communicate spiritual nobility to others. One who was himself freed from the slavery of sin, not through himself, cannot possess authority to free anyone.
Nor is he shown to be the giver of freedom to himself. He received it from another, clearly from Christ Himself, who justifies.
What He utters carries great force. In a certain sense, if it is permissible to speak this way, it is His oath: “Amen, amen, I say to you.”
“Amen” is translated “truly,” and yet it was not translated, though He could have said, “Truly I say to you.” Neither the Greek translator nor the Latin translator dared to do this.
The word “amen” is neither Greek nor Latin, but Hebrew. It remained untranslated so that reverence might be preserved under the veil of mystery. It was not left so as to be hidden, but so as not to be worn out by being exposed.
What force it carries, learn from its very repetition. It urges, it pierces, it somehow awakens those who sleep. It summons to attention and does not wish to be disregarded: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”
Let us rather listen more carefully and attentively to what the Lord answered, lest we ourselves also be reckoned slaves. For Jesus answered them: “Truly, truly, I say to you: everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”
He is a slave, not of man, but of sin. Who would not tremble at these words? May the Lord our God grant both me and you that I may speak to you about this saying.
I must speak of the freedom that is to be sought and of the slavery that is to be avoided. “Truly, truly, I say to you.” Truth speaks.
In what sense does God, our Lord, say, “Truly, truly, I say to you”? He entrusts much by speaking in this way. If it may be said, this is a kind of adjuration from Him: “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
“Amen,” of course, is translated as verum, “true.” Yet He did not translate it, though He could have said, “Truly I say to you.” Neither the Greek translator nor the Latin translator dared to do this.
For this word, amen, is neither Greek nor Latin, but Hebrew. He left it untranslated so that it might possess honor under the covering of mystery. It was not so that it might be rejected, but so that it might not be cheapened by being exposed.
And yet the Lord pronounced it not once, but twice: “Truly, truly, I say to you.” From the very doubling, understand how much was entrusted to us by this phrase.
What, then, was entrusted? “Truly, truly, I say to you,” says Truth. It did not say, “I speak truly,” because It could not lie. Rather, It entrusts, impresses, and in a certain way shakes those who sleep.
It forces them to be attentive and does not wish to be set aside. What does It say for this purpose? “Truly, truly, I say to you: everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”
O pitiable slavery! Many people, suffering under evil masters, ask to be sold. They do not seek to be without a master, but first of all to exchange one master for another.
But what will the slave of sin do? Whom will he ask? To whom will he wish to be transferred? From whom will he ask to be bought back?
At last, it sometimes happens that the slave of a man, worn down by the commands of a cruel master, finds rest by fleeing from him. But where does the slave of sin flee?
He carries it with him wherever he flees. An unclean conscience cannot flee from itself. It has nowhere to go. It follows the man.
Indeed, a man cannot depart from himself, for the sin he commits is within him. He committed sin to attain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes, but the sin remains.
What brought delight has gone; what causes grief remains. Evil bondage! Sometimes people run to the Church, and we endure not a few such corrupt persons.
They wish to be rid of a master, but do not wish to be rid of sin. Sometimes those who were born free suffer unlawful and unbearable oppression and are held in bondage.
They run to the Church and turn to the bishop for help. If he does not attend to their case and labor so that their freedom is not trampled, such a bishop is considered merciless.
Let us all run to Christ. Let us seek help against sin from God, our Liberator. Let us seek to be sold, so that we may be redeemed by His blood.
For the Lord said: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without silver” (Isa 52:3). Without payment, yet without your payment, for it is Mine.
Thus says the Lord: “For I Myself gave the payment, not with silver, but with My own blood.” Otherwise we would have remained both slaves and destitute.
Therefore the Lord alone frees us from this slavery. He who was not a slave of sin delivers us from this slavery, for He alone came in the flesh without sin.
The little ones whom you see in their mothers’ arms do not yet know how to walk, yet they already remain in the bonds of sin. They received from Adam what is loosed by Christ.
When they receive Baptism, the grace promised by the Lord helps them. Only He can free from sin who came without sin and was offered as a sacrifice for sin.
We heard this when the Apostle was read: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ.” What does he beseech? “Be reconciled to God” (cf. 2 Cor 5:20).
If the Apostle summons and entreats us to be reconciled to God, then we were enemies of God. No one is reconciled unless he has been an enemy.
We became enemies not by nature, but by sin. We were His enemies from the same source by which we were slaves of sin.
God does not have free men as enemies. They must necessarily be slaves. And they will remain slaves unless they are freed by Him against whom, by sinning, they wished to be enemies.
“On behalf of Christ,” says the Apostle, “we beseech you: be reconciled to God.” How else can we be reconciled, except by removing what separates us from Him?
For He said through the prophet: “His ear has not become heavy so that He cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isa 59:1-2).
Therefore we shall not be reconciled to Him unless what now stands between us is removed, and unless what ought to be between us appears.
There is something that separates, but against it there is a Mediator who brings us together. What stands between us and separates us is sin. The reconciling Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ.
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim 2:5). To remove the dividing wall, which is sin, this Mediator came, and the priest Himself became the sacrifice.
Since He was offered as a sacrifice for sin, giving Himself as a sacrifice on the cross of His Passion, the Apostle continues after saying, “On behalf of Christ we beseech you: be reconciled to God.”
It is as though we had asked, “How can we be reconciled?” “The Lord made Him,” that is, Christ Himself, “who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
He says that Christ God Himself, who knew no sin, was made sin. For He came in the flesh, that is, “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3), yet not in sinful flesh, because He had no sin at all.
Therefore He became the true sacrifice for sin, because He Himself had no sin. But perhaps I have said from my own understanding that sin means a sacrifice for sin.
Let those who have read acknowledge this. Let those who have not read not be lazy. Let them not be lazy in reading, I say, so that they may be truthful in judgment.
When God gave the commandment about offering sacrifices for sin, there was no forgiveness of sins in those sacrifices, but there was a shadow of the things to come (Col 2:17).
Those sacrifices themselves, those sacrificial animals, that sacrificial food, and those animals appointed for slaughter because of sins, in whose blood the blood of the Savior was prefigured, are called sins by the Law; see Lev 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33.
Thus in some places it was written that the priests should lay their hands on the head of the sin, that is, on the head of the animal to be slaughtered for sin.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who had no sin, became this sin, that is, the sacrifice for sin. It is just that He who says in the Psalm freed us from this slavery of sin: “I have become like a man without help, free among the dead” (cf. Ps 87:5-6).
He alone was free, because He had no sin. He Himself says in the Gospel: “Behold, the prince of this world comes.” He means the devil, who would come to the Jews persecuting Him.
“Behold,” He says, “he comes, and he will find nothing in Me” (cf. Jn 14:30). He will not find in Me what he found in those whom he kills, even if they are righteous, namely some sins.
It is as though He were asked, “If he will find nothing in Thee, why will he kill Thee?” He added and said: “But that all may know that I fulfill the will of the Father, arise, let us go from here” (cf. Jn 14:31).
“I,” He says, “do not pay death as the penalty for My own sin. Rather, by accepting death, I fulfill the will of My Father. I do more than merely suffer death, because if I had not willed it, I would not have suffered it.”
In another place you can find Him saying, “I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again” (cf. Jn 10:18). Behold, see that He is truly free among the dead.
Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. In every work and occupation, a turning aside toward evil somehow enslaves a man and makes him a branded slave. It disfigures him and marks him with burned-in signs through the wounds of sins.
He shows that above He meant slavery to sin, not slavery to human authority. And so that the Jews would not say, “Moses freed us from it,” Jesus Christ shows by comparison that Moses does not have such power, because he himself was a servant, while He has it as Son.
If anyone here is a slave of sin, let him prepare himself by faith for the freedom and rebirth of adoption. Having cast off the most shameful slavery of sin, and having entered the most blessed service of the Lord, let him be made worthy to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven through confession. “Put off the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts” (Eph 4:22), in order to “put on the new man, renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col 3:10).
Without doubt, everyone who submits to evil desire has long since bowed the free head of reason beneath the dominion of iniquity. But we resist this master when we withstand the iniquity that has seized us. We fight against evil habit, and by trampling down corrupt desires we claim against it the right of our innate freedom. Through repentance we destroy guilt, and with tears we wash away filthy stains.
In such slavery abide the lovers of money, robbers, thieves, fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, flatterers, liars, the crafty, bribe-takers, the malicious, and others like them.
Even masters who are free in body are not excluded from this slavery, if they are captured by any passions and allow sin to reign over them. The apostle warns Christians against such slavery: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts," Rom 6:12.
From this it is clear that there is bodily freedom and spiritual freedom. Bodily freedom is when a man does not serve another man or fall under his authority.
Such are kings and princes who are not subject to earthly authority. Bodily freedom also exists when a man is free in body, not bound, not shackled, not imprisoned, and so forth.
Spiritual freedom is when a man is freed from sin and the devil's power by the grace of God. He does not allow sin and the devil to reign over him. He resists his passions and desires.
He subjects the flesh to the spirit and serves God alone with a free spirit. Such a man may be bodily the slave of a man, bound, shackled, in prison, in chains, or in captivity. Yet in spirit he is everywhere and always free.
For no one can enslave and bind the spirit. Thus the holy martyrs were shackled in body, bound, and shut up in prisons, yet in spirit they were free.
So now also pious slaves labor bodily for earthly masters, but in spirit they are free. So too others who live piously, though they are imprisoned and taken captive, remain free in spirit.
For as long as a man has faith and struggles against the flesh, the world, the devil, and sin, he has spiritual freedom, though he may be enslaved bodily.
Do you wish, Christian, to have this most glorious freedom? Always struggle against sin and the devil, your enemy, and you will be free.
But Jesus did not point out this error to them, because He was not speaking of political freedom, but of freedom of the spirit, freedom from delusion and sin. “Truly, truly, I say to you: everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Only God can deliver a man from this bondage. Yes, the knowledge of the truth will make you free!”
"He who commits sin is a slave of sin." He shows that He is speaking of another slavery, slavery to sin, and not slavery to human authority, says Euthymius Zigabenus.
"The Lord does not expose them in the lie. His aim is not to prove that they are slaves of men, but that they are slaves of sin," Theophylact, cf. Chrysostom.
A slave of sin is a man wholly given over to some sin. Sin possesses him against his will and draws him toward what he sometimes does not want. It fetters his will as though with chains.
Sin possesses him as a master possesses a slave, and does with him what it wills. A beautiful depiction of this slavery to sin is found in the Apostle Paul, Rom 6:17 and following; Jn 7:14 and following.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 18 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS