What Does 2 Corinthians 5:9 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
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 word translated “labour” means “make it your ambition,” revealing effort as a steady desire to be pleasing to him in every state.
THE MEANING
Your aim is to be pleasing to him, whether you are at home in your embodied life or away from it. Both states remain within the reach of that same aim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being pleasing to God depends on being in one particular state or place.
THE ROOT
φιλοτιμούμεθα
philotimoumetha
GROWS FROM
φιλέω (phileō) + τιμή (timē)
Love + honor or value; in this compound, aspiration or ambition.
The verb carries the sense of making something your ambition or aim. “Labour” can sound like strain alone, while the Greek also reveals what the effort is directed toward: what you esteem.
ALSO GROWS
timē: honor, value
τιμή
It supplies the honor and value element in the compound, pointing toward what is held worth pursuing.
philotimia: ambition, aspiration
φιλοτιμία
This related noun names the ambition behind the verb: making something your chosen aim.
philotimos: ambitious, eager for honor
φιλότιμος
It shares the compound and links aspiration with honor or value.
εὐάρεστοι
euarestoi
GROWS FROM
εὖ (eu) + ἀρέσκω (areskō)
Well + please; the word means pleasing or well-pleasing.
The Greek word rendered “accepted” also carries the sense of being pleasing to him. The verse describes a life oriented toward his pleasure, not merely a status attached to one moment.
ALSO GROWS
euarestos: well-pleasing
εὐάρεστος
This is the singular form of the adjective used here, making the verse’s aim being pleasing to him.
euaresteō: to be well-pleasing
εὐαρεστέω
This related verb expresses the same orientation as an ongoing way of being.
arestos: pleasing, agreeable
ἀρεστός
It shares the pleasing root and shows the core sense carried by the word.
ἐνδημοῦντες
endēmountes
GROWS FROM
δῆμος
dēmos
People or one’s district; in these compounds, being at home or away from home.
“present or absent” in this verse is endēmountes. The paired verbs picture being at home and away from home, rather than merely present or missing. The same ambition holds across both conditions.
ALSO GROWS
endēmeō: to be at home
ἐνδημέω
This is the verb behind “present,” giving the condition a sense of being at home.
ekdēmeō: to be away from home
ἐκδημέω
This is the verb behind “absent,” forming the other side of the home-and-away pair.
THE PATTERN
A life oriented toward what pleases God carries the same aim across changing conditions.
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.THE THREAD
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.“Acceptable” here is εὐάρεστον (euareston), from the same word family as “accepted” in 2 Corinthians 5:9. Romans gives that shared root a bodily expression: life itself can be presented as what is pleasing to God.
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