Brethren, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:18-23
(Epistle of the Fourth Sunday)
In human history, the word slavery has negative connotations. It means forced labor for which one is not paid. In Romans 6, the word which is translated “slave” in English is the word “Doulos” in Greek, which can be translated as “slave”, “servant” or “worker.” For instance, when we receive Holy Communion, the priest says “Metalamvani O doulos/I douli tou Theou” which means “The servant of God receives” the Body and Blood of Christ. And in Greek, the word for “work” is “doulia” when it is a noun and “doulevo” (I work) as a verb.
Before the Resurrection of Christ, we were all slaves to sin. In Romans 6:23, Saint Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” Before the Resurrection, everyone was consigned to death because of sin. Now that Christ is risen, and has opened to us the path to Paradise, we are set free from this curse of condemnation. And instead of being slaves to sin, death and hell, we can become servants/slaves of righteousness.
When there is no hope for salvation, there is no motivation for righteousness. The lure of iniquity becomes very attractive. Before Christ, there was no hope for salvation. Thus, people before Christ were drawn to greater and greater iniquity. Saint Paul reminds us that now as Christians, because we have the call to salvation, we also have a call to righteousness. We are called to sanctification, to be holy, set apart for God.
We can choose to walk down one of two paths in life—the path towards Christ, which leads to salvation, or the path of iniquity, which leads to destruction. We serve one path. One path is the master.
In our society, we have been conditioned to see ourselves as the masters, or to work to the point where we will be the master of something. In reality, the prevalent theme in society is that we serve ourselves, the highest authority is the individual. We are not conditioned to see ourselves as servants of just about anyone or anything. People work, in many instances, not to serve others, but just for the paycheck. Therefore, the exercise of “work” becomes doing the minimum. One problem with this way of behaving is that in merely “working” for the “minimum,” there is actually little satisfaction and little joy in the effort, there is little reward in the outcome, and the irony is that we feel like slaves at our jobs, miserable in the time we spend at them.
Saint Paul writes, “What return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.” (Romans 6:21) Many people see their jobs as a form of death, or a slow march to death. And perhaps because there is not the return or the reward that comes from seeing a job as a ministry, and our role as employee as one of servant.
Freedom is actually found in service. When we see ourselves as servants, rather than just employees or workers, when we are conscious more of the task and those served, rather than the clock and the paycheck, we will actually find more fulfillment and joy in what we are doing and those for whom we are doing it.
Continuing on, St. Paul writes that if we “have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.” (6:22)
Even the person who feels the most free and independent is a slave to something, which might end up being his own thoughts, or his insecurities. There is no escaping that something or someone will be over all of us. There is a saying “it is lonely at the top.” Because even the top person, while perhaps not a slave to one above him or her, is a slave to his or her own insecurities, or perhaps fears of being knocked off the top.
The one that is the slave to God, where God is the master, whom we serve obediently and joyfully, this one is the one that is most free, and ironically, the one who has the most joy and the most peace. We see anger on a daily basis, seemingly everywhere we turn. Politicians, who are ostensibly elected to “serve” the people, as always being angry. While they are political leaders, it seems that they have become slaves to anger and misery. Their goal seems to be power and control. The good of the people is a distant second. The glory of God doesn’t even seem like it’s on the radar. Being like them, or following them, doesn’t personally make me feel more free. It just makes me frustrated. Life is too short to be a slave to frustration. The better course, in my humble opinion, is to serve the Lord according to the talent He has entrusted each of us. I find when I do my best with what I have been entrusted by God, to serve others with what He has given me (not only my talents, but the gift of time, the gift of this very day), this is where I feel not only most joyful, but the most free.
I’m reminded of the last two lines of the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley, which read “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” These words perhaps strike a romantic chord that we are at the helm of our own lives. I strive (and often fail) to put Christ at the helm of my life. Because as my ship sails across life, my body becomes older and more broken, my time becomes shorter, and my destination, if not God, is darkness, is nothing. I can only lead myself so far. It is only Christ that can lead me to Paradise. Therefore, because He is the Master of my fate (He determines whether I will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven), then He is the master of my soul. And if He is master, then I am slave or servant. And because of this, I am not oppressed. Rather, I am free.
Again, I’m a work in progress. I am not totally free, because in my brokenness, I still fall to sin. By His grace, I’d like to think that I am working my way to true freedom, which is found in true servitude.
Let the heavens sing for joy, and let everything on earth be glad. For with His arm the Lord has worked power. He trampled death under foot by means of death; and He became the firstborn from the dead. From the maw of Hades He delivered us; and He granted the world His great mercy. (Resurrectional Apolytikion, Third Tone, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
We all are slaves to something—it is evil? Pride? Greed? Power? Or is it joy? Others? And Christ? The servant/slave of Christ, ironically, is the most free of all the people.
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