What Does 2 Timothy 1:18 Mean?
May the Lord grant him that he find faithful love from the Lord in that day, and how many things he served me at Ephesus, you know it best.
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
The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.THE KEY
The verse places a known helper on the receiving side of mercy: service does not remove the need for it.
THE MEANING
The care you give another person can be named in its many concrete forms, and you still remain someone who receives mercy from the Lord. This verse holds service and the need for mercy in the same life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being the one who helps does not place you beyond needing mercy.
THE ROOT
ἔλεος
eleos
GROWS FROM
ἐλε-
ele-
mercy, compassion
“faithful love” in this verse is eleos. The Greek word family holds mercy received beside showing mercy and acts of compassion. With many acts of service named here, the line places compassion both as something encountered and something made tangible between people, without calling service a price.
ALSO GROWS
eleeō: show mercy
ἐλεέω
This verb makes mercy something expressed toward another, alongside the mercy sought for him.
eleēmosynē: almsgiving, acts of mercy
ἐλεημοσύνη
This word for practical compassion echoes the verse’s attention to service in many things.
διηκόνησεν
diēkonēsen
GROWS FROM
διακον-
diakon-
serve, attend to another’s needs
“served” in this verse is diēkonēsen. The Greek stem links the act of serving with both the work of service and the person who serves. “In how many things” makes that service plural and concrete, rather than merely a title.
ALSO GROWS
diakonia: service, ministry
διακονία
The related noun names the work gathered up in the many things he did.
diakonos: servant, minister
διάκονος
The same word family names the one who serves, joining the person to the work remembered here.
δῴη
dōē
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), δο-/δω- (do-/dō-)
give, grant, bestow
“grant” in this verse is dōē. The prayer names mercy as something the Lord gives, while the person encounters it as something found. The verbs hold the giver and the receiver together in one line.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: giving, gift
δόσις
This related noun keeps the giving behind “grant” visible in the prayer for mercy.
doma: gift
δόμα
The shared stem frames what is asked for as bestowed, not claimed.
THE PATTERN
Mercy is received from God and becomes visible in how people meet one another.
The LORD is compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, and abounding in faithful love.Flourishing are the givers of faithful love, for they are shown faithful love.For judgment will be without faithful love for the one who did not show such love, and faithful love boasts over judgment.THE THREAD
For judgment will be without faithful love for the one who did not show such love, and faithful love boasts over judgment.Both verses use ἔλεος (eleos, mercy). Here mercy is sought “in that day”; James says it “rejoiceth against judgment,” opening the prayer’s horizon onto mercy’s relation to judgment.
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