What Does 1 Corinthians 9:23 Mean?
And I do all things for the sake of the good news, that I might become a co-sharer of it with you.
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 this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.THE KEY
The good news is not only something you work for; it is a shared life you enter with others.
THE MEANING
Your work for the good news draws you into what you serve: you share in it alongside others. The verse holds effort and belonging together, making participation with others part of the work itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that following the good news is a solitary undertaking: participation here is explicitly “with you.”
THE ROOT
συγκοινωνός
synkoinōnos
GROWS FROM
κοινός
koinos
Common, shared, held in common.
“co-sharer” in this verse is synkoinōnos. The Greek word for “partaker” joins “with” to the word-family of what is common or shared. It reveals participation as entering something together, not merely possessing it alone.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: Sharing in common.
κοινωνία
This is the same word-family as “partaker”; it shows the shared life that participation opens into.
koinōneō: Share in, participate.
κοινωνέω
This verb makes the root active: to partake is to share in something with others.
εὐαγγέλιον
euangelion
GROWS FROM
ἄγγελος
angelos
Messenger, one who carries a message.
The Greek word for “gospel,” meaning good news, belongs to the word-family of ἄγγελος (angelos), “messenger.” Here the good news is something announced and shared, and the verse describes you as a participant in it.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: Messenger.
ἄγγελος
The messenger carries news outward; the verse places participation within that announced good news.
euangelizō: Announce good news.
εὐαγγελίζω
This verb shows the gospel as news carried and shared, fitting the verse’s movement into shared participation.
THE PATTERN
What is good takes form as shared life rather than private possession.
A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!And they held fast in the teaching of the sent ones, and in sharing in common, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.For your sharing in common in the good news, from the first day until now.THE THREAD
For your sharing in common in the good news, from the first day until now.The word translated “fellowship” is κοινωνία (koinōnia), from the same κοινός (koinos) word-family as “partaker” here. The shared root shows the gospel as a common life in which you participate with others.
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