What Does 1 Corinthians 7:31 Mean?
And those who use this world as those who do not use it up, for the shape of this world is passing by.
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
And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.THE KEY
The world’s present shape is already passing, so using it need not become dependence on it.
THE MEANING
You can make use of what surrounds you without treating its current form as permanent shelter. The world’s pattern is already passing, and your grip cannot make it last.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the conditions and structures shaping your life now must remain stable for your life to hold together.
THE ROOT
χρώμενοι
chrōmenoi
GROWS FROM
χράομαι (χρα-)
to make use of, employ
“use / abusing” in this verse is chrōmenoi. The verse uses the same verb twice: χράομαι (chrōmenoi, “make use of”) and its prefixed form καταχράομαι (katachrōmenoi, “use fully,” “use up,” or “misuse”). The echo places ordinary use and its excess within one word family, allowing participation without consuming or clinging to what is used.
ALSO GROWS
chrēsis: use, employment
χρῆσις
This noun from the same word family makes the verse’s first action, making use, visible as a distinct way of relating to the world.
katachraomai: use fully, use up, or misuse
καταχράομαι
This is the intensified form used in the verse’s second clause, setting ordinary use beside its fuller or excessive form.
σχῆμα
schēma
GROWS FROM
σχημα-
schēma-
shape, form, visible configuration
The thing passing is the σχῆμα (schēma), the world’s form or configuration. The verse draws attention to the shape the world takes, a shape that changes even while you are living within it.
ALSO GROWS
schēmatizō: to form, fashion, or take on a pattern
σχηματίζω
This verb shows the same word family describing a shape being formed or assumed.
metaschēmatizō: to change or transform form
μετασχηματίζω
This compound makes the shape-changing sense explicit: a form can be altered rather than held as permanent.
κόσμος
kosmos
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
ordered arrangement, adornment; by extension, the world
κόσμος (kosmos) can name an ordered arrangement as well as the world. Beside σχῆμα (schēma), it evokes both the world you inhabit and the particular pattern it presently takes.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: to arrange or adorn
κοσμέω
This related verb carries the sense of placing things in order, illuminating κόσμος (kosmos) as an arranged world.
kosmios: orderly, well-arranged, decorous
κόσμιος
This related adjective preserves the family’s sense of order and arrangement, echoing the world’s patterned form.
THE PATTERN
The world’s visible forms pass, while what is rooted in God’s word and will endures.
The grass dries, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands for the ages.And the world is passing away, and its craving with it, but the one who does the will of God remains for the ages.While we do not fix our eyes on the things seen, but on the unseen; for the things seen are for a season, but the unseen are of the ages.THE THREAD
And the world is passing away, and its craving with it, but the one who does the will of God remains for the ages.John uses the same Greek word κόσμος (kosmos, “world”) and places it beside the passing of the world and the desires attached to it. What abides in John’s verse opens Paul’s image further: the world’s present form is not the only thing your life can rest upon.
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