¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?^(A)

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

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^(A)

¹⁵ Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”^(A)

Serving Two Masters

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.^[a](A)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires.^{(A) 13} No longer present your members to sin as instruments^[a] of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments^[b] of righteousness.^(B)

¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations.^[a] For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.^(A)

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.^{(B) 21} So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.^{(C) 22} But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.^{(D) 23} For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.^(E)

¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted^(A)