Romans 6:21

What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

BSB

What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

KJV

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

ASV

What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

BBE

What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death.

Original Greek

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The early church

So great was the slavery, that even the recollection of it now makes you ashamed; but if the recollection makes one ashamed, the reality would much more. And so you gained now in two ways, in having been freed from the shame; and also in having come to know the condition you were in; just as then ye were injured in two ways, in doing things deserving shame, and in not even knowing to be ashamed. And this is worse than the former. Yet still ye kept in a state of servitude. Having then proved most abundantly the harm of what took place then from the shame of it, he comes to the thing in question. Now what is this thing? "For the end of those things is death." Since then shame seems to be no such serious evil, he comes to what is very fearful, I mean death; though in good truth what he had before mentioned were enough. For consider how exceeding great the mischief must be, inasmuch as, even when freed from the vengeance due to it, they could not get free of the shame. What wages then, he says, do you expect from the reality, when from the bare recollection, and that too when you are freed from the vengeance, you hide your face and blush, though under such grace as you are! But God's side is far otherwise.
John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on Romans

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 21–23

The pleasure and profit of sin do not deserve to be called fruit. Sinners are but ploughing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same. Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certain effect of it. The end of sin is death. Though the way may seem pleasant and inviting, yet it will be bitterness in the latter end. From this condemnation the believer is set at liberty, when made free from sin. If the fruit is unto holiness, if there is an active principle of true and growing grace, the end will be everlasting life; a very happy end! Though the way is up-hill, though it is narrow, thorny, and beset, yet everlasting life at the end of it is sure. The gift of God is eternal life. And this gift is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ purchased it, prepared it, prepares us for it, preserves us to it; he is the All in all in our salvation.

Read Matthew Henry on Romans 6 →

Cross-references

42

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.