What Does Colossians 3:25 Mean?
For the one who acts crookedly will carry back what he did crookedly, and there is no lifting of faces.
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
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.THE KEY
What you do wrong has a return, and no face or status tilts the measure.
THE MEANING
When you do wrong, you receive for the wrong you do; the verse keeps the deed and its return joined. No face, position, or favored identity changes that measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being favored or important makes me exempt from the consequences of what I do.
THE ROOT
ἀδικῶν
adikōn
GROWS FROM
ἀδικ- from δίκη
ἀδικέω (adikeō, to do wrong) is built from ἀ- (a-, without) and δίκη (dikē, justice or what is right): wrongdoing departs from what is right.
“acts crookedly” in this verse is adikōn. The verse uses two forms from the same word family for the one doing wrong and the wrong done, keeping actor and deed together. The related word δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, righteousness or alignment) shows the same root’s other side: what is out of alignment has a corresponding measure.
ALSO GROWS
adikia: injustice, wrongdoing
ἀδικία
This noun names the same departure from what is right that the verse says the doer receives for.
dikaiosynē: righteousness, alignment
δικαιοσύνη
This related form makes the contrast visible: the root can name either what departs from right or what is aligned with it.
προσωπολημψία
prosōpolēmpsia
GROWS FROM
πρόσωπον + λαμβάνω
προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia, partiality) is a compound of πρόσωπον (prosōpon, face or person) and λαμβάνω (lambanō, receive or take): literally, face-taking.
“lifting of faces” in this verse is prosōpolēmpsia. The English phrase sounds like general respect, but the Greek names favoritism by the face or status a person presents. This clause removes that face-taking from the measure: no person’s standing alters what the deed receives.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpon: face, person
πρόσωπον
The face is the visible identity or standing that partiality can favor.
lambanō: receive, take
λαμβάνω
The compound pictures taking a person’s face into account when granting favor.
THE PATTERN
What a person does returns to them without status-based exception.
Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.For there is no partiality with God.And if you call upon the Father, who judges without partiality, according to the work of each, walk through the time of your dwelling alongside in awe.THE THREAD
For there is no partiality with God.Romans uses the same Greek word προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia, partiality or face-taking) translated here as “respect of persons.” That shared word shows the same mechanism: a person’s standing does not intercept the measure of what is done.
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