What Does 1 Thessalonians 3:5 Mean in the King James?
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
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 urgency begins in a word for bearing: the speaker can no longer carry the uncertainty over whether trust has held under pressure.
THE MEANING
Your trust is not an abstraction here: pressure can test and unsettle it. The verse places real labor at risk when trust is drawn away, and the fear of that loss becomes a need to know how you are holding up. Concern moves toward you rather than treating your inward state as incidental.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Effort alone guarantees that the work will bear fruit.
THE ROOT
στέγων
stegōn
GROWS FROM
στεγ-
steg-
To cover or roof over; figuratively, to bear or endure.
“forbear” in this verse is stegōn. The verb carries both the image of covering and the sense of bearing up. Here, the speaker reaches the limit of what can be borne and sends to learn whether the others’ trust has held.
ALSO GROWS
stegē: Roof or covering.
στέγη
The roof image gives the verb’s endurance sense a picture of holding something up under pressure.
stegazō: Cover or roof over.
στεγάζω
This branch preserves the sense of keeping something covered that lies beneath the word for bearing.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
To persuade, convince, or bring to trust.
“faith” in this verse is pistis. Pistis means trust: leaning your full weight on what you rely upon. Its word family links trust with persuasion, so the question is whether pressure has unsettled that reliance.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade or convince.
πείθω
Trust carries the sense of being persuaded enough to rely.
apeitheō: Refuse to be persuaded; disobey.
ἀπειθέω
This related word shows the opposite movement: resistance to what would establish trust.
ἐπείρασεν
epeirasen
GROWS FROM
πειράζω
peirazō
To test or try; depending on context, to tempt.
“tempted” in this verse is epeirasen. The word family can name both testing and enticement. The verse presents pressure as an active encounter that can put trust at risk and leave labor empty.
ALSO GROWS
peirasmos: Trial, testing, or temptation.
πειρασμός
This related noun names the pressure that can test or entice trust.
ekpeirazō: Put to the test or test thoroughly.
ἐκπειράζω
This compound makes the testing sense of the family explicit.
THE PATTERN
Testing makes the condition of trust visible.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.The word rendered “faith” in both verses names trust under pressure. One verse sends to learn whether it has held; the other speaks of prayer that it not fail.
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