“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:16-18

How often do you think of yourself as a slave? I don’t know about you, but the term slave makes my skin crawl. I don’t like the idea of being thought of as less-than, subservient to, someone or something else. So what does the Bible mean by saying we are slaves to righteousness? 

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” reminds us that God CREATED us to serve him. We were made to work and serve God. All the way back to the first chapter of the Bible (before sin enters the world in Chapter 3), We were commanded to work. “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” - Genesis 1:28

These verses remind us we were created to work and created to serve God in that work. So what does that have to do with being a slave? 

A slave does not get to make the decisions - the master does. 

A slave to sin works for a cruel master. Have you even sinned and lied to cover it up? You were acting as a slave to sin. You knew what you did was wrong, but you wanted to keep that hidden, so you made all your decisions based off hiding your initial sin - which only led to sinning more. To be a slave to sin is to work for a master that is never content and always asking for more. 

A slave to God is working for a perfect master. This doesn’t mean it will be easy - no, you are still a slave and still subject to the Master’s commands. As Romans 6 mentions - We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. Serving God is serving a Master who sees you as his own child. He loves you more than you love yourself and he will use you to further His kingdom and His glory. 

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” - Joshua 24:15

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