What Does 1 Corinthians 1:3 Mean?
Favor to you and wholeness, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.THE KEY
Favor and wholeness arrive together as gifts whose source is named in both God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE MEANING
Favor and wholeness reach you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse presents them as gifts, with the Father and Jesus named together as their source. “Christ” identifies Jesus as the anointed one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that favor is a reward you must secure: the verse names God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as its source.
THE ROOT
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
ΧΑΡ-
char-
Favor; a gracious gift freely given.
English “grace” can sound like an abstract quality, while the Greek word carries the sense of favor given. Its related forms show favor becoming an actual gift or act of granting.
ALSO GROWS
charisma: A gift of favor; a grace-gift.
χάρισμα
This form makes favor concrete as something given into a person’s life, echoing the verse’s presentation of favor as a gift.
charizomai: To grant freely, show favor, or forgive.
χαρίζομαι
The related verb carries favor into an act of freely granting, revealing that favor is active giving rather than an abstraction.
charitoō: To bestow favor; to favor.
χαριτόω
This related verb shows favor as something received by a person, matching the verse’s address to “you.”
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
ΕΙΡΗΝ-
eirēn-
Peace; wholeness and well-being.
The word translated “peace” names a condition of wholeness, not only a moment without conflict. Its related forms extend that condition into a way of being and a person who makes peace.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: To be at peace; to live in peace.
εἰρηνεύω
This verb carries wholeness into lived experience, so the peace spoken here describes a condition that can be inhabited.
eirēnopoios: A peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
The compound names one who makes peace, showing that wholeness can also take shape in a person’s actions.
Χριστός
Christos
GROWS FROM
ΧΡΙ-
chri-
Anoint; mark or set apart by anointing.
“Christ” is a title meaning “the anointed one,” identifying Jesus by anointing rather than adding a second personal name. The related words preserve the action and its result beneath the familiar title.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint.
χρίω
The verb names the action behind the title and shows that “Christ” describes Jesus as the one anointed.
chrisma: Anointing; that with which one is anointed.
χρῖσμα
This related noun keeps the title connected to the act and state of anointing.
THE PATTERN
Divine favor is spoken as a gift that brings wholeness into relationship.
The LORD make his face shine upon you, and bend toward you. The LORD lift up his face upon you, and give you wholeness.Therefore, aligned through trust, we have wholeness with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.THE THREAD
Therefore, aligned through trust, we have wholeness with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.Both verses use εἰρήνη (eirēnē, wholeness or peace). Romans names it as peace with God, while this verse names its giver as God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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