What Does Ephesians 2:4 Mean in the King James?
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
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
God’s mercy is abundance already moving toward you as love.
THE MEANING
God’s mercy toward you is abundant, and the great love named here has already been directed toward you. The verse holds love as both God’s abundance and God’s action toward you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s mercy is barely enough for you is undone by the words “rich in mercy” and “great love.”
THE ROOT
ἀγάπην
agapēn
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
To love; to regard with affection.
The verse places ἀγάπη (agapē, love) beside ἠγάπησεν (ēgapēsen, he loved), a noun and verb from the same word family. English keeps the echo in “love” and “loved”; the Greek makes the movement clear: the love God has is the love God directs toward you.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
This noun names the great love that grounds the verse.
agapaō: To love.
ἀγαπάω
The verse uses its form ἠγάπησεν (ēgapēsen, he loved), turning the named love into an action toward us.
πλούσιος
plousios
GROWS FROM
πλουτ-
plout-
Wealth or abundance.
The verse describes God as wealthy in mercy, placing mercy within abundance rather than scarcity. Its wording presents mercy as the sphere in which God is rich.
ALSO GROWS
ploutos: Wealth, riches.
πλοῦτος
This noun makes the abundance inside “rich in mercy” explicit.
plouteō: To be rich, to become wealthy.
πλουτέω
This verb shares the word family and reinforces the image of abundance.
THE PATTERN
Divine love moves toward people before they can make themselves its reason.
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.THE THREAD
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.John’s verb ἠγάπησεν (ēgapēsen, he loved) comes from ἀγαπάω (agapaō, to love), the same word family as the love named and enacted in Ephesians 2:4. John shows that love taking shape in giving, opening the “great love” here as a movement toward you.
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