What Does Hebrews 13:21 Mean?
May he mend you in every good work to do his will, doing in you what is pleasing before his face, through Jesus the Anointed One, to whom let there be weight for the ages of the ages. Amen.
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
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.THE KEY
The same Greek verb names God’s work within you and your doing of God’s will, so your readiness for good work begins in what God is already doing inside you.
THE MEANING
God is working in you now, fitting you for every good work and forming within you what pleases him. This comes through Jesus, the Anointed One whose name carries deliverance from narrowness into spaciousness; the weight belongs to him through all ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you must finish making yourself ready before God can work through you is undone here: the verse locates both your readiness and its source in God’s action.
THE ROOT
ποιῶν
poiōn
GROWS FROM
ποι
Make, do, bring about.
The participle translated “working” and the infinitive translated “to do his will” are forms of the same verb. English gives them different words, while Greek connects God’s work within you directly to the doing of his will.
ALSO GROWS
poiēsai: To do, carry out.
ποιῆσαι
This is the same verb in the phrase “to do his will,” linking that action with God’s work within you.
poieō: To do, make.
ποιέω
This is the verb’s lexical form, the shared seed of both actions in the verse.
poiēma: A thing made, workmanship.
ποίημα
This same family names what is made; Ephesians 2:10 calls the reader God’s workmanship, joining God’s making to the good work that follows.
καταρτίσαι
katartisai
GROWS FROM
ἀρτ
Fit, put into order, prepare for use.
“Perfect” can suggest becoming flawless, while this verb carries the sense of fitting, restoring, and equipping for a task. God’s work makes you ready for good work by bringing you into a fitted condition.
ALSO GROWS
katartizō: Restore, equip, put in order.
καταρτίζω
This is the verb’s lexical form and gives “make you perfect” its sense of readiness and restoration.
katartisis: Fitting, equipping, restoration.
κατάρτισις
This related noun names the process of bringing something into a ready condition.
exartizō: Equip, furnish, complete.
ἐξαρτίζω
This related verb shares the ἀρτ family and expresses being furnished for what lies ahead.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus) carries the Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, deliverance), from ישע (yasha, deliver). Χριστός (Christos, the Anointed One) names the one through whom this work comes: God’s fitting work takes place through deliverance itself.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
יָשַׁע
This verb is the root carried in the name Yeshua and opens the name’s nature as deliverance.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the movement from constriction into spaciousness that the name carries.
moshia: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This root-family form names the one who brings deliverance, illuminating the phrase “through Jesus Christ.”
THE PATTERN
God’s work within a person prepares and expresses good work through that person.
The LORD finishes what concerns me; your faithful love, O LORD, endures for the ages; do not let the works of your hands drop.For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for the sake of his good pleasure.For we are his making, created in the Anointed One, Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that in them we might walk.THE THREAD
For we are his making, created in the Anointed One, Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that in them we might walk.Hebrews uses one Greek verb for God’s work within you and your doing of his will; Ephesians uses a word from that same root for God’s workmanship. Together, they show God’s inner work becoming the good work for which you are made.
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