What Does 2 Corinthians 7:6 Mean?
But God, who comforts the low ones, comforted us by the coming of Titus.
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
Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;THE KEY
God’s comfort reaches the low place through another person’s arrival.
THE MEANING
Feeling cast down does not place you beyond God’s care; this verse shows comfort reaching you in that very low place. It may arrive through another person’s presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that feeling low means you must recover alone; comfort can reach you through someone else.
THE ROOT
παρακαλῶν
parakalōn
GROWS FROM
παρακαλ-
parakal-
To comfort or console.
“comforts” in this verse is parakalōn. The same verb describes God’s action and what happens to “us.” The comfort is not abstract: it reaches you through Titus’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: comfort, consolation
παράκλησις
The same word family gives a name to the consolation this verse says you receive.
paraklētos: helper, advocate, comforter
παράκλητος
This related word shows the family’s personal dimension: comfort can take the form of someone who is present to help.
ταπεινούς
tapeinous
GROWS FROM
ταπειν-
tapein-
Low, brought low, humble.
“the low ones” in this verse is tapeinous. “Cast down” carries a spatial picture: the low place. God’s comfort reaches people there; their low state is not outside the verse’s care.
ALSO GROWS
tapeinoō: to lower, humble
ταπεινόω
The verb makes the movement into a low position explicit, echoing the state named in this verse.
tapeinōsis: low estate, humiliation
ταπείνωσις
This related noun shows that the word family can name the condition of being brought low, not just a humble attitude.
THE PATTERN
Comfort meets vulnerability through nearness and presence.
For thus says the high and lifted one, who dwells in the ages, whose nature is set apart. I dwell in the high and set-apart place, and with the crushed and the low of breath, to revive the breath of the low, and to revive the heart of the crushed ones.The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.I will not leave you orphaned; I come to you.THE THREAD
Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.The same Greek word family runs through both passages: God gives comfort, and the comfort received becomes comfort offered to others. Titus’s arrival makes that movement visible through a person’s presence.
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