What Does 2 Timothy 4:5 Mean in the King James?
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
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
“Make full proof” carries the sense of bringing the ministry all the way to fullness, with hardship present in that same charge.
THE MEANING
You remain clear-eyed through every circumstance, even when hardship is present. Your service takes form in announcing good news and is carried through to its full measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that suffering means the calling is over: the verse names hardship and ministry as simultaneous realities, with the ministry still being brought to completion.
THE ROOT
πληροφόρησον
plērophórēson
GROWS FROM
πληροφορ-
The compound joins πλήρης (plērēs, “full”) and φορέω (phoreō, “carry, bear”): carry through to fullness.
“make full proof” in this verse is plērophórēson. English “proof” can sound like evidence, while this verb also carries the sense of bringing an entrusted work to completion. The same verb appears in verse 17 for the proclamation being fully made known, giving the charge a concrete shape: the ministry reaches full measure as the message is carried through.
ALSO GROWS
plērophoreō: Fully carry through; fully proclaim.
πληροφορέω
The same verb appears in 2 Timothy 4:17 for the proclamation being fully made known.
plērophoria: Full assurance.
πληροφορία
This related form shows fullness as settled assurance alongside the completed work of ministry.
εὐαγγελιστοῦ
euangelistou
GROWS FROM
εὐαγγελ-
The word family holds together good news and the act of announcing it.
“evangelist” in this verse is euangelistou. The English noun can sound like a label, but its word family keeps the action visible: good news announced. The verse places that proclamation inside ministry, so the work named here is the message being carried to others.
ALSO GROWS
euangelion: Good news.
εὐαγγέλιον
This names the message at the heart of the evangelist’s work.
euangelizō: Announce good news.
εὐαγγελίζω
This verbal form makes explicit the action contained in the calling.
THE PATTERN
The entrusted work continues through hardship as it is carried toward completion.
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.THE THREAD
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.The same Greek verb appears here: in verse 5 it is rendered “make full proof,” and here it describes the preaching being fully made known. The ministry’s fullness takes shape as the message is carried through to those who hear it.
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