Whom Will We Serve?

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)

Paul said that when we yield ourselves to someone, we become slaves of the one we obey. If we yield to, let’s say, immorality, we become slaves of immorality. We cannot yield to sin without becoming its slaves. Thus, we must decide to whom and to what we want to yield. Some of us don’t like choices, but in the spiritual life, we cannot avoid them.

At the end of his career, Joshua gave Israel a choice:

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth... And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14–15)

Joshua challenged the Israelites to make a choice, and this choice has never changed. It is not whether we will serve; it is whom we will serve. Serve we will. Before we were redeemed, we had no choice. We could not keep from sinning; there was no other option but to be slaves to sin and servants of Satan. After we experience redemption through faith in Jesus Christ, though, we have another option: we can choose to serve God and be “slaves” to righteousness.