Have you ever heard the saying, “Be careful what owns you?” We do not like the idea of being owned by something else. Most of us would believe that we are our own person. Nothing owns us! The question remains: does something own you?  

Now, many of you may not relate to this story, but I have friends who own lots of “toys.” These toys can be hobbies, cars, trucks, boats, houses, pools, and hot tubs. However, all of these toys come with a price to purchase, and they come with a price to maintain them. I know of a friend who was trying to get his cabin and property ready for the winter, but he was having trouble starting his boat to get it out of the water before winter came. Many of the troubles surrounding these toys felt like they were crashing in on him. He did not have enough time or knowledge to fix the boat, but if he did not get it out of the water before the freezing weather, it was going to further damage the boat. However, if he spent all his time working on the boat, the property and cabin would not be ready for the winter. He only had so much time until he had to get back to where he lived to take care of his family and job responsibilities. Feeling overwhelmed, the thought came to mind of how much these “toys” owned him. They were distracting him from what he was called to be. 

1. Do you ever struggle with “toys” or “things of this world” owning you? Please explain. 

2. Do you embrace the idea that “nothing owns me, I am my own person”? Are you offended by the idea that we allow the things of this world to own us sometimes? Please explain.  

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:12-23, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Paul is challenging us to be careful as to what owns us. We should not let sin rule our bodies or obey its passions. It is almost like Paul is giving the advice to be careful as to what owns you. Will it be the cares, desires, sins, or toys of this world that own us? Or will we present ourselves to God? We are to present ourselves to God because He has brought us from death to life, and it even goes further that we are to allow ourselves to be used for righteousness. The things of God should “own us,” not the passions of sin or the things of this world. Further, sin will not have dominion over you because it is by God’s grace that you have been saved. You have been freed from the weight of the Law. 

3. Do you struggle with the idea that the things of God should “own” us because we, who have put our trust in Christ, have been brought from death to life? Why or why not? 

4. It seems like a choice is being set up for us. When we talk about sin, do you feel like you have a choice, or do you feel like you are helpless in fighting against sin? Please explain. 

I heard a sermon where a pastor was detailing the choices that are before us when it comes to what Paul is describing here. Either we present ourselves in this body to serve our sinful nature, leading to unrighteousness, or we can present ourselves in this body to serve God, leading to righteousness. Summed up, you serve God or your body. The Law referred to in the passage is that suffering and the consequences of sinful nature help point to God’s Law, and grace is the salvation we have through Christ’s death on the cross. 

5. How did Christ’s death fulfill the Law? 

6. Do you see how Christ’s death now allows us to be free from being owned by sin, and being free to live for God or being owned by God? Explain this to the group. 

Paul further writes in Romans 6:15-18, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Here, Paul asks a question, “Are we allowed to sin now because we have God’s grace? Can we do what we want since we are trapped in a sinful world?” No, we cannot. If we present ourselves to sin, then we are being owned by sin (Paul uses the term slave). I know this seems very weird to us, and we do not like the term slave in our culture, but we will be obedient to sin leading to death or righteousness leading to life. 

7. Is the word slave a stumbling block to you as you read this passage? Are you okay with the freedom that God brings? For Him to bring freedom, then something had to enslave us. Do you agree? 

8. One commentator wrote, “Before you came to faith, you were a perfectly obedient slave to sin; you did everything your master wanted you to do. The problem is, that master was evil, and everything it required was unrighteous.” Do you agree or disagree? Why? 

Lastly, Paul wrote in Romans 6:19-23, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We see the Scriptures revealing that presenting our bodies to righteousness will lead to sanctification. This is the process of being more and more Christ-like, and it further describes the fruit that will come from this process. We all know that you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).  

9. Which master are you feeding? Are you feeding the master that leads to death or the Master that leads to life? 

10. Do you agree or disagree with the warning, “Be careful what owns you”?