What Does 1 Peter 1:15 Mean?
but as the one who called you is set apart, you also become set apart in all your walk.
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 as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;THE KEY
The set-apart nature of the one who calls you reaches your whole manner of life.
THE MEANING
The one who calls you is set apart, and that nature gives shape to your whole manner of life. “Conversation” here names lived conduct, so the verse reaches the ordinary pattern of how you move through the world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that holiness is reserved for visibly religious moments; the verse places it throughout a person’s lived conduct.
THE ROOT
ἅγιοι
hagioi
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart; marked off for a distinct relation or purpose.
This word family holds together being set apart and the act of setting apart. The caller’s own set-apart nature is the pattern, and the verse extends that pattern across every part of life.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: Set apart; make holy.
ἁγιάζω
The related verb shows holiness as a setting apart that gives shape to life.
hagiasmos: Holiness; consecration.
ἁγιασμός
This related noun names the state or process of being set apart that the verse describes.
ἀναστροφῇ
anastrophē
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
Turn; turn about.
“walk” in this verse is anastrophē. Anastrophē names conduct or a way of life: the pattern in which a person moves through the world. This gives “all manner of conversation” its whole-life scope, beyond speech alone.
ALSO GROWS
anastrephō: Turn about; conduct oneself.
ἀναστρέφω
This verb shares the word family behind anastrophē and links the idea of conduct with a way of moving through life.
epistrephō: Turn back; return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This related word preserves the turning image within the same Greek root family.
καλέσαντα
kalesanta
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
Call; invite; summon.
“called” in this verse is kalesanta. The summons comes from the one whose nature is set apart, so the call itself points toward the pattern the verse names. The same call-family appears in the phrase “holy calling” in 2 Timothy 1:9.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: Calling; invitation.
κλῆσις
This noun makes explicit the summons contained in “called you.”
klētos: Called; invited.
κλητός
This related word describes someone who has received the call.
THE PATTERN
Set-apartness takes its shape from the nature of the one who calls and extends through the whole of life.
Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be set apart, for I, the LORD your God, am set apart.For God did not call us into uncleanness, but in setting apart.THE THREAD
Who has delivered us and called us with a set-apart calling, not according to our works, but according to his own setting forth and the favor given us in Jesus the Anointed One, before the ages began.“Called” and “calling” belong to the same Greek word family in both verses. Here, the call comes from the one who is set apart; there, the call itself is named holy.
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