Beyond the Veil!

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" - Romans 6:16

The question asked by the Apostle Paul, above, is one which I have been pondering. Why does he ask such a, seemingly, obvious and redundant question? This simplicity of it, makes me wonder if there isn't more to it, and I believe that there is!

I often think that we do things in life, expecting totally different results to that which we end up getting. For instance, if you invest your money in some sort of investment scheme that promises a certain return and when the investment finally pays out you get nowhere near the return promised, in fact you lose money. Naturally you will be disappointing.

One of two things could have happened here: Either you were deceived into thinking that there was be money to be made, or there really was money to be made and due to unforeseen circumstances (market related), your return was less than initially expected.

When Paul asks the question above, I think he is speaking to those people who fall into the first category; the one of, "I was taken for a ride". You see, it is human nature to measure and weigh things and then make decisions based on the outcome of your predictions; thus, making YOU god in your life. 

By submitting yourself to YOU, your logic and your intellect, you are in fact engaging in one of the most common forms of idolatry, known as pride. You thus become a slave to your limited knowledge, abilities and obvious frailties.

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey ..? When we obey our impulses and selfish desires we get deceived into thinking that the returns on this will be advantageous; we become slaves to this illusion. This is the veil that clouds carnal decision making. 

Our decisions must be made in the spirit, backed up by the word and covered by prayer. Without this we will be at the mercy of carnal mindedness, which can only lead one way ...

"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" - Romans 8:6