What Does 1 Timothy 6:19 Mean?
Storing up for themselves a good foundation for what is about to come, that they may take hold of the life that truly is.
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
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.THE KEY
What you share becomes a foundation from which you take hold of the life of the ages.
THE MEANING
This verse locates lasting security in generosity, good work, and readiness to share. What you give becomes treasure laid up for the time to come, and life is something you grasp rather than something you can secure by keeping wealth to yourself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only what you keep can secure your future.
THE ROOT
ἀποθησαυρίζοντας
apothēsaurizontas
GROWS FROM
θησαυρ-
thēsaur-
Treasure; a storehouse or stored treasure.
“laying up in store” in this verse is apothēsaurizontas. The word joins the image of storing with the image of treasure: what is laid up is not merely an amount kept back, but something of value being gathered. Here that treasure becomes a foundation, linking what you share now to the life you grasp in the time to come.
ALSO GROWS
thēsauros: Treasure; storehouse.
θησαυρός
This noun names the treasure gathered by the act of laying up, making the verse’s storehouse image concrete.
thēsaurizō: Store up treasure.
θησαυρίζω
This verb is the base for the verse’s wording and recurs in the image of laying up treasure in heaven.
αἰωνίου
aiōniou
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age; a span of time or era.
The phrase points to life belonging to the ages, giving “eternal life” a dimension of age and time. The verse sets present generosity against the coming age, where this life is to be grasped.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age; an era.
αἰών
This is the noun behind the word translated “eternal,” bringing the coming age into view.
aiōnios: Of an age; age-lasting.
αἰώνιος
This adjective describes the life the verse says can be taken hold of.
ἐπιλάβωνται
epilabōntai
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
Take; receive.
“lay hold” in this verse is epilabōntai. The verse makes life something to take hold of, a concrete act of grasping rather than a distant abstraction. Paired with treasure laid up through sharing, the image links generosity now with a life received and held in the age to come.
ALSO GROWS
katalambanō: Seize; grasp.
καταλαμβάνω
This related form sharpens the physical force of grasping in the verse.
paralambanō: Receive; take along.
παραλαμβάνω
This related form shows the root’s range includes receiving, as well as taking hold.
THE PATTERN
What is given in the present becomes treasure that endures beyond what can be kept for oneself.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust gnaws them out of sight, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal.Sell what you have, and give compassion. Make for yourselves purses that do not wear out, a treasure in the heavens that does not run out, where no thief draws near and no moth destroys.Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.THE THREAD
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust gnaws them out of sight, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal.Matthew uses the same treasure-storing word found in this verse. There, what is laid up cannot be undone by moth or theft; here, that treasure becomes a good foundation for grasping the life of the ages.
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