Charles Spurgeon Commentary Romans 6:20

"For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness." — Romans 6:20 (ASV)

For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

You did not then trouble yourselves about that matter at all; you left the things of God and piety alone.

For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

You did not care about righteousness then. When you served sin, you felt it was utterly indifferent to you what the claims of righteousness might be.

Well, now that you have become the servant of righteousness, be free from sin. Let sin have no more dominion over you now than righteousness used to have when you were the slaves of sin.

What fruit did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? What profit did they ever bring you? There was a temporary delight, like the blossom on the tree in spring, but what fruit did you find? Did it ever come to anything? Is there anything to look back upon with pleasure in a life of sin?

Oh no, those things of which we are now ashamed were fruitless to us, for the end of those things is death.