What Does John 15:3 Mean?
Already you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.
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
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.THE KEY
The word translated “clean” belongs to the same Greek word-family as the “pruning” of a fruitful branch, so cleansing itself is pictured as making room for fruit.
THE MEANING
You are already clean through the word spoken to you. Cleanness here carries the image of pruning: what obstructs fruit is cleared away through the spoken word. The verse names this as a present condition in you, not a status still waiting to be earned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that you must first make yourself clean before the word can meet you. The verse says you are already clean through what has been spoken to you.
THE ROOT
καθαροί
katharoi
GROWS FROM
καθαρ
kathar
Clean, clear, pure.
καθαροί (katharoi, clean) belongs to the same word-family as καθαίρει (kathairei, prunes/cleanses), the verb used for the fruitful branch in the preceding verse. What English presents as separate ideas, being clean and being pruned, shares one Greek word-family: clearing opens the way for fruit.
ALSO GROWS
kathairei: Prunes; cleanses.
καθαίρει
In John 15:2, this verb describes the fruitful branch being pruned, linking the branch’s clearing to the disciples being called clean here.
katharizō: To cleanse; to make clean.
καθαρίζω
This same-family verb presents cleanness as an act of clearing, not only a label.
THE PATTERN
The spoken word clears a life, and cleansing opens room for fruit.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he lifts away. And every branch that bears, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.How does a young man cleanse his way? By guarding it according to your word.That he might set her apart, cleansing her with the bath of water by the word.THE THREAD
Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he lifts away. And every branch that bears, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.The verb translated “purgeth” in John 15:2 is καθαίρει (kathairei, prunes/cleanses), from the same word-family as καθαροί (katharoi, clean) here. That shared root joins pruning and cleanness in one image: the spoken word clears the branch so it can bear more fruit.
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