What Does Luke 6:46 Mean?
Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
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 why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?THE KEY
The title “Lord” is tested by whether his words take shape in what you do.
THE MEANING
The question reaches you when you call Jesus Lord: the title on your lips and the words you live by can diverge. His words are not an ornament to the title; this verse lays bare whether they shape your actions.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that saying “Lord, Lord” is itself proof that you have yielded to Jesus’ authority.
THE ROOT
ποιεῖτε
poieite
GROWS FROM
ποιέω (poieō), stem ποιε-
To make, bring about, or do.
“do” in this verse is poieite. The Greek verb holds “doing” together with “making”: what he says is meant to take form in your actions. The question exposes the gap between naming him as Lord and making his words visible in how you act.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: Maker, doer
ποιητής
James uses this related word for a “doer” of the word, showing the same make/do family at work in a response that takes shape.
poiēma: Thing made, workmanship
ποίημα
This related word names what has been made; it echoes the movement from hearing words to their taking form.
THE PATTERN
Hearing or naming the word finds its expression in doing what it says.
Draw near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you. We will hear and respond, and we will do it.Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the governance of the heavens, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in the heavens.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you whom he is like.The same Greek verb ποιέω (poieō), meaning “do” or “make,” appears in both verses. Verse 47 opens the image that follows: hearing and doing his sayings is what gives the foundation its form.
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