What Does Luke 6:31 Mean?
And as you wish people would do to you, do the same to them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.THE KEY
The same verb describes both the treatment you hope to receive and the treatment you enact, joining desire to action.
THE MEANING
The verse places you inside reciprocity now: the treatment you hope to receive becomes a measure for how another person is treated. That measure takes shape in action, not in an abstract standard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s conduct must set the terms of your own; the measure begins with what you would receive.
THE ROOT
ποιέω
poieō
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
To do, make, or bring about.
The verse uses ποιῶσιν (poiōsin; they do) for the treatment you hope to receive and ποιεῖτε (poieite; you do) for the treatment you enact; both are forms of ποιέω (poieō; to do). English repeats “do,” but the Greek makes the shared action unmistakable: the hoped-for treatment becomes something you bring about.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: A doer, one who acts.
ποιητής
It shows the root moving from action into the person who carries it out; the measure in this verse becomes real through doing.
poiēma: A thing made, a work or workmanship.
ποίημα
This branch connects doing with what the action brings about: the way another person is treated is made real in the act.
THE PATTERN
The treatment you recognize as good for yourself becomes a measure for how you treat another.
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.Therefore all things whatever you want people to do to you, do the same to them; for this is the instruction and the prophets.Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.THE THREAD
But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.Luke 6:31 repeats ποιέω (poieō; to do) for both desired treatment and enacted treatment; James uses ποιητής (poiētēs; doer), from the same word family. Together they show the measure becoming real through action, not recognition alone.
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