ROMANS 6:17, C. H. Cayce Brother J. B. Adams, Farmington, Ky., requests our views of Rom. 6:17, and asks, “Why should God be thanked that we were once the servants of sin?” – That text reads, in the King James translation, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” It is not the teaching of the apostle here that we are to thank God that we were once the servants of sin. At least, that is not what we think he meant to teach. The idea is that he thanked God that they are not servants of sin now, though they once were. The original language, as is more clearly expressed in the Revised Translation, has in it the idea that could more clearly be expressed in modern English in this way, “But God be thanked that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart,” etc. Another idea which is not clearly brought out in the King James translation is that they were delivered, and that, for this reason, they are no more the servants of sin. The idea is, “unto which, ye were delivered.” They were delivered from the power and dominion of sin; though they were once the servants of sin, Paul thanked God that they were no more the servants of sin; they have been delivered from that and have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching or doctrine unto which they had been delivered. Their hearts were made good when they were thus delivered. Hence they obeyed from a heart that had been made good. They were first made children of God, and then they obeyed. The Primitive Baptist, March 13, 1917.