Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

This is the second argument that Paul presented in this chapter as to why Christians don’t live in sin. The legalistic Jews were pursuing sinless lives so that they could earn God’s favor. Paul had conclusively proven that no one could keep the precepts of the Law and that the Law was never given for the purpose of justification (see Ro 3:19 and Ro 3:31). Therefore, he was explaining that Christians still seek to live holy but for different reasons.

This second reason Paul gave for holiness in our lives as believers is that when we obey sin, we yield ourselves to Satan, the author of that sin. Notice the use of the personal pronoun “whom” in this verse. Yielding to sin is yielding to a person–Satan. God doesn’t impute the sin to us (see Ro 5:13), but the devil does (see Ro 5:14). Our actions release in us either the power of Satan or the power of God.

Therefore, although God is not imputing our sins unto us, we cannot afford the luxury of sin because it allows Satan to have access to us. When we do sin and allow the devil opportunity to produce his death in our lives, then the way to stop that is to confess the sin, and God is faithful and just to take the forgiveness that is already present in our born-again spirits and release it in our flesh, thereby removing Satan and his strongholds (see Ro 4:8).

The Greek word that was translated “servants” twice in this verse is “DOULOS,” and it denotes “a slave” (Strong’s Concordance) (see Ro 1:1). Therefore, Paul was not speaking of an infrequent error on our part but rather a servile condition where one “gives himself up wholly to another’s will” (Thayer’s Lexicon). So Paul was stating that those who abandon themselves to sin are in actuality becoming slaves of the devil, while those who obey righteousness are actually yielding themselves to the Lord. This is the second reason in this chapter as to why a Christian should live holy.