What Does Revelation 3:2 Mean in the King James?
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
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
What remains is near death while the work before God is not yet filled to completion.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you in the space between what remains and what is finished: the remainder is near death, and your work is not yet filled before God. Watchfulness sees the fragile remainder; strengthening sets it firmly in place while it is still there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever remains must already be secure: what remains can still be near death, and visible work can still be incomplete.
THE ROOT
στήρισον
stērison
GROWS FROM
στηριζ-
stēriz-
To make firm, set fast, or establish.
“strengthen” in this verse is stērison. The verb carries the sense of setting something firmly in place. The endangered remainder is still susceptible to support; it is not beyond being steadied.
ALSO GROWS
stērizō: Strengthen, establish, set firm.
στηρίζω
This is the same verb in Luke 22:32, where a person is told to strengthen others.
stērigmos: Steadfastness, firm footing.
στηριγμός
This related noun names the stability that can be lost, showing what the strengthening in this verse supplies.
πεπληρωμένα
peplērōmena
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
To fill, make full, or bring to completion.
The KJV’s “perfect” carries the sense of completion; the Greek also pictures the works as brought to fullness before God. The remainder is near death while its measure is not yet full.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: Fill, fulfill, bring to completion.
πληρόω
This is the verb behind “perfect,” so completion appears as a measure brought to fullness.
plērōma: Fullness, that which fills.
πλήρωμα
This related word makes the image of a work reaching its full measure visible.
plērēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
This branch links completion with being full, rather than with flawlessness alone.
THE PATTERN
Fragile things are watched over, steadied, and carried toward their intended fullness rather than abandoned at the point of weakness.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.THE THREAD
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.The same verb, στηρίζω (stērizō, strengthen or set firm), appears in both verses. In Luke, what is set firm is a brother; here, it is the work still remaining, one action of supporting what could otherwise fail.
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