What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
What, fruit had ye then [ tote (G5119 ), or 'at that time,'] [in those things] whereof ye are now ashamed? The Syriac version gives a different punctuation of this verse, which gives a different turn to the sense, as follows: 'What fruit had ye then? [things] whereof ye are now ashamed,' etc. In that case the "fruit" does not mean the profit of sin, but the actings of sin. This punctuation has been followed by Clement of Alexandria, and one or two other Greek fathers; by Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon; by Tholuck, DeWette, Olshausen, Philippi, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, and Green; with Lachmann and Tischendorf, but not Tregelles. With Beza, we think this is forced. It is, indeed, contended (by, Reiche, Olshausen, DeWette, and Alford) that "fruit" in the New Testament is used, not of 'advantage' or 'benefit,' but of 'actings.' But it has been well replied that it is not the word "fruit" alone which we have here, but the phrase "having fruit," which may well express something different; and in Romans 1:13 the same phrase of "having fruit" is certainly not used of acts done, but of benefit expected. Taking this view of the sense, the punctuation of our own version has the support of at least as many and as good critics as the other (such as Chrysostom, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Estius, Wetstein, Bengel, Fritzsche, Meyer, Hodge). The whole verse down to "ashamed" seems clearly to be (as Meyer says) one connected question: 'What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?'
For the end of those things is death. In the light of their own dreadful experience in the past of Sin's service, what permanent advantage, and what abiding satisfaction, have those things yielded? The apostle answers his own question: 'Abiding satisfaction, did I ask? They have left only a sense of "shame." Permanent advantage? "The end of them is death.'" By saying they were "now ashamed," he makes it plain that he is not referring to that disgust at themselves and remorse of conscience by which those who are the most helplessly "sold under sin" are often stung to the quick; but that ingenuous feeling of self-reproach which pierces and weighs down the children of God as they think of the dishonour which their past life did to His name, the ingratitude it displayed, the violence it did to their own conscience, its deadening and degrading effects, and the death - "the second death" - to which it was dragging them down, when mere Grace arrested them. On the sense of "death" here, see the notes at Romans 5:12-21, note 3, and at Romans 6:16 of this chapter: see also Revelation 21:8.