What Does Philippians 3:15 Mean in the King James?
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
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
Maturity here is not having every question settled; it is sharing a direction while what remains unclear is still being uncovered.
THE MEANING
You can be mature while still moving toward completion. Your understanding can differ at one point, and God brings that very point into view. Maturity holds a shared direction while unfinished understanding remains open to disclosure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that maturity means having every question settled, or that a difference in understanding proves you have fallen outside the shared path.
THE ROOT
τέλειοι
teleioi
GROWS FROM
τέλος
telos
End, aim, or completion.
The word translated “perfect” is tied to an aim and to reaching completion; it can describe maturity without claiming that nothing remains unfinished. Its word family includes both the state of maturity and the act of bringing something to completion, so this verse can call you mature while leaving a difference in understanding open.
ALSO GROWS
teleioō: Bring to completion or fulfill.
τελειόω
Completion is something reached through a process, which fits a verse that names maturity alongside room for further understanding.
teleiotēs: Maturity or completeness.
τελειότης
This branch names the state of maturity without requiring that every question has already been settled.
ἀποκαλύψει
apokalypsei
GROWS FROM
καλύπτω
kalyptō
Cover or conceal; with the prefix apo-, uncover or disclose.
“reveal” in this verse is apokalypsei. The verb carries the sense of uncovering: the cover comes away. What God reveals is not merely new information; the point of difference itself comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
kalymma: A covering or veil.
κάλυμμα
This related word makes the image of what conceals understanding concrete.
apokalypsis: Unveiling or disclosure.
ἀποκάλυψις
It names the uncovering that this verse says God brings about.
φρονῶμεν
phronōmen
GROWS FROM
φρον-
phron-
The word-family stem for thinking or holding a particular mindset.
The same thinking verb appears twice: first in “be thus minded,” then in “otherwise minded.” English can make these sound like separate ideas, but the repeated Greek verb places both the shared direction and the difference within the same field of thought, and that difference, too, can be disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
phronēma: A mindset or way of thinking.
φρόνημα
It carries the verse’s idea of an orientation of thought, rather than a single isolated opinion.
phronēsis: Understanding or practical wisdom.
φρόνησις
It shows how the word family can describe the understanding that shapes a person’s outlook.
THE PATTERN
Maturity moves toward completion while present limits in understanding remain open to clarification.
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.THE THREAD
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.The word translated “perfect” here belongs to the same τέλος (telos, end or aim) family as the word in verse 15. Read together, the verses hold maturity and unfinished understanding in the same frame: completion is the direction, while the reader has not yet arrived.
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