What Does Ephesians 3:7 Mean in the King James?
Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
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 work is real, but its source is received favor and power already at work through the one who serves.
THE MEANING
Service takes shape as something received: favor is given, and God’s power is at work through the one who serves. The work can be real and vigorous while its source remains gift rather than self-sufficiency.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that meaningful service depends on manufacturing your own worth or power. The verse locates its source in received favor and God’s active power.
THE ROOT
ἐνέργεια
energeia
GROWS FROM
ἐνεργ-
energe- word-family stem
Active operation; being at work.
“effectual working” in this verse is energeia. The word translated “working” names active operation, not a power held in reserve. Its word family keeps the verse’s emphasis on power moving through the service.
ALSO GROWS
energeō: To work, operate, or be active.
ἐνεργέω
The related verb makes the activity explicit: the power described here is at work.
energēs: Active or effective.
ἐνεργής
This related adjective shares the active word family, joining the KJV’s idea of “effectual” with “working.”
δύναμις
dynamis
GROWS FROM
δυνα-
dyna- word-family stem
Ability or capacity to act.
Power here is the capacity to act, not a status the minister owns. The verse places that capacity at work through a gift that has been given.
ALSO GROWS
dynamai: To be able or capable.
δύναμαι
This verb shows the ability contained in the word for power.
dynatos: Able, capable, or powerful.
δυνατός
This related adjective connects power with the capacity to act.
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρι-
chari- word-family stem
Favor, graciousness.
The verse’s “grace” is favor that is given. That favor becomes the ground of the service, so the work begins with what is received rather than what is earned.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: To grant freely or show favor.
χαρίζομαι
This related verb carries the sense of favor freely bestowed, illuminating the given quality of the service.
charitoō: To favor or grant favor.
χαριτόω
This related verb keeps favor at the center of the word family, rather than merit or payment.
THE PATTERN
A task entrusted to a person is sustained by what God gives and works through them.
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.THE THREAD
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,Ephesians 1:19 uses the same Greek word for “working,” ἐνέργεια (energeia), and connects it directly with God’s power. That same active working is the source named here for service.
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