What Does 1 Thessalonians 3:9 Mean?
For what thanks can we give back to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before the face of our God?
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
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;THE KEY
Here, joy is shared: another person’s life becomes gladness carried into God’s presence.
THE MEANING
Your gratitude before God is stirred by the joy another person’s life brings you. Their good becomes gladness you hold in God’s presence. Thanksgiving rises from this shared joy.
THE ROOT
χαρᾷ
charā
GROWS FROM
χαρ-/χαιρ- (char-/chair-), the Greek joy stem
Joy, gladness; to rejoice.
The Greek pairs χαρά (chara, “joy”) with χαίρω (chairō, “rejoice”), so the noun and verb share a word-family. The KJV’s “joy wherewith we joy” preserves that echo: joy is both what is felt and what is expressed for another’s sake.
ALSO GROWS
chairō: Rejoice, be glad.
χαίρω
This is the verb behind “we joy,” sharing its stem with the noun “joy.”
chara: Joy, gladness.
χαρά
This is the noun in “all the joy,” naming the gladness that the verb expresses.
THE PATTERN
Joy becomes shared when another person’s good is received as a source of gladness.
The LORD has grown great in doing with us, and we were glad.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.Always, in every prayer of mine for you all, bringing my need with joy.THE THREAD
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.Romans uses the same Greek joy family as “we joy” here. It makes the shared movement plain: another person’s gladness can become joy you enter with them.
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