Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans

Brothers,
    I use human language,
adapted to your weakness.
You had put the members of your body
in the service of impurity and disorder,
which leads to disorder;
in the same way, put them now to the service of justice,
which leads to holiness.
    When you were slaves to sin,
you were free from the demands of justice.
    What did you harvest then,
to commit acts that you are ashamed of now?
Indeed, these acts result in death.
    But now that you have been set free from sin
and that you have become slaves of God,
you reap what leads to holiness,
and this results in eternal life.
    For the wages of sin,
it is death;
but the free gift of God,
it is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            – Word of the Lord.

The paradoxical freedom: becoming a slave to God in order to live fully

Understanding St. Paul's call to choose our true master to access holiness and eternal life

In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul confronts us with a perplexing paradox: true freedom is achieved by becoming "a slave of God." This statement, which clashes with our modern conceptions of autonomy and independence, nevertheless reveals an essential truth about the human condition and the path to eternal life. Intended for all those seeking authentic meaning in their freedom, this article explores how slavery to God proves to be the highest form of liberation, radically transforming our relationship to sin, holiness, and our ultimate calling.

Part One: The context of Paul's letter and the use of the language of slavery in Roman antiquity.
Part Two: Analysis of the central paradox – how slavery becomes freedom.
Part Three: The three dimensions of this transformation: the passage from disorder to holiness, from shame to dignity, from death to eternal life.
Part Four: Echoes of this doctrine in Christian tradition and spirituality.

Context

The excerpt from Romans 6:19-23 is part of the major doctrinal section of Paul's letter to the Christian communities in Rome around the year 57-58. This epistle, considered the apostle's theological testament, addresses the fundamental question of justification by faith and its implications for the Christian life. Paul is writing to a community he did not found himself, composed of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, seeking to establish a solid teaching on salvation.

Chapter 6 forms a theological unit devoted to baptism and the new life it inaugurates. Paul has just explained that baptism unites the Christian with the death and resurrection of Christ. He then responds to a possible objection: if grace abounds more abundantly where sin abounds, why not continue to sin? The apostle categorically rejects this logic. Christian freedom is not a license for evil, but a liberation from the tyrannical power of sin.

In the first-century Greco-Roman world, slavery was a massive daily reality. Approximately one-third of the Roman Empire's population was made up of slaves. Paul, himself a free Roman citizen, uses this familiar image for his contemporaries, while explicitly acknowledging that he is using "human language, adapted to your weakness." This rhetorical precaution shows that Paul is aware of the metaphor's limitations: God is not a despotic master, and divine service infinitely transcends human servitude.

The passage is structured around a binary opposition: slavery to sin versus slavery to God, with their respective consequences. Paul uses the vocabulary of retribution (“reaping,” “wages,” “gift”) to describe the outcomes of these two servitudes. The agricultural image of the harvest suggests an implacable logic of cause and effect: we reap what we sow.

The expression "putting the members of one's body at service" evokes a total dedication of oneself. In Pauline anthropology, the "body" is not opposed to the soul, but designates the entire person in their concrete, relational, and historical dimension. Putting one's body at service means directing one's entire existence, all one's faculties, toward a specific end.

The text culminates with a lapidary and memorable formula: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." This final antithesis concentrates the entire teaching: on the one hand, sin pays a deserved wage—death; on the other, God offers freely—eternal life. The asymmetry is significant: sin repays according to justice (a wage), while God gives according to his generosity (a free gift).

Analysis

The guiding idea of this Pauline passage lies in the demonstration of a fundamental anthropological truth: human beings cannot exist without belonging, without allegiance to a masterThe question is not whether we will be slaves or free in absolute terms, but which master we will choose to serve. This thesis overturns our contemporary representations of freedom as pure autonomy, as the absence of constraint or commitment.

Paul frames his argument around an apparent paradox: he who claims to be free from God's service remains in reality a slave to sin. Conversely, he who recognizes himself as a slave of God achieves true freedom. This paradox is not a rhetorical play, but the expression of a profound spiritual dynamic. The apostle reveals that neutrality does not exist in the moral and spiritual order: not choosing God automatically means serving the forces of disorder and death.

The power of this analysis lies in its exposure of the illusion of absolute freedom. When the Romans believed themselves to be "free from the demands of justice," they were in fact completely enslaved to sin. This false freedom produces only acts "of which you are now ashamed." Shame, here, is not primarily a psychological feeling, but the lucid recognition of alienation, of self-dispossession. Sin does not liberate; it destroys the integrity of the person and leads them toward death.

Conversely, slavery to God is revealed as the path to holiness and eternal life. This holiness (in Greek hagiasmos) designates less a state of moral perfection than a process of consecration, of setting apart for God. To be holy is to belong to God, to be configured to his nature, to participate in his life. Divine slavery is therefore not a diminution but an elevation, not a mutilation but an accomplishment.

The existential scope of this doctrine is considerable. It invites us to examine our real attachments, to identify what actually governs our choices. What concretely guides our lives? Disordered passions, the search for immediate pleasure, the appetite for power or recognition? Or is it God's will, his call to holiness, his plan of eternal life for us? Paul presents us with a radical alternative.

Theologically, this text illuminates the nature of Christian salvation. Salvation is not an escape from the world or a mere moral improvement. It is a transfer of belonging, a change of lordship. Through baptism, the Christian dies to the old regime of sin and is born to a new life under the lordship of Christ. This new birth involves a total reconfiguration of existence.

The final asymmetry between "salary" and "free gift" reveals the abysmal difference between the two regimes. Sin pays for what one has deserved—death, the natural consequence of separation from the Source of life. God, on the other hand, gives infinitely beyond all merit—eternal life, participation in his own divine life. This gratuitousness of the divine gift is the foundation of Christian gratitude and energizes the drive toward holiness.

From Disorder to Holiness: Radical Transformation

The first dimension of this passage concerns the radical transformation of life orientations. Paul contrasts "impurity and disorder" with "righteousness" and "holiness." This opposition structures all of Christian anthropology and deserves a thorough examination.

Impurity (akatharsia) in the Pauline vocabulary is not limited to sexual sins, although it includes them. Rather, it designates a general state of moral and spiritual defilement, a contamination that affects the whole person. This impurity comes from the fact that man, separated from God, allows himself to be dominated by his disordered impulses. Without orientation towards God, human desires run on empty, go astray, become tyrannical.

The "disorder" (anomia, literally "without law") evokes a state of inner and outer anarchy. Far from God and his law, man loses his bearings, no longer knows how to distinguish good from evil, and multiplies transgressions. This disorder is not creative but destructive; it does not liberate but alienates. Paul emphasizes that this disorder "leads to disorder," in a downward spiral. Sin begets sin, transgression begets transgression. The man who indulges in disorder gradually sinks into chaos.

Opposed to this state is the service of justice. Justice (dikaiosunè) in the Bible does not primarily designate the virtue that gives each person their due, but conformity to the will of God, adjustment to his plan. To be just is to be upright before God, to walk according to his ways. To place the members of one's body at the service of justice is therefore to orient one's entire existence towards the realization of the divine plan for humanity.

This righteousness leads to holiness. Holiness (hagiasmos) represents both a process and a result. It is the process of sanctification by which God progressively transforms the believer, configures him to Christ, fills him with his Spirit. It is also the state of one who belongs to God, who is consecrated to his service, set apart to fulfill his mission. Holiness is not primarily a matter of heroic moral effort, but of docility to the transforming action of God.

This transformation is not magical or instantaneous. Paul uses the imperative: "put the members of your body at the service of righteousness." Human cooperation is necessary. Baptism begins a process that the Christian must actualize daily through his or her concrete choices. Every decision, every action, every thought can be oriented toward justice or toward disorder. The Christian life is a constant spiritual struggle to maintain and deepen this fundamental orientation toward God.

The practical implications are immense. In a contemporary culture that values spontaneity, authenticity defined as the raw expression of all one's desires, Paul reminds us that there are ordered desires and disordered desires. Not all desires are equally legitimate. Some lead to life, others to death. Spiritual discernment consists precisely in distinguishing these orientations and deliberately choosing the path of holiness, even when it runs counter to the world's demands.

From Shame to Dignity: Restoring Identity

The second dimension of the text concerns the question of identity and human dignity. Paul asks a scathing rhetorical question: "What did you gain then, by committing acts of which you are now ashamed?" This question highlights the relationship between sin and shame.

The shame Paul speaks of is not the morbid guilt or excessive scruples that modern psychology rightly denounces. It is a healthy, lucid shame, which objectively recognizes the unworthy nature of certain acts. This shame paradoxically testifies to the persistence of moral conscience even in those who have sinned. Being ashamed of one's past actions means that one has retained the capacity to perceive good and evil, that one is not completely blinded by sin.

Paul suggests that this shame reveals in retrospect the unworthiness of slavery to sin. At the time, the acts committed may have seemed attractive, gratifying, and liberating. But with hindsight, the gaze purified by conversion allows us to see their true nature: they were acts of slavery, behaviors unworthy of the human vocation. Healthy shame is therefore an instrument of truth that helps us to definitively detach ourselves from the old way of life.

This shame is contrasted with the new dignity of the Christian "slave of God." This title, far from being degrading, is in reality the noblest there is. In the Old Testament, the greatest figures (Moses, David, the prophets) are honored with the title of "servants of God." Jesus himself takes the form of a slave through his incarnation (Phil 2:7). To be a slave of God is to participate in the very mission of Christ, to be associated with the divine work in history.

This new identity confers an inalienable dignity. The Christian is no longer defined by his past faults, his failures, his weaknesses. He is defined by his belonging to God, by his participation in the body of Christ, by his vocation to holiness. This redefinition of identity brings about a profound psychological and spiritual liberation. The shameful past no longer determines the future; a new beginning is possible.

Paul evokes this passage from shame to dignity with the word "now." This temporal term marks the decisive rupture introduced by baptism. There is a before and an after. The before is characterized by slavery to sin and shame. The now is characterized by the freedom of a child of God and the dignity of a servant of the Most High. This temporal dimension of conversion is essential: salvation is not only a future promise, but a reality already inaugurated now.

This restoration of dignity has concrete repercussions on self-esteem and social relationships. Christians are no longer defined by their performance, successes, social status, or possessions. Their worth rests on an unshakeable foundation: the free love of God manifested in Christ. This new basis of identity frees us from anxious competition, the desperate quest for recognition, and destructive comparisons. It allows us to calmly accept our limitations while opening ourselves to the progressive transformation brought about by grace.

In a world marked by identity crisis, fragmentation of the self, and uncertainty about the meaning of existence, the Pauline message offers a solid anchor. Christian identity does not fluctuate according to circumstances, emotions, or the opinions of others. It is based on the unwavering fidelity of God, who calls each person by name and entrusts them with a unique mission. This identity stability allows us to navigate trials, failures, and crises without losing our fundamental direction.

From Death to Eternal Life: The Ultimate Meaning of Existence

The third essential dimension of the text concerns the ultimate purpose of human existence. Paul presents two opposing destinations: death and eternal life. This opposition structures the entire Pauline theology and gives meaning to the entire argument.

The death Paul speaks of is not simply the biological cessation of earthly life. It is a spiritual reality: the definitive separation from God, the source of all life. Sin "pays" this death as a logical, inevitable wage. There is an implacable consistency: he who separates himself from the source of life can only die. This death is presented as the "wage" (opsonion), a term that referred to the pay of Roman soldiers. Sin rewards exactly what one deserves, according to strict justice. No surprises, no deception: one reaps what one sows.

This death begins now, even before the end of biological life. The sinner who persists in his rejection of God already experiences a form of spiritual death: inner emptiness, meaninglessness, inability to love authentically, self-absorption. The "deeds of which you are now ashamed" carried within them the seeds of death, gradually destroying the capacity for authentic life. Paul thus suggests that eternal death is the logical outcome of a process that began here below.

This deadly logic is radically opposed by the free gift of God: eternal life in Christ Jesus. The expression "eternal life" (zôè aiônios) does not primarily designate an infinite duration, but a quality of life, the very life of God. It is participation in divine existence, entry into Trinitarian communion, the fullness of being and love which characterizes God himself.

Crucial is the precision "in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eternal life is not an external reward, a prize awarded for good behavior. It is life in Christ, communion with him, participation in his paschal mystery. It is because Christ conquered death through his resurrection that we can enter into this eternal life. It is through our baptismal union with Christ that we access this reality.

The contrast between "salary" and "free gift" (charisma) is fundamental. Sin operates according to a logic of merit: one earns one's death. God operates according to a logic of grace: he freely offers life. This asymmetry reveals the very nature of God as free love, superabundant generosity. Eternal life cannot be deserved, earned, or conquered by our efforts. It can only be received with gratitude as a pure gift.

This perspective on the ultimate purpose radically transforms the meaning of present existence. Life is no longer a series of random events without direction or meaning. It is a pilgrimage toward the fullness of eternal life, a time of maturation where the fundamental direction of our freedom is decided. Every day, every choice, every action contributes to turning us toward life or toward death.

Paul thus establishes a theology of personal history. Human existence unfolds over time toward an ultimate end. This end is not arbitrarily imposed from outside, but results organically from the person's free choices. God infinitely respects our freedom, even when it turns away from him. But he constantly offers his grace to guide us toward life. The tension between human freedom and divine grace finds its expression here: God desires our eternal life and gives everything to make it possible, but he never forces it.

The practical implications of this eschatological vision are immense. If eternal life is the true stake of existence, then temporal realities must be relativized without being despised. Material goods, social success, and sensory pleasure are neither good nor bad in themselves, but they must be ordered to the ultimate purpose. They become destructive when they are absolutized, when they are sought as ends in themselves. They become beneficial when they are received as means in the service of eternal life.

Tradition

The Pauline doctrine of freedom as slavery to God has profoundly marked the Christian tradition and finds numerous echoes in patristics, medieval theology and spirituality.

Saint Augustine, in his Confessions, develops this theme of paradoxical slavery at length. He describes his own experience of false freedom before his conversion: "I thought I was free by not serving you, but I was only a slave to my passions." The Bishop of Hippo shows how the human will, far from God, is divided against itself, incapable of doing the good it desires. It is only through liberating grace that the will regains its unity and true freedom. For Augustine, Christian freedom is " greater liberties ", the higher freedom which consists not in being able to sin, but in no longer being able to sin out of love for God.

Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, philosophically articulates this Pauline intuition. He distinguishes between the freedom of indifference (being able to choose between good and evil) and the freedom of quality (being established in good). The first is imperfect, because it implies a possibility of falling. The second is perfect, because it fully realizes the rational nature created for good. To serve God is to access this higher freedom where the human will unites harmoniously with the divine will, finding in this union its natural and supernatural fulfillment.

The monastic tradition has made the concept of "servant of God" (servus Dei) a title of honor. Saint Benedict, in his Ruler, presents monastic life as a "school of the Lord's service." Monks commit themselves by vows to a total obedience which, far from restricting their freedom, frees it from the slavery of the passions and illusions of the world. This monastic obedience concretely actualizes the Pauline slavery of God.

Ignatian spirituality takes up this theme in the Spiritual exercises. Saint Ignatius of Loyola offers a meditation on the "Two Standards" where Christ and Satan confront each other, each calling for his service. The "Principle and Foundation" establishes that man is created to serve God, and that all creatures must be used to the extent that they aid this end. The Ignatian notion of "indifference" paradoxically resembles Pauline slavery: being so attached to God that one becomes free from all else.

Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, mystical doctors of the Church, describe the transforming union with God as a total dispossession of oneself that paradoxically fully realizes the person. John of the Cross writes: "To become everything, desire to be nothing." This kenotic logic echoes the Pauline teaching: it is by emptying oneself, by making oneself a slave to God, that one attains fullness.

The Christian liturgy constantly celebrates this dialectic of freedom and service. In the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest says: "To serve God is to reign." This condensed formula expresses the conviction that divine service confers true kingship, that which associates the Christian with the lordship of Christ. The baptized are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation," precisely because they are servants of God.

THE Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "freedom reaches its perfection when it is ordered to God, our beatitude" (CCC 1731). He specifies that "the more good one does, the freer one becomes" (CCC 1733). These formulations take up the Pauline intuition: authentic freedom does not consist in doing what one wants, but in wanting what is truly good, that is, in uniting oneself with the divine will.

Meditations

To concretely embody this message in daily life, here is a spiritual journey in seven steps:

1. Lucid examination of current forms of slavery: Take a moment of silence to honestly identify what truly governs my life. What are the modern "idols" to which I sacrifice my time, my energy, my resources? Money, the gaze of others, social media, immediate pleasures?

2. Recognition of false freedom: To meditate on the moments when I believed I was free by following my disordered desires, and to see the bitter fruits of these choices. To welcome healthy shame as the light of truth.

3. Act of trust in God: Every morning, explicitly formulate a prayer of offering: “Lord, I place my day in your hands. May all my actions be in the service of your justice and your holiness.”

4. Concrete orientation decisions: Identify a specific habit or behavior that is holding me in bondage to sin, and make a firm decision to put it in service to God instead. For example, transforming screen time into spiritual reading or service to others.

5. Attendance at the sacraments: Regularly receive the sacrament of reconciliation to be cleansed from the slavery of sin, and the Eucharist to be strengthened in the service of God. These sacraments actualize the grace of baptism.

6. Meditation on eternal life: Spend ten minutes a day contemplating the promise of eternal life. Read slowly Rom 6:23: “This is the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let this word sink into your heart.

7. Commitment to concrete service: Choosing a charity, a humble act of service to a loved one, an act of solidarity. Realizing that serving others in charity is serving God himself and experiencing true freedom.

This journey is not to be experienced as a new, binding law, but as a path of progressive freedom. God's grace precedes, accompanies, and completes all our efforts. The important thing is to maintain the fundamental direction: to put our lives more and more at the service of God each day.

Conclusion

Saint Paul's message in Romans 6:19-23 has immense transformative power for our time. In a society obsessed with individual autonomy, with freedom conceived as the absence of constraint, the apostle reminds us of a disturbing but liberating truth: human beings cannot exist without belonging. The only question is: to whom do we belong?

Slavery to God, far from being alienation, reveals itself as the highest achievement of our humanity. By placing ourselves at the service of justice and holiness, we do not diminish ourselves, we fulfill ourselves. By renouncing the false freedom of sin, we attain the true freedom of God's children. By agreeing to die to ourselves, we are born into eternal life.

This Pauline doctrine calls for a true inner revolution. It invites us to radically reverse our priorities, to overturn our scales of values. What seemed important (immediate pleasures, comfort, worldly success) loses its appeal when we contemplate the free gift of eternal life. What seemed restrictive (obedience to God, observance of the commandments, service to one's neighbor) turns out to be the path to authentic joy.

Paul's call resonates with particular urgency today. Our contemporaries are massively experiencing the bitter fruits of slavery to sin: addictions of all kinds, existential emptiness, broken relationships, a desperate search for meaning. The Christian message is not a repressive morality, but an offer of liberation. God reaches out and proposes: "Come, become my servant, and you will discover who you really are."

Everyone is invited to take the step, to undergo this fundamental conversion. Not through a heroic, voluntary effort, but through an act of humble trust in divine grace. God has already accomplished the essential through Christ. All we need to do is accept this free gift, allow ourselves to be freed from our chains, and allow ourselves to be transformed by his love. Baptism inaugurated this liberation; daily life must continually actualize it.

May everyone hear Paul's call and respond generously: "Now, freed from sin, become slaves of God, reap what leads to holiness, and this will end in eternal life."

Practical

• Meditate daily on Rom 6:23 allowing the contrast between salary and free gift to penetrate the heart and renew gratitude to God.
• Identifying a concrete slavery to sin (anger, slander, laziness, covetousness) and make a firm decision to convert with the help of sacramental grace.
• Offer your day to God every morning by a brief but sincere prayer, asking that all actions be directed towards his glory.
• Regularly attend the sacrament of reconciliation (monthly ideally) to keep alive the awareness of baptismal liberation and progress in holiness.
• Read and meditate on the great figures of servants of God (Moses, Mary, the saints) to draw inspiration from their freedom in loving obedience.
• Dedicate time to concrete service to others (visiting the sick, supporting the poor, listening to the afflicted) to experience the joy of divine service.
• Cultivating an eschatological vision of existence by regularly remembering that eternal life is the true end and that temporal realities must be ordered to this end.

References

1. The Jerusalem Bible, complete edition, Cerf, 2000. For the text of Romans 6, 19-23 and its context in the whole of the Pauline epistle.
2. Saint Augustine, Confessions, books VII-VIII, translation Pierre de Labriolle, Les Belles Lettres. On the personal experience of liberation from sin and access to true freedom.
3. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, questions 1-5 (on the last end) and questions 6-21 (on human freedom). For the philosophical and theological synthesis of Christian freedom.
4. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual exercises, notably the Principle and Foundation and the meditation of the Two Standards. On the choice of the master to serve.
5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1730-1748 (on human freedom) and 1987-2005 (on justification). For official teaching on these matters.
6. Romano Penna, Letter to the Romans, Biblical Commentary on the New Testament, Cerf, 2015. For an in-depth exegesis of the historical and theological context.
7. Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Jesus of Nazareth, volume 1, chapter on freedom. For a contemporary reflection on the true nature of Christian freedom.
8. Charles Journet, The Church of the Incarnate Word, volume 2, on grace and freedom. For a systematic theology of the interaction between divine grace and human freedom in the order of salvation.