What Does Philippians 1:6 Mean?
Being confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus the Anointed One.
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
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:THE KEY
The one who begins the work in you also carries it toward its completion.
THE MEANING
The good work within you is already in motion, with God as its source and finisher. Its unfinished state now is held toward the day of Jesus Christ.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an unfinished work in you means God has abandoned it.
THE ROOT
ἐπιτελέσει
epitelesei
GROWS FROM
τελ- (tel-), from τέλος (telos)
End, goal, completion, the outcome toward which a process is brought.
“finish” in this verse is epitelesei. The Greek verb carries the work through to its τέλος (telos), its end or goal. The verse holds the work in you between God’s beginning and God’s bringing it to completion.
ALSO GROWS
telos: End, goal, intended outcome.
τέλος
The work is carried toward an outcome, not left as an open-ended effort.
teleios: Complete, mature, brought to its intended end.
τέλειος
This word family makes completion more than mere continuation: the work reaches wholeness.
teleioō: Bring to completion, make complete.
τελειόω
This verb names the completing action expressed by God’s promise in the verse.
ἐναρξάμενος
enarxamenos
GROWS FROM
ἀρχ- (arch-), from ἄρχομαι (archomai)
To begin or originate; ἀρχή (archē) names a beginning or origin.
“begun” in this verse is enarxamenos. The Greek verb means to make a beginning, placing God’s action at the source of the work within you. Its ἀρχ- word family also appears in Hebrews 12:2 in ἀρχηγός (archēgos), “author,” linking the one who begins with the one who brings to completion.
ALSO GROWS
archē: Beginning, origin, first principle.
ἀρχή
The work’s opening point is God’s action within you.
archēgos: Originator, pioneer, author.
ἀρχηγός
Hebrews 12:2 uses this word for Jesus as “the author,” echoing the beginning named here.
THE PATTERN
What God initiates in a person, God carries toward completion.
The LORD finishes what concerns me; your faithful love, O LORD, endures for the ages; do not let the works of your hands drop.The one who calls you is steady, and he will also do it.Fixing our sight on Jesus, the one who goes first and brings our trust to its goal, who for the joy lying before him remained under the cross, looking down on the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
Fixing our sight on Jesus, the one who goes first and brings our trust to its goal, who for the joy lying before him remained under the cross, looking down on the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.Hebrews calls Jesus ἀρχηγός (archēgos, originator or author) and τελειωτής (teleiōtēs, completer) of πίστις (pistis, trust). Those beginning and completion roots echo Philippians: the work within you has one source and one completing hand.
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