You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. – Romans 6:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 29, 2018): Romans 6

Snow White’s dwarfs are known for their “Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho; It’s home from work we go.” The song is sung as the dwarves head home from a long day of doing exactly what they want to do; digging in the dirt for all kinds of jewels which will, in turn, make them rich. If you are a dwarf, probably just like being a human, money is important. But the song of the dwarves has turned into something else for most of us living in our contemporary world. Our refrain is often more like “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” Unlike the dwarves, we have long ago given up the dream of getting rich by doing something that we love to do. Instead, we are slaves to the money that we need to service the debt that we owe, and often we work because we are compelled to, and not because we want to. We are slaves, and the ones who hold our debt has become our Masters.

But the reality is also that we are, by our very nature, slaves. I get that the image is not a pleasant one, but we seem to be willing to give ourselves up to be mastered by something. We are slaves to our debts, our appetites, our desire for pleasure, our pride, and our addictions. These are the things that fill our days and determine our actions.

Paul argument is that we have been slaves to these very things since birth. Paul calls these things which have been our masters, in some form, since the beginning of our lives, sin. These are the things that prevent us from being free to follow God. These are the motivations that shape our lives into something less than what we would have dreamed that our lives could be. And Paul’s major message here is that we can be free from these masters. For some, it is immediate freedom. For others, like our debt, it is freedom toward which, with the help of Christ we will work. But either way, our relationship to Christ begins to reveal the damage that these Masters have created in our lives.

But Paul recognizes another reality. The reality that we are no longer slaves to sin creates a void in our lives. And it is a void that something will battle to fill. After all, we are born into slavery, and we know of no other reality. Paul’s solution is that, as we say goodbye to the Masters of damage in our lives, we become slaves to righteousness or slaves to what is right and beneficial in life. As slaves to righteousness, we begin to work, with the power of God, to change this world in which we live into a better place. We become the architects of compassion and love to those who exist around us. We become the encouragement to people that we were always meant to be.

The fabric of this world in which we live can be changed if we are willing to trade Masters and work with the Spirit of God to make this world a better place for all of us to live. But it has to begin with us – those who have become slaves to righteousness.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 7