What Does 1 Corinthians 8:3 Mean?
But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.
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
But if any man love God, the same is known of him.THE KEY
The verse’s center is not your grasp of God but God’s recognition of the one who loves him.
THE MEANING
When you love God, you are known by him: recognized through encounter, not reduced to information about you. The verse holds your love within God’s continuing recognition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that knowing about God makes you secure in being known by him; the verse places love and God’s recognition at the center.
THE ROOT
ἔγνωσται
egnōstai
GROWS FROM
γινωσκ-
ginōsk-
To know, perceive, or recognize through encounter.
“is known by him” in this verse is egnōstai. The Greek form means “has been known,” presenting God’s knowing as an ongoing recognition. English can make “known” sound like possessing information; this root carries the sense of being recognized in relationship.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: knowledge
γνῶσις
This same root names the knowledge discussed just above in 1 Corinthians 8:1; the passage distinguishes possessing knowledge from being known in relationship.
epiginōskō: recognize, know fully
ἐπιγινώσκω
This compound shares the knowing root and carries recognition into fuller knowing, echoing the verse’s focus on being known by God.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, knowing God reaches its full shape when the person is also known by God.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.But now, after you have known God, or rather have been known by God, how do you turn back again to the weak and emptied elements, to which you desire to serve again?THE THREAD
But now, after you have known God, or rather have been known by God, how do you turn back again to the weak and emptied elements, to which you desire to serve again?Galatians uses the same Greek knowing root and then corrects the direction: “ye have known God” becomes “rather are known of God.” That same turn is compressed here: love leads into God’s recognition.
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