Slices
Prepare
If someone were spying on your life – what you think and say, how you spend your time (and money), what you do when no one else is watching – what would they conclude about how important Jesus is to you?
Bible passage
Slaves to righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 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? 17 But thanks be to God that, though 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. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Explore
Since the age of 8 I have answered ‘Liverpool’ to the question, ‘Which football team do you support?’ Yet I’ve never been to Anfield. I could not name the whole team. Do I support Liverpool, or not? Paul uses a different human example: slavery (v 19). Neither really fits what he’s trying to get at, but both give some insight.
His point is: before Jesus, our lives were ruled by sin, which leads to death (vs 17,23). Jesus sets his people free and gives us a choice: will we offer ourselves back to sin and ‘ever-increasing wickedness’, or will we offer ourselves to God and ‘righteousness leading to holiness’ and life (vs 19,23)?
In other words, does your life match up to who you are? The question is important because if I don’t look and act like a Liverpool fan, I’m probably not one; and if I don’t look and act like someone who has been delivered from sin, and given a new life in Jesus…
Respond
Who would you describe as a holy man or woman of God? What is it about them that is ‘holy’? How can you be more like them? Choose one thing that will help you grow in holiness, and commit to doing it.
Deeper Bible study
‘Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.’1
In the ancient world – one without any tradition of human rights or civil liberties – slavery was widespread and, sadly, universally accepted as part of the social fabric. Israel had the memory of being slaves in Egypt and many of the first Christians were themselves slaves. They knew a lot about it. Not all slaves were ill-treated. With an owner who was kind and considerate, slavery could offer security and a reasonable standard of life. Some slaves were adopted as heirs of their masters and, sometimes, free people even sold themselves into slavery because it was a good career move.
Christians have exchanged slavery to sin, ‘which leads to death’ (v 16) and become ‘slaves to righteousness’ (v 18). The difference is massive. One leads to ‘ever-increasing wickedness’ (v 19), the other to holiness and eternal life (vs 19,22). It’s a binary choice. It is far more than a good career move. It is a journey into what is good, beneficial and of eternal worth. To invest our lives in serving a good and gracious master is, paradoxically, that which sets us free.
A word of caution here: it is not right to serve God for what we can get out of it. We love God for God’s own sake. We embrace goodness and righteousness because it is the right thing to do. If we sin we earn the appropriate ‘wages’ – death (v 23). If we live for righteousness, we do not earn life on the basis of personal merit: rather it comes to us as a gift from God (v 23). Christians serve God out of love, not the self-interested desire to gain a reward. Love is its own reward. Because love will never pass away, when we live in love we live in God.2
‘Grant us so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom.’3
1 Deut 15:15 2 1 John 4:16 3 Augustine of Hippo, 354–430
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Numbers 12–14; Psalms 28,29
Pray for Scripture Union
Ask God to give Faith Guides plenty of opportunities to connect with children and young people, help them explore the difference that Jesus can make to their lives, give them opportunities to respond, and enable them to grow in faith. (This week's prayers relate to Where faith is seeded, gardeners are needed.)
