What Does 1 Peter 1:17 Mean?
And if you call upon the Father, who judges without partiality, according to the work of each, walk through the time of your dwelling alongside in awe.
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 if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:THE KEY
Calling the Father does not place anyone above judgment: the verse says every person’s work is weighed without regard to their face or status.
THE MEANING
Calling the Father sits alongside full accountability: he judges each person’s work without partiality. Your time here is a sojourning, a temporary residence, and the verse names fear as the posture in which that time passes. Filial address and impartial judgment meet in the life you are living now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Calling God Father does not mean you are exempt from judgment or favored over others.
THE ROOT
ἀπροσωπολήμπτως
aprosōpolēmptōs
GROWS FROM
πρόσωπον (prosōpon) + λαμβάνω (lambanō)
Face + receive: the compound evokes receiving or favoring someone by their face, meaning partiality.
“without respect of persons” in this verse is aprosōpolēmptōs. The phrase pictures judgment that does not receive a person’s face as a reason to favor them. The Father’s regard reaches each person’s work without ranking people by appearance or status.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpolēmpsia: partiality, favoritism
προσωπολημψία
This related noun names the face-based favoritism that the verse’s adverb excludes.
prosōpolēmptēs: one who shows partiality
προσωπολήμπτης
The related noun names the person who favors someone by their face, making the impartiality here concrete.
παροικίας
paroikias
GROWS FROM
οἶκος
oikos
House or dwelling; παροικία (paroikia) describes a temporary residence or dwelling among others as a stranger.
The verse calls your time here a residence, but one marked as temporary and away from home. That sojourning sits beside the intimate address “Father,” holding belonging and transience together.
ALSO GROWS
paroikos: a resident stranger, sojourner
πάροικος
This related word makes explicit the stranger-status contained in the idea of sojourning.
paroikeō: to dwell as a stranger or resident alien
παροικέω
This verb shows that sojourning is a way of dwelling, not simply movement from place to place.
ἔργον
ergon
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, deed, or action.
“the work of each” in this verse is ergon. The verse names what a person does as the basis according to which judgment proceeds. Its focus is each person’s work, not a face, rank, or inherited label.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: to work, accomplish
ἐργάζομαι
The verb presents work as something actively carried out.
ergatēs: worker, laborer
ἐργάτης
This related noun names the person through the work being done.
THE PATTERN
Judgment proceeds according to each person’s work without favoring them for their status or appearance.
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.Who will give back to each one according to his works.Look, I come swiftly, and my wages are with me, to give back to each one as his work will be.THE THREAD
My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.James uses the same Greek word family for partiality that 1 Peter uses when it says the Father judges without partiality. The shared image is receiving a face: the verse’s impartial judgment gives a clear measure for recognizing favoritism among people.
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