Romans 6:12

THE MESSAGE

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

King James Version (1611)
Let not sinne reigne therfore in your mortall body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

King James Version
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

English Standard Version
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

New American Standard Bible
Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

New Century Version
So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do.

Amplified Bible
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

Berean Standard Bible
Therefore do not let sin control your mortal body so that you obey its desires.

Contemporary English Version
Don't let sin rule your body. After all, your body is bound to die, so don't obey its desires

Complete Jewish Bible
Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires;

Darby Translation
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts.

Easy-to-Read Version
But don't let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let not sinne reigne therefore in your mortal body, yt ye should obey it in ye lusts therof:

George Lamsa Translation
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Good News Translation
Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self.

Lexham English Bible
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires,

Literal Translation
Then do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its lusts.

American Standard Version
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof:

Bible in Basic English
For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires;

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

International Standard Version
Therefore, do not let sin rule your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.Psalm 19:13; 119:133;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
Let not sin then reign in your dead body, as that you may obey the lusts of it:

Murdock Translation
Therefore let not sin reign in your dead body, so that ye obey its lusts.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Let not sinne raigne therefore in your mortall bodie, that ye shoulde thervnto obey by the lustes of it.

English Revised Version
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof:

World English Bible
Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Therefore let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in the desires thereof.

Weymouth's New Testament
Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor regne not synne in youre deedli bodi, that ye obeische to hise coueityngis.

Update Bible Version
Don't let sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the desires thereof:

Webster's Bible Translation
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts of it.

New English Translation
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,

New King James Version
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

New Living Translation
Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.

New Life Bible
So do not let sin have power over your body here on earth. You must not obey the body and let it do what it wants to do.

New Revised Standard
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Let not sin, therefore, reign in your death-doomed body, that ye should be obedient to its covetings;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof.

Revised Standard Version
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Let not synne raygne therfore in youre mortall bodyes that ye shuld thervnto obey in the lustes of it.

Young's Literal Translation
Let not then the sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Let not synne reigne therfore in youre mortall bodye, that ye shulde obeye vnto the lustes of it.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, by making you slaves to the lusts thereof.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Don't let sin have the reins of your life. Don't give in to those sinful desires you'll regret later.

Contextual Overview

¹So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. ⁴When Death Becomes Life So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. ⁵When Death Becomes Life So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. ⁶Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. ¹²That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. ¹⁵So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! ¹⁹ I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? ²⁰As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. ²²But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Let not: Romans 6:16, Romans 5:21, Romans 7:23, Romans 7:24, Numbers 33:55, Deuteronomy 7:2, Joshua 23:12, Joshua 23:13, Judges 2:3, Psalms 19:13, Psalms 119:133

mortal: Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 2 Corinthians 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:4

in the lusts: Romans 6:16, Romans 2:8, Romans 8:13, Romans 13:14, Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:24, Ephesians 2:3, Ephesians 4:22, 1 Thessalonians 4:5, 2 Timothy 2:22, Titus 2:12, Titus 3:3, James 1:14, James 1:15, James 4:1-3, 1 Peter 1:14, 1 Peter 2:11, 1 Peter 4:2, 1 Peter 4:3, 1 John 2:15-17, Jude 1:16, Jude 1:18

Reciprocal: Leviticus 13:7 - General Leviticus 13:40 - hair is fallen off his head Joshua 17:12 - General John 8:34 - Whosoever Romans 1:24 - through the lusts Romans 6:6 - that henceforth Romans 6:14 - sin Romans 7:21 - a law 1 Corinthians 6:13 - but for 1 Corinthians 6:18 - Flee 2 Corinthians 5:10 - in 2 Corinthians 5:15 - that they 2 Peter 2:19 - they themselves

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
When the human race began to increase, with more and more daughters being born, the sons of God noticed that the daughters of men were beautiful. They looked them over and picked out wives for themselves.

Genesis 6:3
Then God said, "I'm not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly. Eventually they're going to die; from now on they can expect a life span of 120 years."

Genesis 6:4
This was back in the days (and also later) when there were giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty men of ancient lore, the famous ones.

Genesis 6:5
God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, "I'll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I'm sorry I made them."

Genesis 6:8
But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.

Genesis 6:13
God said to Noah, "It's all over. It's the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I'm making a clean sweep.

Genesis 6:14
"Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. Build a roof for it and put in a window eighteen inches from the top; put in a door on the side of the ship; and make three decks, lower, middle, and upper.

Genesis 6:17
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.

Genesis 7:1
Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.

Genesis 9:12
God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,.... Since grace reigns in you, sin should not: seeing ye are dead to sin, are baptized into the death of Christ, and are dead with him, and alive through him, sin therefore should not reign in you, and over you. This exhortation does not suppose a freewill power in man naturally, for this is spoken to persons, who had the Spirit and grace of Christ, and in whom God had wrought both to will and to do of his good pleasure; nor is this exhortation unnecessary to believers, though they are dead to sin, and though God has promised it shall not have the dominion over them, and though reigning sin, as divines say, cannot be in regenerate persons; for though they are entirely dead to sin as justified persons, yet not perfectly so as sanctified: they are indeed dead to sin, but sin is not dead in them; it struggles, it makes war, leads captive, and threatens absolute and universal dominion, wherefore such an exhortation is necessary; besides, though God has promised that sin shall not have the dominion, yet making use of means, such as prayer to God that it may not, striving against it, opposing it, in order to hinder its dominion, are no ways inconsistent with the promise of God, whose promises often have their accomplishment in the use of means: moreover, whereas some divines say, that reigning sin may be and others that it cannot be in regenerate persons, it should be observed, that if by reigning sin is meant, sinning against God out of malice and contempt, with the whole heart, without any struggle against it, or repentance for it, or so as to lose the grace of God, and never rise more, then it must be said that it cannot be in a regenerate man; but if by it is meant, falling into sin against their consciences, knowingly and willingly, so as to distress their minds, lose their peace, and grieve the Spirit of God, so as to be held under it, and be led captive by it, such power sin may have in them, and over them; and therefore the exhortation is not needless; and when the apostle says, let it not reign "in your mortal body", by it is either meant the whole man, or rather the body only, which is the instrument of sinning, and is become mortal through sin; and being so, is a reason why it should not reign in it, since it has done so much mischief to it already: and this also denotes the time of sin's being in us, and of the danger of its reigning in us; it is only whilst we are in this mortal body; and the consideration of our mortality should quicken us to war against sin, and be careful not to

obey it in the lusts thereof; the lusts of the body, or flesh, which are therefore sometimes called fleshly lusts, are many, and have great power and influence; and may be said to be obeyed, when provision is made to fulfil them, when these are the business of a man's life, and the whole of his conversation is taken up in them, without struggle against them, or opposition to them; and heroin lies the reign of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let not sin therefore - This is a conclusion drawn from the previous train of reasoning. The result of all these considerations is, that sin should not be suffered to reign in us.

Reign - Have dominion; obtain the ascendency, or rule.

In your mortal body - In you. The apostle uses the word “mortal” here, perhaps, for these reasons,

1. To remind them of the tendency of the flesh to sin and corruption, as equivalent to “fleshly,” since the flesh is often used to denote evil passions and desires (compare Romans 7:5, Romans 7:23; Romans 8:3, Romans 8:6); and,
2. To remind them of their weakness, as the body was mortal, was soon to decay, and was therefore liable to be overcome by temptation. Perhaps, also, he had his eye on the folly of suffering the “mortal body” to overcome the immortal mind, and to bring it into subjection to sin and corruption.

That ye should obey it - That sin should get such an ascendency as to rule entirely over you, and make you the slave.

In the lusts thereof - In its desires, or propensities.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 6:12. Let not sin therefore reign — This is a prosopopoeia, or personification. Sin is represented as a king, ruler, or tyrant, who has the desires of the mind and the members of the body under his control so that by influencing the passions he governs the body. Do not let sin reign, do not let him work; that is, let him have no place, no being in your souls; because, wherever he is he governs, less or more: and indeed sin is not sin without this. How is sin known? By evil influences in the mind, and evil acts in the life. But do not these influences and these acts prove his dominion? Certainly, the very existence of an evil thought to which passion or appetite attaches itself, is a proof that there sin has dominion; for without dominion such passions could not be excited. Wherever sin is felt, there sin has dominion; for sin is sin only as it works in action or passion against God. Sin cannot be a quiescent thing: if it do not work it does not exist.

That ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. — Αυτῃ εν ταις επιθυμιαις αυτου. This clause is wanting in the most ancient and reputable MSS. and in the principal versions. Griesbach has left it out of his text; and Professor White says, Certissime delenda: "These words should certainly he expunged" they are not necessary to the apostle's argument; it was enough to say, Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it. If it be there it will reign there; and its reign supposes, necessarily, the subjection of that in which it reigns. A king reigns when his laws are enforced, and the people obey them. When there is no executive government there is no reign. There may be a royal shadow there, but there is no king.