Romans 6:16 (part 2)

...you are slaves of the one whom you obey   Romans 6:16 (part 2)

We are looking at Romans 6 verse 16 in four parts, this being the second. In part 1, we looked at what Paul meant when he said "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves..." - a sentence he finishes here in part 2: "you are slaves of the one whom you obey" 

At the end of the last post, we looked at the idea of willingly serving as obedient slaves. The Greek word for slave can mean either voluntarily or involuntarily, either way indicating submission to an authority. The fact that Paul uses the word 'present' and 'obedient' implies that we are willing slaves to the one we submit to. He drives that home here in part 2. In a nutshell, this is what Paul is saying:

When you willingly submit to someone, you are their servant, they are your master.

By saying "you are slaves of the one you obey" - Paul brings to light a big question. Who or what is your master, who or what have you submitted to as an obedient slave? This is obviously important for us to know, because (as we will see moving forward), who or what we have submitted to as obedient slaves reveals the state of our soul, and the order of our priorities. So, how do we know who, or what, we have submitted to?

I want to take a little time to look an idea that I think is very revealing. This is not a new concept, I have heard it used to reveal things in different situations, and it answers this question clearly.

What we do ultimately always reveals what we want most.

A couple examples I have heard: 

Example 1: I want to lose weight, and I also want that piece of pie. If I eat the pie, I reveal that I wanted to eat the pie more than I wanted to lose weight. If I pass on the pie and go to the gym, I reveal that I want to lose weight more than I want to eat the pie. 

Example 2: When parents are asked this question: what would you like to see your child excel most in as they grow - sports, academics, faith, honesty and integrity. Almost every parent will say faith, along with honesty and integrity. Then, when asked where they spend most of their time and money, it almost always falls on sports or academics. Where they spend the bulk of their resources (time and money) reveals what they really want. 

We have to be very careful, very aware, because in situations like example 2, we know what the right answer is supposed to be, so we answer according to what we know to be right, and ignore the fact that we aren't revealing that through our actions. Ignoring what we are doing doesn't make the problem go away - that is what Paul is driving home here. You can't ignore what you are doing by saying the 'right' things, because what you are doing reveals what you want, who you have submitted to. 

Now, in order to answer the question we asked earlier: So, how do we know who, or what, we have submitted to? (which we know is important because this reveals who our master is), take some time this week and look at how you spend your resources. The most valuable resource we have is time, so start there. Where does most of your time go? If you have 'free' time, how is it spent. Where does the bulk of your money go? Break it all down in detail, we have to make sure we aren't ignoring what is really going on. Especially as God's children, if we say we love Him, we must make sure our actions are proving that out. 

We will come back to this in the next few posts, as well as look at how we can begin to address some of the problem areas that might be revealed through this exercise.