What Does 1 Corinthians 4:14 Mean in the King James?
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The warning places truth in the mind of someone still named beloved.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you as someone who can be warned without being reduced to shame. Its words place a truth before your mind while still calling you beloved; correction and belonging remain together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being corrected means you are rejected or defined by your failure.
THE ROOT
νουθετῶ
nouthetō
GROWS FROM
νοῦς + τίθημι (nous + tithēmi)
To set or place in the mind; hence, to admonish or warn.
The verb translated “warn” carries the image of placing something in the mind. Here, that correction comes inside an address that still names the hearers beloved, so the warning does not cancel the relationship.
ALSO GROWS
nouthesia: Admonition; instruction that addresses the mind.
νουθεσία
This related noun shows the same mind-directed quality in the idea of admonition.
nous: Mind, thought, understanding.
νοῦς
This is the first element of the verb: the warning addresses what is held in the mind.
ἀγαπητοῖς
agapētois
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love; to love or hold dear.
“Beloved” is not a softener added after the correction; it names the relationship in which the warning is spoken. The root family holds love and admonition in the same passage.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: To love.
ἀγαπάω
This verb expresses the love carried in the address “beloved sons.”
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
This noun makes visible the love named by the same word family, alongside the passage’s warning.
THE PATTERN
Correction can name what needs attention while keeping love and belonging in view.
Open rebuke is better than secret love.But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.THE THREAD
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:The word translated “warning” here is from the same Greek verb family as the “warn” in 1 Corinthians 4:14. The shared root keeps the mind-directed force visible: warning is instruction that places something before the mind, while the surrounding words hold the aim of presenting each person complete.
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