What Does 2 John 1:8 Mean?
Watch yourselves, that you do not lose those things we have worked, but that you take back a full wage.
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
Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.THE KEY
The Greek pairs echoing verbs for “lose” and “receive,” making the hinge what happens to the work already done: it slips away, or its full reward is received.
THE MEANING
You are told to look to yourself because what you have worked can still be lost. The verse holds that loss beside receiving a full reward: work done and its complete return are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that having done the work automatically secures its full reward.
THE ROOT
ἀπολέσωμεν
apolesōmen
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
to lose, destroy, or perish
“do not lose” in this verse is apolesōmen. The verb translated “lose” belongs to a word family that also carries the sense of destruction or perishing. The risk is more than misplacing something: what has been worked can pass into loss before its full return is received.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: loss, destruction
ἀπώλεια
This noun from the same word family makes the weight of “lose” more than a simple disappearance.
apolōlos: lost, perished
ἀπολωλός
This participle shows the state the verse seeks to prevent: what has been worked ending up lost.
ἀπολάβωμεν
apolabōmen
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
to take or receive; ἀπολαμβάνω can also mean receive back
“take back” in this verse is apolabōmen. The Greek verb translated “receive” can carry the sense of receiving back. It echoes the sound of the verb for “lose,” placing what has been worked between two possibilities: slipping away or coming fully into hand.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: take, receive
λαμβάνω
This is the base verb within ἀπολαμβάνω; the reward is something received, not merely anticipated.
paralambanō: receive, take along
παραλαμβάνω
This compound shares the receiving verb at its root and gives the idea of actively taking something in.
πλήρη
plērē
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
full, filled, complete
“a full wage” in this verse is plērē. “Full” belongs to a word family of filling and completion. The reward is pictured as brought to its complete measure, sharpening the contrast with work that might otherwise be lost.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: fill, complete, fulfill
πληρόω
The same word family connects fullness with bringing something to completion.
plērōma: fullness, completion
πλήρωμα
This branch shows the completed state carried by “full” in the phrase “full reward.”
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures work as something to preserve until its yield can be gathered and received.
When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.The one who plants and the one who gives to drink are one, and each one will take his own wage according to his own toil.Going, he goes and weeps, carrying the bag of seed; coming, he comes in a ringing cry, carrying his sheaves.THE THREAD
When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.John 6:12 uses the same Greek word family for “be lost” that 2 John uses for “lose.” The fragments are gathered so none slip away, giving a concrete image of work and its result being preserved.
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