Romans 6:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This has the following meaning. When you lived in vice, impiety, and terrible evil, you lived in such obedience to sin that you did nothing good at all.

This is what "you were free from righteousness" means. That is, you were not subject to righteousness, but were wholly estranged from it. You did not divide the work of service between righteousness and sin, but gave yourselves entirely to vice.

Therefore now also, since you have gone over to righteousness, give yourselves entirely to virtue, doing nothing evil at all, so as to fulfill at least an equal measure.

When you lived in vices, he says, you were alienated from righteousness. Then you were not subject to it, did not wish to serve it at all, and freed yourselves from it.

Therefore now, while serving righteousness, do not submit to sin.

When they were slaves of sin, they were free from righteousness. That is, they did not wish to know either the voice of conscience, or honorable deeds, or honorable and virtuous people.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free from, that is, deprived of, works of righteousness. For you could not please both, and you obeyed sin alone.

It is evident that he who is a slave of sin is free from God. By sinning, he departs from God and comes under sin.

No one is enslaved except while being, in a certain sense, free. And no one is free except while remaining, in a certain sense, in slavery.

Therefore he who is enslaved to the devil is free from God. But he who has been freed and serves God is free from the devil.

From this it is clear that evil freedom can be acquired from the darkening of the human will. Good freedom, however, can be obtained only with the help of the Liberator. Jn 8:32, 36; 1 Cor 7:22; 2 Cor 3:17.

"I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh." These words refer to what was said above, namely, "you became slaves of righteousness." Yet they also refer to what follows.

They refer to what was said above in this way. I say that you became slaves of righteousness, not because the virtuous are slaves, but in human terms.

That is, I speak according to the opinion of men who, being subject to bodily weaknesses, regard and even call the labors undertaken for virtue slavery. Yet they are not slavery, but our freedom, salvation, and glory.

For whoever serves righteousness serves God. What could be freer, more saving, and more glorious than this?

Second, according to his very idea, the Christian is a truly free man. Yet sinful license is in fact slavery (Rom 6:14-23).

Since the holy Apostle does not enter here, or later in Rom 7:15-23, into detailed reasoning on how and why sin is slavery and righteousness freedom, he makes a direct and forceful appeal.

This becomes clear to everyone at the first attempt to refuse obedience to sin. Therefore he says, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom 6:16).

By this question the holy Apostle seems to invite us to judge whose slave it is more fitting for a Christian to be.

Finally turning attention to the comparative worth of the fruits of slavery to sin and slavery to grace, the Apostle indicates briefly that the fruits of sin are deeds of which it is shameful even to speak.

For these deeds the greatest punishment, death, had inevitably to overtake those who committed them. But the fruits of complete devotion to God are holiness and eternal life with Jesus Christ.

From this it is clear how necessary it is for Christians to withdraw from sinfulness. Conversely, they must serve God zealously, even to complete readiness to be His slave.

For slavery to God is a great dignity, not a humiliation. Therefore the Apostle calls even himself a slave (1:1), and speaks of Jesus Christ as having been in the form of a slave (Phil 2:7).

To inspire them to fulfill the exhortation he has given, the Apostle sets forth the fruits of both kinds of life: life in slavery to sin and life in righteousness.

When you served sin, he says, you lived by sin alone. Righteousness did not enter into your intentions or plans. You had given it its release, and you acknowledged no obligations toward it.

"You fulfilled only the commands of sin and did not accept the laws of righteousness" (Blessed Theodoret).

"When you lived surrendered to vice, impiety, and every evil, you were in such obedience to sin that you did nothing good at all. This is the meaning of the words: you were free from righteousness."

"That is, you did not subject yourselves to righteousness, but were wholly estranged from it. You did not divide your service, sometimes serving righteousness and sometimes sin. Rather, each of you gave himself entirely to vice" (St. Chrysostom).