What Does Philippians 3:14 Mean?
I pursue toward the mark, for the prize of the calling of God from above, in 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
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.THE KEY
The verse’s “press” is pursuit, so the calling is not a static title but the direction that gives your movement its aim.
THE MEANING
You are oriented toward a goal by God’s upward call, with a prize ahead rather than an arrival already possessed. That call is “in Christ Jesus”: Christos (χριστός, Christos) means “anointed one,” and Jesus bears the name Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ, Yeshua), “deliverance.”
THE ROOT
διώκω
diōkō
GROWS FROM
διωκ-
Greek verb stem
pursue, chase
“pursue toward” in this verse is diōkō. This verb names directed pursuit; its aim determines whether the pursuit harms or moves toward the prize. Here, the verse pictures your life as movement toward the mark rather than passive waiting.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: persecution, hostile pursuit
διωγμός
The same word family can describe a chase turned against someone, showing that the verb names pursuit before it names its purpose.
diōktēs: persecutor, pursuer
διώκτης
This branch makes the pursuer visible: the root carries the force of active pursuit.
katadiōkō: pursue, chase after
καταδιώκω
Its intensified form echoes the directed, sustained motion of “press toward.”
ἄνω κλῆσις
anō klēsis
GROWS FROM
καλέω (kaleō; κλη- noun family)
call, summon, invite; ἄνω (anō) means above or upward
“calling from above” in this verse is anō klēsis. The phrase carries the sense of an upward call, not merely a lofty status. It locates that call “in Christ Jesus”: Christos (χριστός, Christos) means “anointed one,” and Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ, Yeshua) means “deliverance.”
ALSO GROWS
klētos: called, invited
κλητός
This branch presents calling as being addressed or invited, giving κλῆσις the force of a summons.
paraklēsis: appeal, encouragement, comfort
παράκλησις
This related word carries the sense of an urging appeal or support, showing how the call-family can address and strengthen someone.
σκοπός
skopos
GROWS FROM
σκοπ-
Greek word family
look at, watch; a point kept in view
The mark is a target held in view, not just a line at the end. The word’s visual root makes the goal an object that orients your movement.
ALSO GROWS
skopeō: look at, consider, keep watch on
σκοπέω
This verb shows the act of keeping something in view that lies beneath the idea of a mark or target.
episkopos: overseer, one who watches over
ἐπίσκοπος
The related word preserves the root’s sense of looking over or attending to something.
THE PATTERN
A calling gives pursuit its direction by placing a goal ahead of the one who runs.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, yet only one takes hold of the prize? Run in this way, so that you may seize it.Therefore, since we also have so great a cloud of witnesses lying around us, setting down every weight and falling short that so easily wraps around us, let us run the race lying before us, remaining under it.THE THREAD
Not that I have already taken hold, or have already been made complete. But I pursue, if somehow I may seize that for which I was also seized by Jesus the Anointed One.“Follow after” translates the same Greek verb, διώκω (diōkō, pursue), rendered “press” in verse 14. The pursuit is already underway before attainment; verse 14 names the mark and prize that give it direction.
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