What Does 2 Thessalonians 3:7 Mean in the King James?
For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among 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 example here is not a title but a lived pattern: conduct has to be visible before it can be imitated.
THE MEANING
This verse presents a pattern you can recognize because it takes shape in shared life: imitation follows conduct that can be seen, not a claim made about oneself. Its standard is an ordered presence among others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person’s authority or words alone make them a worthy example; here, what can be followed is visible in how they live among others.
THE ROOT
ἠτακτήσαμεν
ētaktēsamen
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
tassō
To arrange, set in order, or appoint.
The Greek verb behind “behaved disorderly” grows from the idea of arranging or setting in order, with a negative prefix: it pictures conduct that has slipped out of its ordered place. The phrase points to the shape of life among others, not merely to avoiding rudeness.
ALSO GROWS
taxis: Order or arrangement.
τάξις
In Colossians 2:5, this word describes the order Paul sees in the community, making clear that ordered conduct is something visible.
tetagmenoi: Appointed or set in place.
τεταγμένοι
This form appears in Acts 13:48; it shows the same root describing people as set within an arrangement.
tagma: An order, rank, or appointed group.
τάγμα
In 1 Corinthians 15:23, the word marks an appointed order, echoing the sense of conduct having a place and shape.
μιμεῖσθαι
mimeisthai
GROWS FROM
μιμέομαι
mimeomai
To imitate or reproduce a model.
“follow” in this verse is mimeisthai. This word means more than keeping pace behind someone: it is to imitate a pattern. Here, what is reproduced is legible in conduct, the way they lived among the Thessalonians.
ALSO GROWS
mimētēs: An imitator or follower.
μιμητής
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul uses this related noun for following a model whose conduct points beyond itself.
mimeomai: To imitate or follow an example.
μιμέομαι
In Hebrews 13:7, the same verb describes following the faith of people whose lives can be observed.
THE PATTERN
A way becomes imitable when it takes visible shape in ordinary conduct among others.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:THE THREAD
And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:The same Greek word family appears in “became followers”: imitation grows from a model already lived. The connection makes the pattern communal, one visible life becomes a form another can take.
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