What Does Acts 20:31 Mean?
Therefore stay awake, and remember, that for three years I did not stop warning each one, night and day, with tears.
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
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.THE KEY
Here, warning is the act of placing truth before the mind, carried person by person through night and day with tears.
THE MEANING
The verse holds long attention and personal tenderness together: each person remains in view through night and day, with tears. The warning keeps truth before the mind rather than leaving it as an abstract signal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a clear warning must be emotionally detached is undone: here, watchfulness speaks with tears.
THE ROOT
νουθετῶν
nouthetōn
GROWS FROM
νουθετέω (νοῦς + τίθημι)
To set or place something before the mind; to admonish or warn.
“warning each one” in this verse is nouthetōn. The word carries the sense of putting something before someone’s mind, so warning is more than announcing danger. The verse presents it as truth repeatedly brought to each person’s attention, with tears.
ALSO GROWS
nouthesía: Admonition
νουθεσία
The related noun names this mind-directed counsel as an ongoing form of care.
noûs: Mind, understanding
νοῦς
This element of the compound shows where the admonition is directed: toward what a person perceives and understands.
títhēmi: Set, put, place
τίθημι
This element gives the warning its image of placing truth before someone, rather than leaving it distant.
γρηγορεῖτε
grēgoreite
GROWS FROM
γρηγορέω (from ἐγρήγορα, related to ἐγείρω)
Stay awake; remain alert.
“stay awake” in this verse is grēgoreite. The word belongs to the Greek family of waking and being awake. Here, watching is sustained alertness, joined to remembering the years of attention and the people kept in view.
ALSO GROWS
egeírō: Awaken, raise
ἐγείρω
This related verb links watchfulness with waking into alertness.
egrḗgora: Have awakened; be awake
ἐγρήγορα
This perfect form underlies the sense of remaining awake that grēgoreō carries.
THE PATTERN
Watchful care keeps people in view and places needed truth before them with patience and tenderness.
So you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear and respond to the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.And what I say to you, I say to all, Stay awake.Now we urge you, brothers. Admonish those who are out of line, comfort those faint in living soul, hold up the weak, and be slow to heat toward all.THE THREAD
Now we urge you, brothers. Admonish those who are out of line, comfort those faint in living soul, hold up the weak, and be slow to heat toward all.The word behind “warn” belongs to the same νουθετέω family as Acts 20:31: setting something before a person’s mind. Here it stands alongside comfort, support, and patience, opening the tearful warning as a form of attentive care.
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