What Does 1 Timothy 4:6 Mean?
If you set these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Jesus, the Anointed One, being raised on the words of trust and of good teaching, which you have followed closely.
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
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.THE KEY
The reminder you carry outward is also the food that keeps you inwardly nourished.
THE MEANING
The words of trust and sound teaching nourish you as you keep bringing these things to mind and placing them before others. You carry the teaching outward while being formed by what feeds you; what you share is also received inwardly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that sharing truth must leave the giver depleted: the same words carried outward also nourish the one who receives them.
THE ROOT
ἐντρεφόμενος
entrephomenos
GROWS FROM
τρέφ-
The Greek stem τρέφ- (treph-) means to nourish, feed, or rear.
“being raised on” in this verse is entrephomenos. The word pictures ongoing nourishment, not a single lesson taken in and finished. The one who carries these words is being fed by them as they are held and shared.
ALSO GROWS
ektrephō: nourish, bring up
ἐκτρέφω
This compound uses the same τρεφ- stem; its sense of bringing up shows how nourishment can shape someone over time.
trophē: food, nourishment
τροφή
This noun names what the verb supplies: the words in this verse are not merely information, but sustenance.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
The Greek stem πιστ- (pist-) carries the sense of trust and reliability; here, faith is trust that can bear weight.
The words that nourish are words of trust, not ideas held at a distance. Their nourishment comes with a steady reliance that shapes the one receiving them.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: trust, entrust oneself
πιστεύω
This verb shares the πιστ- stem and shows faith as an act of reliance, not just a subject to discuss.
pistos: trustworthy, reliable
πιστός
This adjective shares the same stem and points to the steadiness that grows where trust is nourished.
διδασκαλία
didaskalia
GROWS FROM
διδασκ-
The Greek stem διδασκ- (didask-) means to teach or instruct.
The word translated “doctrine” belongs to the language of teaching and instruction. Paired with nourishment, it presents good teaching as something received and lived with, not merely filed away as a set of claims.
ALSO GROWS
didaskō: teach, instruct
διδάσκω
This verb shares the διδασκ- stem and makes the active work of teaching visible beneath the noun.
didaskalos: teacher
διδάσκαλος
This related word shares the same stem and shows that instruction is carried through a living relationship of teaching and receiving.
THE PATTERN
Words received deeply become nourishment that sustains and forms the one who carries them.
And he bent you low, and made you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you had never perceived, nor had your fathers, so that he might make you perceive that humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD does humankind live.How smooth are your words upon my palate, sweeter than honey to my mouth.But he answered and said, It is written, Humankind shall not live by bread alone, but by every word going out through the mouth of God.THE THREAD
But firm food is for the complete, for those who through practice have their senses exercised to sift good from evil.The Greek τροφή (trophē, nourishment or food) belongs to the same τρεφ- (treph-) family as ἐντρεφόμενος (entrephomenos, being nourished) in this verse. Here, nourishment bears fruit as discernment formed through sustained practice.
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