What Does Colossians 2:6 Mean?
As you have therefore received the Anointed One, Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.
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
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:THE KEY
The one you receive becomes the very sphere in which every next step takes place.
THE MEANING
You receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and your steps now unfold in him. The one received is also the sphere of your ongoing walk.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving Christ is a moment that can be finished and set apart from the way you move through life now.
THE ROOT
περιπατεῖτε
peripateite
GROWS FROM
πατέω
πατέω (patéō): to tread, step, walk.
“walk” in this verse is peripateite. The Greek compound joins the element meaning “around” with the root meaning “tread,” keeping the image of movement made step by step. “In him” places those steps within Christ, so the one received is also where the walking takes place.
ALSO GROWS
patéō: to tread, step
πατέω
This base verb makes the walking image physical: movement formed by steps.
katapatéō: to tread down, trample
καταπατέω
This compound preserves the same tread-root, showing the concrete action carried by the walking word.
παρελάβετε
parelabete
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
λαμβάνω (lambánō): to take, receive, lay hold of.
“received” in this verse is parelabete. This word family spans receiving and taking hold. The verse moves directly from receiving Christ to walking in him, joining what is welcomed with the ongoing movement that follows.
ALSO GROWS
lambánō: to take, receive
λαμβάνω
This is the root verb beneath “received,” giving the word its sense of personally taking in what is offered.
katalambánō: to grasp, seize, overtake
καταλαμβάνω
Its shared λαμβ-family extends the sense toward grasping, illuminating the active texture within the verse’s act of receiving.
Χριστόν
Christón
GROWS FROM
χρίω
χρίω (chríō): to anoint, rub or apply oil.
“Christ” carries the meaning “the anointed one,” rather than functioning as a surname. The verse speaks of receiving Jesus in this nature, then walking within the one so received.
ALSO GROWS
chríō: to anoint
χρίω
This verb names the action carried in the title “Christ.”
chrîsma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This related noun carries the same χρι family and makes the anointing itself visible within the title’s word-family.
THE PATTERN
What is received becomes the sphere in which a person walks.
And I will set my breath within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will guard my judgments and do them.And I say, walk in the breath, and you will not complete the craving of the flesh.The one who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk, just as that one walked.THE THREAD
The one who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk, just as that one walked.This verse uses the same Greek walking verb, περιπατέω (peripatéō, “to walk”), and pairs walking in him with walking as he walked. It opens “in him” as a continuing pattern whose shape is disclosed by his own steps.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us