What Does Hebrews 13:15 Mean?
Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.
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
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.THE KEY
Praise is the lips bearing fruit by speaking in agreement with the nature of God.
THE MEANING
Your praise is an offering that keeps arriving through spoken acknowledgment. Your lips bear fruit as they give thanks to the nature of God, continually.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that praise is only an inward feeling: here it is audible fruit from the lips.
THE ROOT
ὁμολογούντων
homologountōn
GROWS FROM
ὁμός (homos, same) + λόγος (logos, word), in ὁμολογέω (homologeō)
To say the same thing; to acknowledge, confess, or agree.
The word rendered “giving thanks” carries the sense of openly acknowledging or agreeing. The lips do more than express a feeling: they speak in agreement with the nature named.
ALSO GROWS
homologeō: Acknowledge, confess, or agree
ὁμολογέω
This related verb makes the spoken act of thanks an acknowledgment, bringing the verse’s praise into the realm of voiced agreement.
homología: Confession or acknowledgment
ὁμολογία
This related noun names an openly spoken confession, showing the same root’s connection between words and acknowledgment.
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
onomat-
Name or designation.
A name reaches beyond a detached label to the character of the one named. The lips give thanks to God’s nature as they acknowledge it.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: Name or call
ὀνομάζω
The related verb turns the name into an act of naming, linking the spoken words to the one being acknowledged.
eponomazō: Name or designate
ἐπονομάζω
This related verb also makes naming an act of identifying someone, reinforcing that the thanks are directed toward the nature represented by the name.
THE PATTERN
Praise becomes an ongoing offering when thanksgiving takes audible form.
A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I bless the LORD at all times, and his praise is continually in my mouth.Take words with you, and turn back to the LORD. Say to him, Lift away all crookedness, and take what is good, and let us make whole the calves of our lips.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Take words with you, and turn back to the LORD. Say to him, Lift away all crookedness, and take what is good, and let us make whole the calves of our lips.Hosea’s “calves of our lips” and Hebrews’ “fruit of our lips” make the mouth itself the place from which the offering comes. The spoken words are not just accompanying the sacrifice; they are its yield.
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