“As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
My Notes
What Does Romans 8:36 Mean?
Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 in the middle of his most triumphant chapter: "For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Immediately after declaring that nothing can separate believers from Christ's love (verses 35-37), he quotes a verse about being killed daily and counted as animals for slaughter.
The juxtaposition is deliberate: the inseparable love of Christ coexists with daily danger. Being loved by God doesn't mean being protected from suffering. It means being sustained through it. The sheep are being slaughtered. And they are more than conquerors (verse 37). Both are true simultaneously.
"For thy sake" means the killing isn't random. It's connected to belonging to God. The suffering is vocational. You're killed because of whose you are, not because of what you did wrong. The slaughter is the cost of the relationship.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Can you hold both truths — inseparable love and daily killing — without abandoning either one?
- 2.How does 'for thy sake' (suffering because of whose you are) change the meaning of your difficulties?
- 3.Where have you concluded that suffering disproves love — and does this verse challenge that?
- 4.What does it mean to be 'more than conquerors' through the slaughter, not instead of it?
Devotional
For your sake we are killed all day long. We're sheep walking toward the slaughter. And nothing can separate us from your love.
Paul holds these two realities in the same breath. He doesn't resolve the tension. He presents it. You are loved with an inseparable, unbreakable, nothing-in-all-creation-can-overcome love. And you are being killed daily. Both. At the same time.
This is the verse that demolishes prosperity theology without a word of argument. The most loved people in the universe are described as sheep for the slaughter. Daily killing. Not occasional difficulty — daily. Not metaphorical — killed. And the entire context is God's unshakeable love.
The love doesn't prevent the slaughter. The slaughter doesn't disprove the love. They coexist. And if you can't hold both truths simultaneously, you'll either deny the suffering (pretend it's not happening) or deny the love (conclude God has abandoned you).
Paul does neither. He quotes the slaughter and then says: in all these things we are more than conquerors. Not despite the slaughter. Through it. The killing is the arena. The conquest happens inside it. You conquer not by avoiding the slaughter but by being loved through it.
"For thy sake" — this is the only reason that makes the suffering bearable. It's not meaningless. It's not random. It's for Him. The slaughter has a "sake." And the sake is the God whose love surrounds the sheep even as they're led to the knife.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed,.... This passage is a citation out of Psa 44:22; and the meaning is, that…
As it is written - Psa 44:22. This passage the apostle quotes not as having originally reference to Christians, but as…
As it is written - And these are no more than we may naturally expect from the present constitution of the world, and…
The apostle closes this excellent discourse upon the privileges of believers with a holy triumph, in the name of all the…
As it is written In Psalms 44 (LXX. 43):22. The Gr. is verbatim from the LXX. The quotation refers specially to the last…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture