Bob Dylan once said, “you gotta serve somebody.” Here are a few of the lyrics.
"You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side, You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair, You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir,But you're gonna have to serve somebody, Yes, you're gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody),Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord ,But you're gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)."
Who do you serve? Who’s your master. To be free from one is to be slave to another. It could be the devil, it could be the Lord. Often we are masters of behavior we know darn well is not good for us, which the Bible calls sin.
Paul makes a stunning and remarkably bold claim about our internal struggle with sin in our section of Scripture, Romans 6:1-14. We have been set free of the internal tyranny of those morally and biblically unhelpful and downright bad for your health choices we call sin. You know what sin is... right? Anything that makes you feel empty, unsatisfied, selfish, unclean. If we are honest, sin and how it makes us feel is an internal meter that tells you things are not right with your soul. Theologically and biblically, it’s anything within us that violates God’s written and moral word for our lives causing a broken and marred relationship with the God who loves us, and with others. This is week #1 of our new series - New Life in Christ for Everyone, an exposition of Romans 6-8. New life is promised in the Resurrection. Are we living it? You have to start by asking, who’s your master?
