We are in bondage either to sin or to righteousness. According to the Apostle Paul we are to be the slave of one or the other.

When we are the slave of sin we are not in bondage to righteousness. When we are the slave of righteousness we are not in bondage to sin.

What fruit was borne while we were the slave of sin? The fruit consisted of hatred, misery, discontent, impatience, harshness, abominable behavior, treachery, stubbornness, and lack of self-control. We did all kinds of things that hurt other people as well as ourselves. We are ashamed of our past life.

The implication is that now that we are a Christian we no longer behave this way. Yet one can easily find this sort of attitude and conduct in numerous Christian churches. We are no different from the world in many instances. Why? Because the sixth chapter of Romans has not been preached correctly.

The inference from Paul's teaching here is that we don't behave this way any longer. The stress is not on grace or imputed righteousness but on righteous, holy personality and behavior. This is what salvation produces and in fact is.

We can tell who is living in the Spirit and who is not by his or her conduct.

Around the 1930s major Pentecostal organizations determined that speaking in tongues is the only evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This was an unfortunate position and needlessly alienated the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination.

Your writer speaks in tongues more than most people and has for several decades. But the evidence of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. Numerous people who have spoken in tongues at some point do not reveal the Holy Spirit in their behavior. Though they have spoken in tongues and may yet speak in tongues their behavior reveals they are not filled with God's Spirit.

The end result of hatred, misery, impatience, treachery, abominable behavior, and so forth is death separation from God. This is true whether or not the individual makes a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

This does not mean that a believer who sees these things in his or her personality has been cast off by the Lord. But it indeed does mean he is to follow the Spirit diligently until the fruit of the Spirit is in evidence rather than the works of the flesh.

The correct understanding of the grace of Christ is that it is the means of bringing us to the place where we are bearing the fruit of godliness. The incorrect understanding of grace, the prevailing understanding, is that grace is a new way in which God relates to man. Grace thus becomes an alternative to moral transformation. The bypass has become the main highway.

The death spoken of here is separation from God. God will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness whether found in a Christian or an unbeliever. This is the message of the Kingdom of God that is to be proclaimed in the days in which we are living.