What Does Ephesians 6:23 Mean?

Wholeness be to the brethren, and love with trust, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.

Ephesians 6:23 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE KEY

Peace, love, and trust share one source here: God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE MEANING

Wholeness reaches the brethren, and love is joined to trust, with both coming from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You stand within this shared gift now: love and trust held in divine wholeness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It loosens the belief that wholeness and love must be produced by the community on its own, or that trust can be detached from love.

THE ROOT

εἰρήνη

eirēnē

GROWS FROM

εἰρην-

eirēn-

Peace, concord, wholeness.

The Greek word family includes both living at peace and the person who makes peace. Here, ⁨εἰρήνη⁩ (eirēnē, peace and wholeness) is shared among the brethren, joining the community in something that comes from God.

ALSO GROWS

eirēneuō: To be at peace, live in peace.

εἰρηνεύω

The related verb presents peace as a lived condition, not only a greeting or feeling.

eirēnopoios: Peacemaker, one who makes peace.

εἰρηνοποιός

This branch shows peace taking form between people, illuminating the shared wholeness named in the verse.

πίστις

pistis

GROWS FROM

⁨πειθ-⁩/⁨πιστ-⁩ (peith-/pist-)

To persuade or be persuaded; the related word family carries the sense of trust and confidence.

The verse joins love with ⁨πίστις⁩ (pistis, trust), a word family that also names trusting and being firm or trustworthy. Trust here is more than agreement: it is leaning your full weight on what is reliable, alongside love.

ALSO GROWS

pisteuō: To trust, believe, or entrust oneself.

πιστεύω

The related verb shows trust as an active reliance, paired here with love.

pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.

πιστός

This branch reveals the steadiness carried within the word family of trust.

THE PATTERN

Wholeness is given by God and received into shared life.

The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with wholeness.

Psalm 29:11 · SDVThe LORD gives peace to the people, just as wholeness comes from God in the passage.

Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.

John 14:27 · SDVPeace is given as a shared gift, with its source in God.

And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and wholeness in leaning your full weight, so that you may overflow in hope through the power of the Set-Apart Breath.

Romans 15:13 · SDVPeace is joined to trust and comes through God’s filling, echoing the pairing of love with faith.

THE THREAD

For he is our wholeness, the one who made both one and loosed the middle wall of the fence.

Ephesians 2:14 · SDV

The same word, ⁨εἰρήνη⁩ (eirēnē, peace and wholeness), appears here and names Christ as “our peace” in Ephesians 2:14. There, peace is the wholeness that makes divided people one; this verse speaks that same wholeness over the brethren.

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