The Greek verbs translated surrender and give come from the same stem, though their tenses are different. The first verb, a present tense, intimates that Paul considers the Roman Christians to be in the process of surrendering “part of themselves to sin”; so the meaning of this imperative is something like “stop surrendering any part of yourselves to sin” (see New English Bible “you must no longer put its several parts at sin’s disposal”). The second of these imperatives is an aorist and suggests that they are now to give themselves once and for all to God. Any part of yourselves (Jerusalem Bible “any part of your body”) and your whole being (Jerusalem Bible “every part of your body”) translate the same expressions in Greek. The Good News Translation takes the first of the phrases in a distributive sense, focusing attention on the individual parts of the body, and then takes the second phrase as a summary expression of one’s whole being, thus focusing attention on the body as a unit (so New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible). Most translations render both phrases by the same expression, generally in a way similar to the rendering of the Good News Bible.
To be used for wicked purposes and to be used for righteous purposes are literally in Greek “instruments of wickedness” and “instruments of righteousness.” Note how the Good News Translation transforms Paul’s noun phrases into verb phrases. It is necessary to do this in many languages. (See also New English Bible “as implements for doing wrong” and “as implements for doing right.”)
A term such as surrender may be rendered as “allow”—for example, “you must not allow any part of yourself to sin,” “you must not permit any part of you to sin,” or, as in some languages, “you must not give freedom to any part of yourself so that it may sin.” If sin in such instances is rendered as the active process of sinning rather than the principle of sin, the phrase to be used for wicked purposes is simply a further explanation—for example, “that is to say, to be used to do evil” or simply “to do evil.” When one can retain sin as an active principle, it is preferable to do so and thus translate the first clause as “you must not surrender any part of yourself to the power of sin.” In this way one can preserve the parallelism with the second part of verse 13—for example, “rather, you must give yourself to God.”
As men who have been brought from death to life may be best rendered in some languages as a separate sentence—for example, “you are like men who are no longer dead but alive” or “you are like men who were dead, so to speak, but whom God has now caused to live.”
The last clause of verse 13 may be translated as “you must give yourselves completely to God so that he will use you to do what is right.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .