Psalms 116:16

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ¹ 

You saved me from death. ² 

Proverbs 5:22

5:22 The wicked ³  will be captured by his ⁴  own iniquities, ⁵ 

and he will be held ⁶  by the cords of his own sin. ⁷ 

Isaiah 28:22

28:22 So now, do not mock,

or your chains will become heavier!

For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,

from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ⁸ 

John 8:34

8:34 Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁹  everyone who practices ¹⁰  sin is a slave ¹¹  of sin.

Romans 6:17-22

6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ¹²  from the heart that pattern ¹³  of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹⁴  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit ¹⁵  did you then reap ¹⁶  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ¹⁷  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ¹⁸  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

Titus 3:2

3:2 They must not slander ¹⁹  anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people.

Titus 2:4

2:4 In this way ²⁰  they will train ²¹  the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children,

Titus 2:1

Conduct Consistent with Sound Teaching

2:1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with ²²  sound teaching.

[116:16]  ¹ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[116:16]  ² tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).

[5:22]  ³ tn The suffix on the verb is the direct object suffix; “the wicked” is a second object by apposition: They capture him, the wicked. Since “the wicked” is not found in the LXX, it could be an old scribal error; or the Greek translator may have simply smoothed out the sentence. C. H. Toy suggests turning the sentence into a passive idea: “The wicked will be caught in his iniquities” (Proverbs [ICC], 117).

[5:22]  ⁴ tn The word is the subject of the clause, but the pronominal suffix has no clear referent. The suffix is proleptic, referring to the wicked.

[5:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “his own iniquities will capture the wicked.” The translation shifts the syntax for the sake of smoothness and readability.

[5:22]  ⁶ sn The lack of discipline and control in the area of sexual gratification is destructive. The one who plays with this kind of sin will become ensnared by it and led to ruin.

[5:22]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew is structured chiastically: “his own iniquities will capture the wicked, by the cords of his own sin will he be held.”

[28:22]  ⁸ tn Or “the whole earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NCV).

[8:34]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:34]  ¹⁰ tn Or “who commits.” This could simply be translated, “everyone who sins,” but the Greek is more emphatic, using the participle ποιῶν (poiwn) in a construction with πᾶς (pas), a typical Johannine construction. Here repeated, continuous action is in view. The one whose lifestyle is characterized by repeated, continuous sin is a slave to sin. That one is not free; sin has enslaved him. To break free from this bondage requires outside (divine) intervention. Although the statement is true at the general level (the person who continually practices a lifestyle of sin is enslaved to sin) the particular sin of the Jewish authorities, repeatedly emphasized in the Fourth Gospel, is the sin of unbelief. The present tense in this instance looks at the continuing refusal on the part of the Jewish leaders to acknowledge who Jesus is, in spite of mounting evidence.

[8:34]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[6:17]  ¹² tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

[6:17]  ¹³ tn Or “type, form.”

[6:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

[6:21]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:21]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

[6:22]  ¹⁷ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

[6:22]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “fruit.”

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “discredit,” “damage the reputation of.”

[2:4]  ²⁰ tn Grk “that they may train” (continuing the sentence of 2:3).

[2:4]  ²¹ tn This verb, σωφρονίζω (swfronizw), denotes teaching in the sense of bringing people to their senses, showing what sound thinking is.

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “say what is fitting for sound teaching” (introducing the behavior called for in this chapter.).