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What fruit had ye then in those things - God designs that every man shall reap benefit by his service. What benefit have ye derived from the service of sin?

Whereof ye are now ashamed? - Ye blush to remember your former life. It was scandalous to yourselves, injurious to others, and highly provoking to God.

The end of those things is death - Whatever sin may promise of pleasure or advantage, the end to which it necessarily tends is the destruction of body and soul.

What fruit, then … - What reward, or what advantage. This is an argument drawn from the experience of Christians respecting the indulgence of sinful passions. The question discussed throughout this chapter is, whether the gospel plan of justification by faith leads to indulgence in sin? The argument here is drawn from the past experience which Christians have had in the ways of transgression. They have tried it; they know its effects; they have tasted its bitterness; they have reaped its fruits. It is implied here that having once experienced these effects, and knowing the tendency of sin, they will not indulge in it now; compare Romans 7:5.

Whereof ye are now ashamed - Having seen their nature and tendency, you are now ashamed of them; compare Ephesians 5:12, “For it is a shame to speak of those things which are done of them in secret,” 2 Corinthians 4:2; Jude 1:13; Philemon 3:19.

For the end - The tendency; the result. Those things lead to death.

Is death - Note, Romans 6:22.

The pleasure and profit of sin do not deserve to be called fruit. Sinners are but ploughing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same. Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certain effect of it. The end of sin is death. Though the way may seem pleasant and inviting, yet it will be bitterness in the latter end. From this condemnation the believer is set at liberty, when made free from sin. If the fruit is unto holiness, if there is an active principle of true and growing grace, the end will be everlasting life; a very happy end! Though the way is up-hill, though it is narrow, thorny, and beset, yet everlasting life at the end of it is sure. The gift of God is eternal life. And this gift is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ purchased it, prepared it, prepares us for it, preserves us to it; he is the All in all in our salvation.