What Does Philemon 1:6 Mean?
So that the sharing in common of your trust may be at work through the full knowing of every good thing in you in the Anointed One, Jesus.
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
That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.THE KEY
Faith becomes effective as the good already within you is recognized and shared.
THE MEANING
Your trust becomes active as you recognize every good thing already present in you in Christ Jesus. What is within comes into shared life through that recognition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that living trust depends on adding something absent: it locates the good already within you and shows recognition bringing it into shared expression.
THE ROOT
κοινωνία
koinōnia
GROWS FROM
κοινός
koinos
common, shared
English “communication” can sound like words exchanged; κοινωνία (koinōnia, sharing in common) also holds participation and shared life. The verse shows trust taking effect as the good within becomes something people share.
ALSO GROWS
koinos: common, shared
κοινός
The shared quality is already inside the verse’s picture of faith becoming common life.
koinōnos: partner, one who shares
κοινωνός
This same word family appears in Philemon 1:17, where sharing takes the concrete shape of receiving another as a partner.
koinōneō: share, participate
κοινωνέω
The verb makes the root’s movement clear: faith is active in participation, not only held privately.
ἐνεργής
energēs
GROWS FROM
ἔργον
ergon
work, deed; that which is done
The word rendered “effectual” carries the sense of being active or at work. Recognition does not manufacture the good; it brings what is already within into expression.
ALSO GROWS
energeō: work, be active
ἐνεργέω
It shows the same family describing something becoming operative.
energeia: working, activity
ἐνέργεια
The shared root links effectiveness to activity unfolding, rather than to an abstract quality.
ἐπίγνωσις
epignōsis
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
know, perceive
“full knowing” in this verse is epignōsis. The verse ties shared trust to recognition: seeing the good already present gives it room to become active. Knowing here opens perception onto what is within, rather than adding something new.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: know, perceive
γινώσκω
This is the knowing at the heart of the verse’s recognition.
epiginōskō: recognize, come to know
ἐπιγινώσκω
This verb shares the root and shows recognition as an arriving at what is there to be perceived.
THE PATTERN
What is already within becomes active as it is recognized and drawn into shared life.
Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep waters, but a man of understanding draws it up.For this reason I remind you to fan back into flame the favor of God, which is in you through the placing of my hands upon you.For in Jesus, the Anointed One, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any strength, but trust that works through love.THE THREAD
If then you hold me as a sharer in common, receive him as me.“Partner” translates κοινωνός (koinōnos), from the same word family as κοινωνία (koinōnia), “sharing in common.” This opens the verse’s “communication” of faith further: shared trust takes shape as receiving another as a partner.
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