What Does 1 Corinthians 3:14 Mean?
If anyone's work, which he built on it, stays, he will take a wage.
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
If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.THE KEY
The verse ties reward to what keeps its place on the foundation: endurance is the hinge between building and recompense.
THE MEANING
What you build upon the foundation has a future beyond the moment of building. When it remains, you receive a reward; what endures carries consequence now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that finishing a work automatically guarantees its reward gives way here: the work must remain.
THE ROOT
μενεῖ
meneî
GROWS FROM
μεν-
Remain, stay, continue.
“stays” in this verse is meneî. The word describes work that continues to hold its place. In the same word family, a dwelling is a place of staying and a related compound describes enduring under pressure, bringing both duration and steadfastness into “abide.”
ALSO GROWS
monē: Dwelling, abode; a place to stay.
μονή
This related noun gives remaining a sense of lasting residence, illuminating work that keeps its place on the foundation.
hypomenō: Endure, remain steadfast; literally, remain under.
ὑπομένω
This compound carries the sense of continuing under pressure, fitting work that survives the testing described around this verse.
ἐπῳκοδόμησεν
epōikodomēsen
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομ-
Build a house; build up.
The Greek verb belongs to the house-building word family, so the work is pictured as something structural, laid onto a foundation. Its endurance is the staying power of a built thing.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomē: Building, structure; building up.
οἰκοδομή
The related noun keeps the verse’s architectural image visible: what is built has a form that can remain.
oikodomos: Builder, house-builder.
οἰκοδόμος
This word names the one doing the building and reinforces that the work is constructed upon a base.
μισθόν
misthon
GROWS FROM
μισθ-
Pay, wages, recompense.
“wage” in this verse is misthon. The word family gives “reward” a concrete sense of recompense. The verse connects that return to work that endures.
ALSO GROWS
misthoō: Hire or pay wages.
μισθόω
This verb shares the wage-word family, making the promised reward sound like a tangible return.
misthōtos: Hired worker, wage-earner.
μισθωτός
This related word keeps the language of payment close to the verse’s promise of recompense.
THE PATTERN
What has deep roots or a sound foundation shows its worth through what endures under pressure.
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds breathed and fell against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been laid on the rock.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
You did not pick me out, but I picked you out and set you, that you may go and bear fruit, and that your fruit may remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my nature, he may give you.“Should remain” uses the same Greek verb family, μένω, as “abide” here. The same word describes fruit that remains and work that remains, linking what grows with what is built by their staying power.
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