Romans 6:16 (WEB)

Passage

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

Nearby Context

Romans 6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.

Romans 6:18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "present", "yourselves", "servants", "obey", "someone", and "whomever". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "present" and "yourselves", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "What then Shall we sin because we..." into verse 17's "But thanks be to God that whereas...", so "present" and "yourselves" belong inside that flow. In Romans context, the local focus is righteousness by faith, union with Christ, life in the Spirit, and God's covenant faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "present" and "yourselves" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.