Romans 6:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The slavery was such that the mere remembrance of it now brings shame. And if remembrance causes shame, how much more the deed itself.

Thus you have now received a twofold benefit. You have been freed from shame and have learned what state you were in. Likewise, then you suffered a twofold harm.

You did what was worthy of shame and did not recognize the shame. This is still worse than the first, and yet you remained in slavery.

Having thus sufficiently proved the harm of former deeds on the basis of shame, the Apostle passes to the consequence itself. What is this consequence? "The end of those things is death."

Since shame still seems not too burdensome a weight, the Apostle passes to the most terrible thing, namely death, although what had been said above was already enough.

And what fruit did you have from uncleanness? None at all, except dishonor. And why do I say dishonor? You had death as its fruit.

For their end is death: bodily death very often, and death of the soul always. But you have been delivered from death by the grace of Christ, while shame still remains, not without benefit. For now you are ashamed of those sins.

What, then, was the fruit of your works at that time, except what you are now ashamed of? For they brought us shame as a reward, and their end again proves to be the second death (Rev 2:11; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8).

Freedom overflowing with shame and filth receives a shameful reward: "their end is death." The end, says the Apostle, is the outcome of life and deeds, after which either death or life follows.

In this place, however, death is twofold. From the death of sin they pass to bodily death. Rev 21:8.

"What fruit did you have then?" Tell me, what advantages come from sin? Better yet, it is needless even to ask this. For even in silence you acknowledge its harm, because you are covered with shame.

The Apostle added this also: "of which you are now ashamed." Even if someone is utterly shameless, after the pleasure ceases he feels shame.

Besides this, the Apostle shows an even greater and worse fruit of sin. "For the end of those things is death." He means not this temporal death, but the eternal one.

Death is the communion of the soul with sin that takes place in the body, while life is separation from sin.

Here the Apostle compares the effects of sin and virtue, and clearly proves the harm that comes from sins and the benefit that comes from virtues.

What fruit, he says, did you receive then, when you served sin and did such deeds that the mere remembrance of them now makes you ashamed?

It is truly so. As soon as the sinner ceases to commit sin, and the pleasure felt in it vanishes, he is immediately ashamed and disgraced, even if he is most shameless.

The Apostle adds to this another evil, the offspring of sin, namely death, which consists in eternal torment. "For the end of those things," he says, "is death."

But now, since you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, your fruit is holiness. The end of your good deeds is the inheritance of eternal life and blessedness.

"What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?" The Russian translation, agreeing with Theodoret, Theophylact, and other Fathers, divides this expression into two parts.

What fruit did you have then? Such deeds as you yourselves are now ashamed of.

But the Slavonic, agreeing with John Chrysostom and other interpreters, places the question mark at the end of the phrase. Thus it should be read: what fruit did you then have from those deeds of which you yourselves are now ashamed, since their fruit is death?

There is no answer, but shame itself must show Christians that there was no fruit.

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).

An investigator of nature, wishing to know the action of some element upon our body, frees it from every mixture with other elements. In this way the action it produces may be attributed exclusively to it alone, and its benefit and harm determined without error.

So also St. Paul, having brought his hearers out from every external influence and placed them under the sole action of sin, asks: look back and see what fruit you had when you served sin.

You yourselves see what it was. It was such that it is shameful even to remember it. You yourselves are now ashamed of what you did and what you were then. "Of which you are now ashamed."

Sin is shame for man. If a king's daughter gave herself over to shameful deeds, it would be a shame so great that it could not be described.