Romans 6:16 Cross References - AUV

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are the slaves of whoever you offer your obedience to? If you obey [the desire to] sin, it leads to [spiritual] death; or if you obey [God] it leads to righteousness.

²⁴ No person can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will cling to the one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and material things [at the same time].

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

¹² So, do not allow [the practice of] sin to rule your mortal bodies, so that you obey its desires. ¹³ And do not offer the parts of your bodies [i.e., hands, eyes, etc. See Matt. 5:29-30] as tools for [accomplishing] evil purposes; but [instead] offer yourselves to God, as [people who are] alive from the dead [i.e., no longer under the power of sin] and the parts of your bodies as tools for [accomplishing] righteous purposes for God.

¹⁷ Thank God that you people, who were once slaves to [the practice of] sin, became obedient from [your] heart to the pattern of teaching [i.e., the Gospel message] you committed yourself to.

¹⁹ I am using human reasoning because of your human weakness. For just as you once offered the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to wickedness, which led to further wickedness; so now [you should] offer the parts of your body as slaves to do what is right, which leads to holy living. ²⁰ For when you were [once] slaves to [the practice of] sin, you were free from [being controlled by] righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you receive at that time from doing the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of such behavior is [spiritual] death. ²² But now, since you have been freed from [the practice of] sin and have become slaves to God, the benefits you receive are a holy life [here] and never ending life in the future. ²³ For the wages for sinning is [spiritual] death, but God’s free gift is never ending life in [fellowship with] Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹⁹ [Although] these people promise “liberty,” they themselves are slaves to corrupting influences, for people are slaves to whatever controls them.