What Does Colossians 1:6 Mean?
Which has come to you, as it is in all the world, bringing forth fruit and growing, as it also does in you, since the day you heard it and perceived the favor of God in truth.
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
Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:THE KEY
The good news that bears fruit throughout the world is the same living word already growing within you.
THE MEANING
The good news comes to you as a living word that bears fruit and keeps growing in you, as it does throughout the world. As you hear it and recognize God’s favor as truth, that growth is already at work within you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that growth must be manufactured before it can begin: the verse presents fruit as the word’s living movement in the one who hears and recognizes God’s favor.
THE ROOT
καρποφορούμενον
karpophoroumenon
GROWS FROM
καρποφορέω (karpophoreō), built from καρπός (karpos, fruit) and φορέω (phoreō, bear or carry)
To bear or carry fruit.
“bringing forth fruit and growing” in this verse is karpophoroumenon. The Greek pictures the word as fruit-bearing, not as a static message. The same verb appears in Colossians 1:10, where the people are described as fruitful; the word’s growth within you also becomes visible in life.
ALSO GROWS
karpos: Fruit.
καρπός
The fruit is the visible result of the word’s growth in you.
karpophoreō: Bear or carry fruit.
καρποφορέω
This is the verb’s underlying form, which makes fruit-bearing part of the word’s action.
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor, goodwill freely extended.
The verse places God’s favor at the heart of what you hear and recognize. Its related words carry favor into both the act of granting and what is given.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: Grant as a favor; forgive.
χαρίζομαι
It carries favor into an act that releases something to another.
charisma: A favor-gift, a freely given gift.
χάρισμα
It shows favor taking the form of something received.
ἐπέγνωτε
epegnōte
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know, recognize, or perceive.
The verse joins hearing with recognizing God’s favor: knowing takes hold as something perceived, not merely information heard. Hearing and recognition belong together in the word’s growth within you.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: Know or recognize.
γινώσκω
This is the base verb carried within the verse’s word for knowing.
epignōsis: Recognition or knowledge.
ἐπίγνωσις
This related form keeps the emphasis on recognizing what is known.
THE PATTERN
Life received from God becomes visible as fruit and continuing growth.
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.I planted, Apollos gave to drink, but God made it grow.THE THREAD
That you might walk in a way that matches the weight of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the full knowing of God.The same Greek verb, καρποφορέω (karpophoreō, bear fruit), appears in both verses. Here it describes the word bearing fruit in you; there, it describes fruitfulness in every good work, the inward growth taking visible form.
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