What Does 1 Peter 4:13 Mean?
But rejoice, as you share in common the sufferings of the Anointed One, so that when his weight is uncovered, you may also leap with exceeding joy.
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 rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.THE KEY
The word translated “partakers” means sharing something in common, so suffering is named as participation in the Anointed One, not distance from him.
THE MEANING
Your suffering does not place you outside the Anointed One’s life; this verse names you as sharing in it. The weight of his presence is to be uncovered, and that unveiling holds a gladness beyond the suffering now. Rejoicing does not erase the suffering; both are held in the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that suffering proves you are cut off from Christ: it names suffering as a place of participation in him.
THE ROOT
κοινωνέω
koinōneō
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
koin-
Common, shared
“share in common” in this verse is koinōneō. The Greek word names participation in something held in common. Your suffering is described as shared with the Anointed One, not as an experience that leaves you apart from him.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: Sharing in common
κοινωνία
In Philippians 3:10, this noun describes sharing in the Anointed One’s sufferings, showing the same root at work.
koinōnos: Partner, sharer
κοινωνός
This word names someone who has a share in what another experiences, bringing out the shared sense of “partakers.”
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δοξ-
dox-
Weight, honor, esteem
“Glory” can sound like brightness or praise, while this word also carries the sense of weight. What is revealed is the Anointed One’s weight and worth coming into view; its seeming absence does not mean it is not there.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: To honor or glorify
δοξάζω
This verb gives weight or honor, echoing the weight that becomes visible when his glory is revealed.
endoxos: Held in honor, glorious
ἔνδοξος
This related word describes what carries honor and weight, reinforcing the meaning beneath “glory.”
ἀποκαλύπτω
apokalyptō
GROWS FROM
καλυπτ-
kalypt-
To cover or conceal
“uncovered” in this verse is apokalyptō. The word for “revealed” carries the sense of uncovering: the Anointed One’s weight comes into view. The verse describes what is disclosed, not what must first be created.
ALSO GROWS
apokalypsis: Uncovering, revelation
ἀποκάλυψις
This noun names the act of uncovering, the same movement described when his glory is revealed.
kalymma: Covering, veil
κάλυμμα
This related word names what conceals; revelation is its removal, allowing what is already there to be seen.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds present suffering and tears within a movement toward joy and revealed glory, rather than treating them as the final condition.
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and co-heirs with the Anointed One; if indeed we suffer together with him, so that we may also be clothed in weight with him.For our light pressure, which is for a moment, works for us a heavy weight, the weight of the ages, overflowing measure upon measure.Those who sow in tears reap in a ringing cry.THE THREAD
That I may know him, and the power of his standing up again, and the sharing in common of his sufferings, being shaped together with his death.“Fellowship” here is κοινωνία (koinōnia), from the same shared root as “partakers” in 1 Peter. The verse places that sharing in suffering beside the power of resurrection, opening the shared experience toward life beyond suffering.
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