6:17 {9} But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that {s} form of doctrine which was delivered you.
(9) By nature we are slaves to sin and free from righteousness, but by the grace of God we are made servants to righteousness, and therefore free from sin.
(s) This type of speech has a special meaning in it: for he means by this that the doctrine of the gospel is like a certain mould in which we are cast, to be shaped and fashioned like it.
6:17 But God be thanked. Not that they have been sinners, but that, having been sinners, they had become obedient to Christ.
Obeyed from the heart. No outward obedience is of the slightest value unless the heart turns to God.
That form of doctrine. Macknight paraphrases this:
I thank God, that although you were formerly the slaves of sin, ye have willingly obeyed the mould of doctrine into which ye were cast at baptism.''
Others, Chrysostom for example, say it refers to Christian teaching as a type of holy living. The nature of Paul's argument, and the fact that it is founded on the significance of baptism, makes Macknight's explanation probable.
6:17 The form of doctrine into which ye have been delivered - Literally it is, The mould into which ye have been delivered; which, as it contains a beautiful allusion, conveys also a very instructive admonition; intimating that our minds, all pliant and ductile, should be conformed to the gospel precepts, as liquid metal, take the figure of the mould into which they are cast.
6:16-20 Every man is the servant of the master to whose commands he yields himself; whether it be the sinful dispositions of his heart, in actions which lead to death, or the new and spiritual obedience implanted by regeneration. The apostle rejoiced now they obeyed from the heart the gospel, into which they were delivered as into a mould. As the same metal becomes a new vessel, when melted and recast in another mould, so the believer has become a new creature. And there is great difference in the liberty of mind and spirit, so opposite to the state of slavery, which the true Christian has in the service of his rightful Lord, whom he is enabled to consider as his Father, and himself as his son and heir, by the adoption of grace. The dominion of sin consists in being willingly slaves thereto, not in being harassed by it as a hated power, struggling for victory. Those who now are the servants of God, once were the slaves of sin.
