What Does Ephesians 5:6 Mean?
Let no one lead you astray with empty words, for because of these things the burning of God's anger comes upon the children of the unpersuaded.
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
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.THE KEY
The Greek word for “disobedience” names a state of being unpersuaded, linking refusal to trust with refusal to obey.
THE MEANING
Empty words can make disobedience seem harmless, but they cannot erase its consequence. God’s anger comes upon those marked by refusal to be persuaded. The verse speaks now: a claim does not gain substance just because it sounds convincing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reassuring words can make disobedience consequence-free.
THE ROOT
ἀπειθείας
apeitheías
GROWS FROM
πειθ
peith
to persuade, convince, or win over; the prefix a- negates this, giving the sense of being unpersuaded
“the unpersuaded” in this verse is apeitheías. The word rendered “disobedience” carries the sense of not being persuaded. Its root also gives Greek words for trust, bringing refusal to obey close to refusal to rely on what is true.
ALSO GROWS
peíthō: persuade, convince; be persuaded
πείθω
This is the root verb: disobedience is pictured as the state of not being persuaded.
pístis: trust, reliance
πίστις
This related word shows the other side of the root family: trust receives what disobedience resists.
κενοῖς
kenoîs
GROWS FROM
κεν
ken
empty, void of content
“Vain” here is not merely foolish or useless; it describes words with nothing substantial inside them. The root also forms words for emptying and for empty glory, exposing how speech can carry the appearance of weight without substance.
ALSO GROWS
kenóō: empty, make void
κενόω
This branch gives the root a vivid action: what is empty lacks what would make it whole or substantial.
kenodoxía: empty glory, vainglory
κενοδοξία
The compound joins emptiness with glory, echoing how words can seem weighty while carrying no substance.
THE PATTERN
Words that promise security without substance can conceal refusal of truth, but they cannot cancel its consequence.
Look, you lean your full weight upon lying words that cannot profit.But I say to you, every word without work that humankind speaks, they will give back an account of it in the day of judgment.But to those who strive for hire, who do not yield to the truth but yield to crookedness, anger and seething heat.THE THREAD
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who would not yield?Hebrews uses the same Greek root behind “disobedience” here for “believed not.” English separates disbelief from disobedience, while the shared root brings refusal to be persuaded close to refusal to trust, and connects that posture with not entering rest.
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