What Does Philippians 2:13 Mean in the King James?
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
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 same Greek verb names God’s work in you and the doing it enables, placing both willing and action within one active source.
THE MEANING
God is at work within you now, reaching both your desire to act and the action itself. Your willing and doing are held within God’s good purpose. The verse describes one living movement from inward desire to outward deed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a lack of desire or follow-through means God is absent: the verse locates God’s activity in both the willing and the doing.
THE ROOT
ἐνεργῶν
energōn
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, deed, or action; ἐνεργέω (energeō) means to be active or at work.
“worketh / to do” in this verse is energōn. The forms translated “worketh” and “to do” come from the same verb, ἐνεργέω (energeō, to be active or at work). The verse links God’s activity within you to the doing that takes shape there: inward movement and outward action share one root.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work, deed, or task.
ἔργον
It makes visible the deed beneath the verse’s language of God being at work.
energeia: Activity or working.
ἐνέργεια
It names the active power or operation that connects inward work with what is done.
εὐδοκία
eudokia
GROWS FROM
δοκ-
dok-
The word-family of δοκέω (dokeō): to seem, think, or regard; with εὖ (eu, good), it carries the sense of favorable regard or pleasure.
“good pleasure” in this verse is eudokia. The phrase points to what God regards favorably and takes pleasure in, giving the inner work its direction. The willing and doing are joined to a purpose that is good in God’s sight.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To seem, think, or regard.
δοκέω
It gives the word-family its sense of regard, beneath the phrase “good pleasure.”
eudokeō: To be pleased with or approve.
εὐδοκέω
It expresses the favorable pleasure carried by εὐδοκία (eudokia, good pleasure).
THE PATTERN
God’s work within a person reaches both inward desire and outward action.
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.THE THREAD
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,“Worketh” here is ἐνεργέω (energeō, to be active or at work), the same Greek verb-family used for God’s working and the doing it enables in Philippians 2:13. Ephesians reveals that this inward activity is power at work beyond what can be asked or conceived.
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