What Does 1 Peter 1:17 Mean in the King James?
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
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
Calling the Father does not place anyone above judgment: the verse says every person’s work is weighed without regard to their face or status.
THE MEANING
Calling the Father sits alongside full accountability: he judges each person’s work without partiality. Your time here is a sojourning, a temporary residence, and the verse names fear as the posture in which that time passes. Filial address and impartial judgment meet in the life you are living now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Calling God Father does not mean you are exempt from judgment or favored over others.
THE ROOT
ἀπροσωπολήμπτως
aprosōpolēmptōs
GROWS FROM
πρόσωπον (prosōpon) + λαμβάνω (lambanō)
Face + receive: the compound evokes receiving or favoring someone by their face, meaning partiality.
“without respect of persons” in this verse is aprosōpolēmptōs. The phrase pictures judgment that does not receive a person’s face as a reason to favor them. The Father’s regard reaches each person’s work without ranking people by appearance or status.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpolēmpsia: partiality, favoritism
προσωπολημψία
This related noun names the face-based favoritism that the verse’s adverb excludes.
prosōpolēmptēs: one who shows partiality
προσωπολήμπτης
The related noun names the person who favors someone by their face, making the impartiality here concrete.
παροικίας
paroikias
GROWS FROM
οἶκος
oikos
House or dwelling; παροικία (paroikia) describes a temporary residence or dwelling among others as a stranger.
The verse calls your time here a residence, but one marked as temporary and away from home. That sojourning sits beside the intimate address “Father,” holding belonging and transience together.
ALSO GROWS
paroikos: a resident stranger, sojourner
πάροικος
This related word makes explicit the stranger-status contained in the idea of sojourning.
paroikeō: to dwell as a stranger or resident alien
παροικέω
This verb shows that sojourning is a way of dwelling, not simply movement from place to place.
ἔργον
ergon
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, deed, or action.
The verse names what a person does as the basis according to which judgment proceeds. Its focus is each person’s work, not a face, rank, or inherited label.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: to work, accomplish
ἐργάζομαι
The verb presents work as something actively carried out.
ergatēs: worker, laborer
ἐργάτης
This related noun names the person through the work being done.
THE PATTERN
Judgment proceeds according to each person’s work without favoring them for their status or appearance.
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:Who will render to every man according to his deeds:And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.THE THREAD
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.James uses the same Greek word family for partiality that 1 Peter uses when it says the Father judges without partiality. The shared image is receiving a face: the verse’s impartial judgment gives a clear measure for recognizing favoritism among people.
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