What Does 1 Corinthians 3:13 Mean?
Each one's work will be made visible, for the day will show it, because it is uncovered in fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
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
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.THE KEY
The fire both uncovers the work and tests its actual quality.
THE MEANING
Your work does not remain defined by how it looks now: the day makes it visible, and fire tests what kind it is. What the fire reveals is already carried in the work; its hidden quality comes into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that present approval settles the quality of your work is undone: the verse places its disclosure and testing in the day and fire.
THE ROOT
δοκιμάσει
dokimasei
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
To test or examine, bringing a thing’s genuineness or quality into evidence.
The fire’s testing is a quality test: it brings the work’s soundness or failure into evidence. The word’s family includes both what is tested and what is shown to be approved.
ALSO GROWS
dokimos: Approved, genuine
δόκιμος
This branch names what has been shown sound by testing, the quality the fire brings to light.
dokimē: Proof, tested character
δοκιμή
The test produces evidence of what the work is actually like.
ἀποκαλύπτεται
apokalyptetai
GROWS FROM
καλυπτ-
kalypt-
To cover; with ἀπό (apo), the verb carries the sense of uncovering or disclosing.
“uncovered” in this verse is apokalyptetai. The word for being revealed carries the image of a covering removed. Fire exposes what the work is; it does not add the quality that becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
kalyptō: Cover
καλύπτω
This is the covering at the heart of the word for revealing.
apokalypsis: Uncovering, revelation
ἀποκάλυψις
The same word family names disclosure as the movement from covered to visible.
φανερόν
phaneron
GROWS FROM
φανερ-
phaner-
Visible, plain, brought into view.
“made visible” in this verse is phaneron. The verse says the work becomes visible when the day arrives. This same word family appears again when hidden counsels are made manifest in 1 Corinthians 4:5.
ALSO GROWS
phainō: Appear, shine, come into view
φαίνω
The work’s becoming manifest belongs to this family of appearing.
phaneroō: Make visible, make evident
φανερόω
This related verb is used for making hidden things plain in 1 Corinthians 4:5.
THE PATTERN
Fire exposes the real quality of what passes through it.
The smelting pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the LORD probes the hearts.And I will bring the third through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them as gold is tested; they will call upon my nature, and I will hear and respond to them; I will say, It is my people; and they will say, The LORD is my God.so that the proving of your trust, far costlier than gold that perishes though it is tested through fire, may be found unto praise and weight and honor at the unveiling of Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.The phrase “make manifest” uses the same Greek word family as “made manifest” here. One verse brings each person’s work into view; the other extends that disclosure to the hidden counsels of the heart.
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