What Does 2 Corinthians 10:15 Mean?
Not boasting beyond measure in another's toil, but holding hope to be enlarged among you, as your trust grows, according to our reed, to overflowing.
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
Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,THE KEY
The reach of shared work expands as trust grows among the people who carry it.
THE MEANING
Your work has a measure of its own, and its reach follows that line. As trust grows among the people you serve, the work extends through them and its scope becomes abundant. The increase is shared: what deepens in them opens wider room for the work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your work grows by claiming another person’s labor, or that expansion requires reaching beyond the measure of your own work. Here, the reach grows as trust grows among the people connected to it.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance, or being persuaded; this word family is related to πείθω (peithō, persuade or be persuaded).
Pistis names reliance, so its increase is deepening trust rather than simply accumulating ideas. The verse ties that growing trust within a people to the widening scope of the work among them.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: To trust, entrust, or believe
πιστεύω
This verb shows trust as something enacted, the kind of reliance that can grow within a community.
pistos: Trustworthy or reliable
πιστός
The same family links trust received with trust shown, giving the growing trust in the verse a relational dimension.
peithō: To persuade or be persuaded
πείθω
This related verb reveals the movement toward reliance carried within the word family.
ἄμετρα
ametra
GROWS FROM
μετρ-
metr-
To measure or mark an extent; ἄμετρα (ametra, beyond measure) describes what lies outside a measured reach.
“beyond measure” in this verse is ametra. Measure here is more than a count: μέτρον (metron, measure) names an extent, and κανών (kanōn, rule or standard) carries the image of a measuring line. The passage portrays enlargement as a widening related to the field already entrusted.
ALSO GROWS
metron: Measure, extent, or portion
μέτρον
It names the bounded reach that frames the work in this verse.
metreō: To measure or assess
μετρέω
This verb shows measure as an act of setting the reach or extent of something.
μεγαλυνθῆναι
megalynthēnai
GROWS FROM
μεγαλ-
megal-
Greatness; making great, enlarging, or magnifying.
“enlarged” in this verse is megalynthēnai. The Greek word carries both enlargement and magnification. Because the verse places this growth among the people, the work’s expansion appears as shared reach within them.
ALSO GROWS
megas: Great or large
μέγας
This adjective makes clear that the enlargement involves a greater scope.
megalynō: To magnify, make great, or enlarge
μεγαλύνω
This verb is the source of the form translated “enlarged,” linking added reach with becoming more fully seen.
THE PATTERN
As a community grows, the space and reach available to its shared work expand.
Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great crowd of the priests heard and responded by leaning their weight.And may the Lord make you grow and overflow in love toward one another, and toward all humankind, even as we also do toward you.THE THREAD
So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.Romans uses the same Greek word family as “faith” here: πίστις (pistis, trust). It names hearing the word as a source of trust; alongside 2 Corinthians, that growing trust becomes part of how shared work extends among people.
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