What Does John 15:7 Mean?
If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for 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
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.THE KEY
The asking grows from a shared life: you remain in Jesus, and his words remain in you.
THE MEANING
As you abide in Jesus and his words remain within you, they shape what you want and ask. What you ask from within that shared life comes to be for you. The verse presents asking as an expression of indwelling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prayer guarantees any passing wish, regardless of whether Jesus’ words shape the one asking.
THE ROOT
μένω
menō
GROWS FROM
μεν-/μον- (men-/mon-)
To remain, stay, or dwell.
“remain in me” in this verse is menō. The same verb appears twice: you remain in Jesus, and his words remain in you. Its word family includes the Greek noun for an abode, revealing that this is a shared dwelling, not a passing visit.
ALSO GROWS
monē: Abode, dwelling place.
μονή
This cognate appears in John 14:23, where Jesus says that he and the Father will make their abode with the one who loves him. It gives the mutual remaining here the image of a home.
hypomenō: Remain under; endure, hold out.
ὑπομένω
The compound carries the same remaining root into endurance, showing that μένω (menō), to remain, can describe a settled persistence as well as dwelling.
γίνομαι
ginomai
GROWS FROM
γιν-/γεν- (gin-/gen-)
To become, happen, or come into being.
The verb rendered “be done” also means “happen” or “come to be.” The answer to the asking is pictured with the language of becoming: what is asked comes to be for you.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, coming into being.
γένεσις
This word makes the family’s sense of becoming visible: the requested outcome is described as something that comes to be.
genos: Kind, offspring, lineage.
γένος
This branch names what comes forth as a kind or lineage, extending the root’s sense of arising into existence.
THE PATTERN
When God’s ways are held within a person, they shape desire and asking from within relationship with God.
But this is the covenant I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will set my instruction within them, and write it upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.Soften yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the asking of your heart.And this is the open speech we hold toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, that one will guard my word, and my Father will love that one, and we will come to him and make a place to remain with him.The “abode” here is μονή (monē), meaning “dwelling place,” from the same Greek word family as μένω (menō), meaning “remain,” behind “abide” in John 15:7. One verse speaks of you and Jesus’ words remaining in each other; the other gives that shared indwelling the image of God making a home with you.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us