17 But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed;
Keep the form of those true words which you had from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
First of all, I give praise to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because news of your faith has gone into all the world.
But praise be to God who makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of him.
We give praise to God at all times for you, keeping you in memory in our prayers; Having ever in mind your work of faith and acts of love and the strength of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father;
For how great is the praise which we give to God for you, and how great the joy with which we are glad because of you before our God;
It is right for us to give praise to God at all times for you, brothers, because of the great increase of your faith, and the wealth of your love for one another;
I give praise to God, whose servant I have been, with a heart free from sin, from the time of my fathers, because in my prayers at all times the thought of you is with me, night and day Desiring to see you, keeping in my memory your weeping, so that I may be full of joy; Having in mind your true faith, which first was in your mother's mother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and, I am certain, is now in you.
I give praise to God at all times and make prayer for you,
By faith Abraham did as God said when he was ordered to go out into a place which was to be given to him as a heritage, and went out without knowledge of where he was going.
But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven.
Wives, be ruled by your husbands; so that even if some of them give no attention to the word, their hearts may be changed by the behaviour of their wives,
So that you may give the rest of your lives in the flesh, not to the desires of men, but to the purpose of God. Because for long enough, in times past, we have been living after the way of the Gentiles, given up to the desires of the flesh, to drinking and feasting and loose behaviour and unclean worship of images; And they are wondering that you no longer go with them in this violent wasting of life, and are saying evil things of you: But they will have to give an account of themselves to him who is ready to be the judge of the living and the dead.
For the time has come for the judging, starting with the church of God; but if it makes a start with us, what will be the end of those who are not under the rule of God?
It gave me great joy to see some of your children walking in the true way, even as we were ordered to do by the Father.
I give praise to my God at every memory of you, And in all my prayers for you all, making my request with joy, Because of your help in giving the good news from the first day till now;
Wealth and honour come from you, and you are ruler over all, and in your hand is power and strength; it is in your power to make great, and to give strength to all. So now, our God, we give you praise, honouring the glory of your name. But who am I and what is my people, that we have power to give so freely in this way? for all things come from you, and what we have given you is yours. For we, as all our fathers were, are like men from a strange country before you, who have got a place for a time in the land; our days on the earth are like a shade, and there is no hope of going on. O Lord our God, all this store, which we have made ready for the building of a house for your holy name, comes from your hand and is yours.
From the time when my name comes to their ears they will be ruled by me: men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority.
At that time Jesus made answer and said, I give praise to you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have kept these things secret from the wise and the men of learning, and have made them clear to little children. Yes, Father, for so it was pleasing in your eyes.
And I will keep myself from talking of anything but those things which Christ has done by me to put the Gentiles under his rule in word and in act,
But is now made clear; and by the writings of the prophets, by the order of the eternal God, the knowledge of it has been given to all the nations, so that they may come under the rule of the faith;
Putting an end to reasonings, and every high thing which is lifted up against the knowledge of God, and causing every thought to come under the authority of Christ; Being ready to give punishment to whatever is against his authority, after you have made it clear that you are completely under his control.
Give praise without end for you, keeping you in mind in my prayers;
Even when we were dead through our sins, gave us life together with Christ (by grace you have salvation), So that we came back from death with him, and are seated with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus; That in the time to come he might make clear the full wealth of his grace in his mercy to us in Christ Jesus: Because by grace you have salvation through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is given by God: Not by works, so that no man may take glory to himself. For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them.
And the brothers, when they had news of us, came out from town as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to have a meeting with us: and Paul, seeing them, gave praise to God and took heart.
For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another. But when the mercy of God our Saviour, and his love to man was seen, Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but in the measure of his mercy, he gave us salvation, through the washing of the new birth and the giving of new life in the Holy Spirit, Which he gave us freely through Jesus Christ our Saviour; So that, having been given righteousness through grace, we might have a part in the heritage, the hope of eternal life.
Though I had said violent words against God, and done cruel acts, causing great trouble: but I was given mercy, because I did it without knowledge, not having faith; And the grace of our Lord was very great, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. It is a true saying, in which all may put their faith, that Christ Jesus came into the world to give salvation to sinners, of whom I am the chief: But for this reason I was given mercy, so that in me, the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might make clear all his mercy, as an example to those who in the future would have faith in him to eternal life.
Have you not knowledge that evil-doers will have no part in the kingdom of God? Have no false ideas about this: no one who goes after the desires of the flesh, or gives worship to images, or is untrue when married, or is less than a man, or makes a wrong use of men, Or is a thief, or the worse for drink, or makes use of strong language, or takes by force what is not his, will have any part in the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you have been washed, you have been made holy, you have been given righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 6
Commentary on Romans 6 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 6
The apostle having at large asserted, opened, and proved, the great doctrine of justification by faith, for fear lest any should suck poison out of that sweet flower, and turn that grace of God into wantonness and licentiousness, he, with a like zeal, copiousness of expression, and cogency of argument, presses the absolute necessity of sanctification and a holy life, as the inseparable fruit and companion of justification; for, wherever Jesus Christ is made of God unto any soul righteousness, he is made of God unto that soul sanctification, 1 Co. 1:30. The water and the blood came streaming together out of the pierced side of the dying Jesus. And what God hath thus joined together let not us dare to put asunder.
Rom 6:1-23
The apostle's transition, which joins this discourse with the former, is observable: "What shall we say then? v. 1. What use shall we make of this sweet and comfortable doctrine? Shall we do evil that good may come, as some say we do? ch. 3:8. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Shall we hence take encouragement to sin with so much the more boldness, because the more sin we commit the more will the grace of God be magnified in our pardon? Is this a use to be made of it?' No, it is an abuse, and the apostle startles at the thought of it (v. 2): "God forbid; far be it from us to think such a thought.' He entertains the objection as Christ did the devil's blackest temptation (Mt. 4:10): Get thee hence, Satan. Those opinions that give any countenance to sin, or open a door to practical immoralities, how specious and plausible soever they be rendered, by the pretension of advancing free grace, are to be rejected with the greatest abhorrence; for the truth as it is in Jesus is a truth according to godliness, Tit. 1:1. The apostle is very full in pressing the necessity of holiness in this chapter, which may be reduced to two heads:-His exhortations to holiness, which show the nature of it; and his motives or arguments to enforce those exhortations, which show the necessity of it.