believers cannot live in sin, inasmuch as they have become the servants of another master, he applies the general truth stated in the preceding verses more directly to his immediate readers, and gives thanks that they, being emancipated from their former bondage, are now bound to a master whose service is perfect liberty. The expression in the first member of this verse is somewhat unusual, although the sense is plain. ' God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but,' &c. for ' God be thanked, that ye, being the servants of sin, have obeyed,' &c.
But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. The construction of the original is here doubtful and difficult. It may be resolved thus, ' Ye have obeyed that form of doctrine into which ye have been delivered, i. e. to which ye have become sub- jected.' Or the sentence may be thus explained, ' Ye have obeyed that form or doctrine which»was delivered unto you.' Compare Rom. 3 : 2. Gal. 2:7. ' Which was delivered unto you,"* for ' lohich ye had (or pos- sessed) delivered.'' The grammatical structure of the sentence is in this case entirely different from that assumed in the former explanation, but the sense is much the same. The general idea is, ye have obeyed, the doctrines which ye have received.
Form of doctrine. Form, i. e. type, image, model, rule. The word has all these meanings. The last seems the best suited to this passage. They were obedient to the gospel as a rule of faith and practice. If even in ordinary cases a servant is obedient to his master, there is little reason to apprehend that Christians, who, from the heart have become obedient to the gospel, will relapse into the service of sin.
(18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteous^ ness. Having been emancipated from one master, they became subject to another. The illustration is the same as in the preceding verses. It is absurd that a slave just emancipated should voluntarily return to his former bondage ; so it is absurd to suppose that the Christian, delivered from the bondage of sin, should return to it. For the service to which he is introduced is, in fact, liberty in its highest and truest sense. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," John 8 : 36.
(19) / speak after the manner of men on account of the infirmity of your flesh, &c. The phrase / speak after the manner of men means, in this case, *I say what is common among men,' i. e. I use an illustration borrowed from the common affairs of life. The apostle appears to have felt that the illustration was inadequate and beneath the dignity of his subject. He, therefore, states why he used it. He was forced to bor- row a comparison from the relations of men on account of the infirmity of their flesh. This, according to the familiar scriptural idiom, means carnal infirmity. The two ideas of weakness and corruption are com- monly united in the scriptural use of the v/oxAfiesh. The apostle, there- fore, means to intimate that it was on account of a want of spiritual apprehension on the part of his readers, or because of a weakness arising from their being corrupt, that he was sbliged to use such figures.