I am going to break verse 16 into four parts because I think it lays out some very important Truths that I don't want to miss. I want God to use the depth of His Word to convict me and draw me closer to Him.
Today, I want to look at the first part of verse 16. Paul starts with this phrase: 'do you not know' - which, I think, kind of gives the feeling that this is a clear fact, that we should know. Paul uses they same phrase in verse 3 of this same chapter: 'Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?'
- in verse 3, Paul was stating what he thought should be very clear - children of God should not going on embracing the sin in their life, because of the clear fact that we have been baptized into Christ's death, which is death to sin.
- here in verse 16, it seems that Paul is setting the stage by informing us that what he is about to reveal in the next verses is clear Truth, something we ought to know.
So, what does Paul think we ought to know so clearly? He will spend some time laying it out, but he starts with this: 'if you present yourselves to anyone...' - First question: what does it mean to present yourself to someone?
The Greek word translated 'present' is interesting. It is translated into many different words throughout the bible, including: assist, by (standing by someone), commend, give, present, stand, yield, come.
The actual Strongs definition is this: to stand beside, that is, (transitively) to exhibit, proffer, (specifically) recommend, (figuratively) substantiate; or (intransitively) to be at hand (or ready), aid: - assist, bring before, command, commend, give presently, present, prove, provide, shew, stand (before, by, here, up, with), yield.
From the definition and usage, we can see that Paul is saying this: presenting ourselves to someone means we are standing beside them, we are offering ourselves to them, we are assisting them, yielding ourselves to them as a willing helper, partner, and servant.
Two examples that came to mind were husband/wife and employer/employee. The husband/wife example magnifies the partner aspect. A husband presents himself to his wife, and the wife to her husband, as willing partners who will assist each other, stand by each other, and yield to each other. The employer/employee example magnifies the servant aspect. An employee willingly presents himself to his employer as his authority, assisting his employer in his business, offering his services to his employer as a helper, on the same team.
Paul wraps all of that into this Greek word present. As we learn more about what Paul is saying, we will come back to this word and what it all encompasses to gain a clear understanding of what Paul is revealing - it's so important!
Back to the beginning of verse 16: Paul says IF you present yourselves to anyone...what does he mean by IF? Is there a choice to be made here - that we can choose to present our not present ourselves? Can we choose to serve God, Satan, both, or neither?
We know from Mathew 6:24 that we can't serve two masters. We can't serve both God and Satan, we can't be on the same side of both God and Satan, we can't present ourselves as to both God and Satan as our authority.
"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Mathew 6:24
In the verse above, Jesus tells us that we can't serve God and money because when we show our devotion to one, we are showing our lack of devotion to the other. When we show our devotion to money over God, we show that we despise God as our authority. When we show our devotion to God, we show we despise anything else as our authority...including money.
To answer our question then: can we choose to serve God, Satan, both, or neither? - we know we cannot serve both. I think the way Jesus explained it, he also alluded to the fact that we can't choose to serve neither - we love one and hate the other, we are devoted to one and despise the other - there wasn't a choice given to be neutral and serve no one.
Paul has also laid out throughout Romans why it is impossible to choose to be neutral and not serve God or Satan. By default, we are sinful. By default, we are opposed to God. By default, we are condemned. This is because we are, by default, born of a fallen race - the descendants of Adam, who was a perfect representation of us.
Since we are born into this fallen race, we are automatically enemies of God - In the first few chapters of Romans, Paul went into great detail explaining how we hate God, we hate His design, His authority. In John we read that we are of the darkness, we despise the light. What does this mean? By despising God as our authority, we choose to present ourselves to Satan, as his willing servants.
When God saves us, we are able to love Him, and present ourselves to Him as willing servants - and at the same time we show that we now despise the darkness, we despise Satan and everything he is about.
We cannot choose to be neutral in this matter. By denying one, we present ourselves as willing servants to the other - or - by presenting ourselves as willing servants to one, we deny the other.
Paul then drives home the point that whoever we serve, we serve willingly - as obedient slaves. We are not forced to serve one or the other. The fact that we serve Satan because we were born into sinfulness doesn't mean we don't have a choice - that simply means that we are born into what we would have chosen from the beginning. Adam represented perfectly what we would have done - and therefore brought us all to the place we deserve - a place of condemnation and darkness, under the authority of Satan.
If we are saved, adopted into God's family as His children, we then serve Him willingly. Neither God or Satan forces anyone to serve them.
We present ourselves to one or the other as obedient slaves, not forced slaves - this is important to notice because, in our culture, we see the word 'slaves' in a negative light. Paul is talking about obedient, willing servants in this context. Slaves indicates that we have submitted completely to a higher authority.
Who is the higher authority to whom you have submitted?
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