What Does 1 Corinthians 13:6 Mean?
Love does not rejoice over misalignment, but rejoices with truth.
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
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;THE KEY
The second “rejoiceth” means “rejoices with,” so love’s joy joins truth instead of taking pleasure in wrongdoing.
THE MEANING
Love in you does not delight in injustice or in what distorts what is true. Its joy joins truth as it comes into the open, rather than treating another’s harm as a victory. The verse reveals what your joy is joined to.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that love can celebrate your side winning even when that victory depends on injustice. This verse shows that joy detached from truth is not love’s joy.
THE ROOT
συγχαίρει
synchairei
GROWS FROM
χαίρω
χαίρω (chairō) means “rejoice” or “be glad.” σύν (syn) means “with” or “together”; joined to the verb, it gives συγχαίρω (synchairō), “rejoice with.”
The verse first uses χαίρει (chairei, “rejoices”) for delight in injustice, then συγχαίρει (synchairei, “rejoices with”) for truth. The KJV uses “rejoiceth” both times, while the Greek makes the second joy relational: love rejoices with truth.
ALSO GROWS
chara: joy
χαρά
This word belongs to the same joy family, linking the verse’s rejoicing to joy itself.
synchairō: rejoice with, share in another’s joy
συγχαίρω
The σύν (syn, “with”) prefix reveals that love’s joy is joined to truth, not simply located near it.
ἀληθείᾳ
alētheia
GROWS FROM
λήθη
λήθη (lēthē) means “forgetfulness” or “oblivion”; the word family is commonly connected with λανθάνω (lanthanō), “escape notice” or “be hidden.” ἀλήθεια (alētheia) is associated with what is not hidden.
Truth here is more than a correct statement: it is what stands unveiled. Love’s joy belongs with what can be brought into the open, not with wrongdoing kept out of sight.
ALSO GROWS
lanthanō: escape notice, be hidden
λανθάνω
Its association with hiddenness sharpens the contrast between truth and what injustice conceals.
alēthēs: true, genuine
ἀληθής
This related word describes what is real and trustworthy, extending truth beyond mere words.
ἀδικίᾳ
adikia
GROWS FROM
δίκη
δίκη (dikē) means “justice” or “right.” ἀδικία (adikia, “injustice”) combines the negative prefix ἀ- (a-, “not” or “without”) with δίκη.
“misalignment” in this verse is adikia. The verse names injustice as a lack of what is right, not as a harmless cause for celebration. Love’s refusal to rejoice in it is part of what keeps its joy joined to truth.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: justice, right
δίκη
This is the right that injustice lacks, clarifying what love will not celebrate.
dikaios: just, right
δίκαιος
This related word names what accords with justice, making the verse’s contrast one between injustice and what is right.
THE PATTERN
Love’s joy stays joined to truth and refuses pleasure in injustice or another’s collapse.
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart leap when he stumbles.Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who set darkness for light, and light for darkness, who set bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!I have no greater joy than this, to hear my children walking in truth.THE THREAD
I have no greater joy than this, to hear my children walking in truth.Both verses join joy to truth: 1 Corinthians says love rejoices with truth, and 3 John calls it joy to hear of people walking in truth. The Greek shares the word-family for joy and the same word for truth.
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