Bible Strands
Romans 7:11
For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Roman believers, continuing his explanation after verse 10 where he notes the commandment meant for life brought death. He speaks as a former law-keeper describing his personal encounter with the law's fatal interaction with human nature.
The words — ἀφορμὴν (aphormēn) means "an occasion" or "opportunity," and λαβοῦσα (labousa) translates literally as "having taken." Together they describe sin actively grasping the commandment as a foothold.
The thread — This pattern of deception through a divine directive appears in Genesis 3:13, where the serpent's deception leads to eating, and parallels Romans 7:8, where sin uses the commandment to produce covetous desire. Jeremiah 17:9 reinforces the theme of inherent human deceitfulness.
Why it lands — The text states that sin used the commandment to deceive and kill, while the law remains holy and good. A reader must acknowledge that external righteousness cannot override internal deception and must examine how divine standards are exploited rather than blamed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
- Romans 7:8 But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
- Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
- Jeremiah 49:16 The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Romans 7:13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
- James 1:22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
- James 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
- Obadiah 1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’