What is an instrument in Romans 6:13? The Thayer’s Greek lexicon and Strong’s dictionary didn’t help me understand this word.<\/p>\n\t
“Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace<\/em>” (Romans 6:11-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Greek word\u00a0“hoplon”<\/em> is a general term that refers to both tools and weapons. The translation depends on the context. John 18:3 and II Corinthians 10:4 refer to the context of soldiers and warfare. Romans 13:12 and II Corinthians 6:7 refer to protective tools that are worn (armor). Romans 6:13 is vague enough that the translators chose to use a more general term, “instruments,” which could refer to tools or weapons.<\/p>\n
Paul’s point is that we are not to use our bodies as tools or weapons to promote the cause of sin by doing wickedness. Rather, we are to use our bodies to promote the cause of God by doing righteousness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you for this wonderful explanation!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What is an instrument in Romans 6:13? The Thayer’s Greek lexicon and Strong’s dictionary didn’t help me understand this word. Answer: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-89132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55232,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-occasional-sins-lead-to-spiritual-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":0},"title":"Do occasional sins lead to spiritual death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, I heard a preacher recently state that in Romans 6:12-18, Paul makes a distinction between presenting your members as instruments for unrighteousness (Romans 6:13) and slaves of unrighteousness (Romans 6:16) which leads to spiritual death. The point being made here was that when a Christian, on occasion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93842,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-phrase-we-are-now-living-under-grace-incorrect\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":1},"title":"Is the phrase “We are now living under grace” incorrect?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is the phrase, \"We are now living under grace,\" incorrect? Answer: The phrase is based on Romans 6:14, but to understand it properly, let's look at the context: \"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/shall-we-sin-the-real-point-of-romans-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":2},"title":"Shall We Sin? The Real Point of Romans 6","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Randy Blackaby Virtually any survey of Bible teaching on the importance of baptism includes an examination of Romans 6:3-4, which demonstrates how baptism connects the believer with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. This passage illustrates how baptism imitates and is, in fact, a pattern of our Lord's sacrifice. However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51934,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-all-addictions-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":3},"title":"Are all addictions sinful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm still confused about I Corinthians 6:12, where it says, \"I will not be enslaved by anything.\" To me, it sounds like all addictions are sinful. I know we talked about this, but I'm still confused. Answer: In I Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul gave a list of some sins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/after-a-person-becomes-a-christian-can-they-live-as-they-please\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":4},"title":"After a person becomes a Christian, can they live as they please?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are some people who feel that Christians can live a lifestyle pretty much as they please after \u201cbelieving on the Lord Jesus Christ\u201d ( Ephesians 2:8-9; John 5:24; and others). Faith alone in Christ alone with nothing else required, it is all in the rewards. Is that your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37907,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-it-be-faith-or-the-faith-in-ephesians-28-and-colossians-212\/","url_meta":{"origin":89132,"position":5},"title":"Should it be “faith” or “the faith” in Ephesians 2:8 and Colossians 2:12?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings brother Hamilton, I am perplexed as to what the later part of Colossians 2:12 means, \"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye have risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.\" Does this part of the scripture\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}