What Does 1 Corinthians 1:9 Mean?
God is steady, through whom you were called into sharing in common with his Son, Jesus the Anointed One, our Lord.
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
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.THE KEY
The call into the Son’s life rests on God’s steadiness and opens a shared life, not a private achievement.
THE MEANING
God’s reliability is the ground beneath this call: you are called into sharing in the life of Jesus, the Anointed One. This belonging is participation in a life held in common, not distant admiration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that your place in this shared life depends on your own steadiness loses its ground: the call rests on God’s.
THE ROOT
κοινωνία
koinōnia
GROWS FROM
κοιν- (koin-), from κοινός (koinos)
Common, shared.
“Fellowship” can sound like a feeling of closeness, but this word carries the sense of sharing in common. You are called into participation in the Son’s life, not simply into an association around him.
ALSO GROWS
koinōneō: To share or participate.
κοινωνέω
The verb makes fellowship active: it is taking part in what is shared.
koinōnos: A partner or participant.
κοινωνός
This branch shows that sharing in common makes people participants in the same life.
πιστός
pistos
GROWS FROM
πειθ- (peith-), from πείθω (peithō)
To persuade or trust; the word family also carries the sense of being dependable and firm.
“steady” in this verse is pistos. Here, “faithful” names God’s steadiness: God is dependable, the ground from which the call comes. Trust belongs to the same word family, holding reliance together with the reliability that makes reliance possible.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: To persuade or trust.
πείθω
It links trust with being persuaded by or relying on what is dependable.
pistis: Trust or reliance; leaning your full weight on someone.
πίστις
This branch shows the response made possible by God’s firmness: reliance on the one who holds steady.
THE PATTERN
What is shared in common becomes a lived bond among people, not a private possession.
A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!And they held fast in the teaching of the sent ones, and in sharing in common, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.That which we have perceived and heard, we declare to you, so that you also may share in common with us. And truly our sharing in common is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
That which we have perceived and heard, we declare to you, so that you also may share in common with us. And truly our sharing in common is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One.John uses the same word, κοινωνία (koinōnia, sharing in common), for fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son. That shared meaning opens this verse further: the call draws you into participation in the Son’s life.
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