¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey^(A)—whether you are slaves to sin,^(B) which leads to death,^(C) or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.^(A)

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”^(A)

¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites,^(A) in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household,^(B) we will serve the Lord.”^(C)

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.^(A)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign^(A) in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness,^(B) but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.^(C)

¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life^(A) 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^(B) leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin,^(C) you were free from the control of righteousness.^{(D) 21} What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!^{(E) 22} But now that you have been set free from sin^(F) and have become slaves of God,^(G) the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.^{(H) 23} For the wages of sin is death,^(I) but the gift of God is eternal life^(J) in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹⁷ But thanks be to God^(A) that, though you used to be slaves to sin,^(B) you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching^(C) that has now claimed your allegiance.