What Does Philippians 1:22 Mean in the King James?
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
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 verse places fruitful work beside uncertainty: life in the body still yields something even when the next choice is unclear.
THE MEANING
Your continued embodied life is joined to work that bears fruit. At the same time, the next choice can remain unresolved; the verse holds purpose and uncertainty together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that not knowing what comes next means your present life has no purpose; this verse holds fruitful work and uncertainty side by side.
THE ROOT
καρπὸς
karpos
GROWS FROM
καρπ-
karp-
Fruit, produce: what a process yields.
Here καρπὸς (karpos, fruit) makes continued life visible by what its work yields. Its word family can describe both bearing fruit and being fruitless, so the verse speaks of a life with an outcome, not mere duration.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: To bear or produce fruit.
καρποφορέω
The same stem becomes an action: fruit is something living work produces.
akarpos: Without fruit; unproductive.
ἄκαρπος
This opposite branch makes the verse’s fruitfulness concrete as an outcome, not just a description.
ἔργου
ergou
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, deed, activity.
The word translated “labour” is ἔργου (ergou, of work), from ἔργον (ergon, work or deed). Paired with καρπὸς, it presents work through the fruit it yields.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: To work or carry out an action.
ἐργάζομαι
This verb shows the active work named in the phrase as something done, not only endured.
energeia: Activity or operation.
ἐνέργεια
This related word keeps the root’s sense of work as active operation, deepening the link between life and what it brings about.
THE PATTERN
Work becomes visible through the fruit it yields, and life is shown as fruit-bearing across time.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;THE THREAD
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.Both verses use καρπός (karpos, fruit). Philippians links fruit with work in embodied life; John describes fruit as the result of abiding in the vine, opening the phrase toward the source as well as the outcome.
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